A test of the state’s school exit exam

Re “Judge Delays Ruling on Junking California’s High School Exit Exam,” May 10

Hooray to Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman in delaying his final ruling regarding the high school exit exam. We can only hope now for a complete dismissal of the case.

Requiring students to pass a test of basic math and English is a step in the right direction. What is the value of a high school diploma if it is awarded to someone who does not possess basic English and math skills? Of the stated 47,000 students who did not pass one or both parts of the exam, how many of them had poor attendance? Even in poorly performing districts, let’s look at the behavior and effort of the students themselves rather than blaming everything on teachers.

While it is admirable to leave no child behind, I implore policymakers to keep the standards rather than lower them to accommodate our lowest-achieving students.

BEVERLY SIDDONS

Corona

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Am I just a “dense” college instructor, or is there something wrong with this picture? The high school exit exam requires that students have eighth-grade math skills and ninth- or 10th-grade reading skills to “graduate” from the 12th grade. Shouldn’t graduating from the 12th grade signify 12th-grade skills, or has a high school diploma become a not-so-funny joke on society?

CHAR ARNOLD

Simi Valley

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Re “A judge at risk of flunking,” editorial, May 10

You warn of “a return to the abysmal status quo that prevailed before the exam was required.” The culprit, according to The Times, was “a culture in which no one changed anything because no one had to.” However, school cultures respond to real life and are not simply caused by a lack of accountability. The status quo also rests upon decades of school under-funding, deterioration and poor teaching and learning conditions. These are the conditions that Freedman believes may disproportionately disadvantage students.

Does the goal of improving education for the state’s most vulnerable students justify punishing thousands of those students who have experienced the most dismal opportunities to learn? Whether such unfair treatment is constitutionally legal will be decided by Freedman, and Californians would do well to pay close attention to his arguments and to the data presented by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

MARTIN LIPTON

Los Angeles