New Standards Put Students to Test

High school senior Lucia Felix has been a B-average student all her life.

She has all the credits and classes needed to graduate. But next month, when members of the Class of ’98 at Fillmore High rise up to accept their diplomas, there’s a good possibility she won’t be with them.

As it stands, Lucia and seven other seniors will be barred from the graduation ceremony because they have been unable to pass basic proficiency exams.

“That is all I need to graduate,” said the 18-year-old Fillmore native, who earlier this month fell one point short of passing the last of three basic skills tests necessary for a high school diploma.

“I have a 3.0 grade-point average, I have all my credits and I’m doing good in school,” she said. “I’ve been working so hard for four years and now they want to take it all away from me.”

The students are devastated by a tough new graduation requirement that allows seniors only two attempts to pass the state-mandated exams, the first in a series of higher standards. They plan tonight to urge school board members to give them at least one more chance.

Because seniors have had up to six opportunities in previous years to earn passing scores, they argue that it is unfair to limit them to two tries this year.

Moreover, they say Fillmore now offers seniors fewer opportunities to pass the exams than most other school districts in Ventura County, putting prospective graduates in the farming community at a significant disadvantage.

“I feel like we’ve been cheated,” said Fidel Viveros, who like Lucia needs only to pass the written exam to walk in the graduation line. “My parents are very disappointed--they were really looking forward to seeing me graduate. I believe I can pass if I had one more chance.”

School district officials say the new policy is part of a broader push to toughen graduation standards in the Fillmore district, including a move earlier this year to require at least a C average for a high school diploma starting with the Class of 2002.

Although the new policy only gives seniors two attempts to pass the exams, students have more than half a dozen opportunities to do so during the course of their high school careers, officials say.

School officials agree that all eight students have the credits and classes needed to graduate next month, and they have earned passing scores on proficiency exams in reading and math.

But the students have failed to prove the same level of proficiency in writing, a shortcoming that will prevent them from picking up their diplomas in June barring a change in board policy.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Jane Kampbell, assistant superintendent for the Fillmore district. “In a district our size, these are people we know personally; they aren’t just student numbers. We feel torn, but we want the students prepared for real life. And in real life, you don’t get 100 chances.”

Incorporated into state law 20 years ago, the exams are meant to ensure basic proficiency in key subjects--reading, writing and math at about eighth-grade level--for all high school graduates.

Once they pass, they never have to take the exams again.

In the Fillmore district, students start to practice as early as fourth grade. By seventh grade, students are officially given the tests for the first time. And they are allowed to take them twice a year during the first three years of high school.

But the rules used to be different for high school seniors. Some were allowed to take it several times their final year, the emphasis being on providing enough opportunities so students would pass and be able to graduate.

Everything changed last summer when the Fillmore school board directed district officials to limit seniors to two attempts in an effort to toughen graduation standards.

“What we found is that kids were not really putting their best effort forward in the earlier attempts,” board member Dave Anderson said. “I think what we did is indicative of what’s going on throughout the state in trying to raise standards. I believe by raising expectations, you raise standards.”

Perhaps no other district in Ventura County has done as much in recent years to beef up graduation requirements.

In fact, when it comes to taking the proficiency exams, many other districts allow seniors several attempts. In the Oxnard Union High School District, for example, the upperclassmen get three or four shots at the exams if they haven’t passed them by their senior year.

But Assistant Supt. Gary Davis said that will probably change in coming months as a districtwide task force reviews educational standards.

“I think you’ll find that all districts will start reconsidering the standards they have for minimum proficiency,” he said. “We will probably end up with more rigid standards than we have now.”

In Fillmore, school officials said they told this year’s crop of seniors early and often about the new policy. They sent letters home and put it in the newsletter to parents and announced it often in the daily bulletin.

And for those students who were struggling, there were special programs and tutoring available to help them pass, including a special class available between the first and second semester.

“Because we anticipated this kind of thing might happen, we did our best to give lots and lots of notice, and lots and lots of reminders,” Kampbell said. “We know it’s causing distress. We’re not heartless, but we feel it’s our responsibility to prepare kids for life after school.”

Hoping that the board will give them one more chance, the eight students keep practicing their writing skills.

But barring a policy change, they say their only choice will be to take a writing course during summer school, at the end of which they will again be allowed to take the test.

If they pass, they’ll earn their high school diplomas. But they will have missed out on graduation, something they don’t even want to think about now.

“I cried when I didn’t pass last time,” said Lucia, who took advantage of the tutors and writing courses made available to help pass the exam.

She is still enrolled in the senior writing proficiency class, hoping to get one more crack at it.

“Maybe it’s because I’m not as good a writer as other people; maybe I’m just a slow learner,” she said.

“But I know if I got one more chance, I could pass this test.”