Parents and Students Sue Over School Exit Exam

A group of 10 high school students and their parents filed a lawsuit Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the controversial exit exam nearly all California public high school students must pass to receive a diploma, on the grounds that it adds an unfair hurdle to graduation.

The case, filed against the state Board of Education and the state superintendent of public instruction, seeks an injunction to immediately suspend the consequences of the mandatory exam. If successful, it would clear the way for tens of thousands of students who have not yet passed the test to graduate this year.

“For the very first time we are telling kids they do not get a diploma unless they pass an exit exam,” said San Francisco attorney Arturo J. Gonzalez at a press conference. “We think that is unfair, we think it’s unwise and we think it is illegal.”

This year’s 12th-graders are the first class to face the graduation requirement, which includes a section of eighth-grade-level math and another of ninth- and 10th-grade-level English. Students can take the test multiple times and are required to answer little more than half of the questions correctly. The exam was offered over two days this week and will be given twice more this school year.

The number of students in jeopardy of not graduating because of their inability to pass the test remains unknown, state education officials said.

An independent study conducted last fall estimated that about 100,000 12th graders -- about 20% of the state total -- had not yet passed one or both sections of the test.

The study predicted that 50,000 students statewide would fail to graduate. That number, however, included disabled students who were exempted from the test last month.

Late last month, Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced that 6,000 seniors still had not cleared the hurdle.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who as a state senator wrote the law creating the test and has pushed strongly for it, defended its implementation, saying the exam is needed to gauge student achievement.

“It is a disservice to hand kids a diploma when those students are not prepared for the higher-level skills that are now required,” O’Connell said in a meeting of Times reporters and editors. “I am not for a high school exit exam to be mean. It is a question of getting these students ready for the future.”

O’Connell said he expects less than 10% of seniors will ultimately be barred from diplomas because of the requirement. He added that he hopes to find funding needed to add another testing date in July. Those students who fail the exam, O’Connell said, can enroll in summer school, adult education classes or community colleges until they pass.

Gonzalez dismissed such options, saying that students would be unlikely to continue their education after failing to receive diplomas.

Students and parents named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the exit exam could deprive thousands of students who have otherwise completed the courses required to graduate.

“Basically this test stands for, ‘Go to school for four years, work hard, stay out of trouble, get passing grades, but, by the way, if you don’t pass, all your efforts stood for nothing,’ ” said Nora Sellman, whose son Alex has repeatedly failed the math portion of the exam. “It would be criminal.”

Gonzalez said he hopes to convince a judge that poor, minority students who are English learners are especially harmed by the test because they have not been properly prepared or given alternatives to the exam.

The argument stems from his firm’s involvement in a landmark class-action case in which the state was accused of denying poor children adequate school resources. As part of a settlement in 2004, the state agreed to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into teacher training, textbooks and facilities improvements.

But that happened only recently, Gonzalez said. “The students have not been given a fair and equal opportunity to learn the material on this test.”

Nationwide, about two dozen other states require an exit exam, although many offer alternatives for students who don’t pass.

Wednesday’s lawsuit is the latest turn in the contentious push for the exit exam.

Originally slated for students in the class of 2004, the test was postponed for two years because of low passing rates. Then, in January, O’Connell rejected calls from civil rights groups and others to consider alternatives to the test.