State Easing Up on Exit Exam for High School

Concerned that California’s new high school exit exam would not withstand legal challenges if large numbers of students fail, Gov. Gray Davis has decided to make it shorter and easier.

The changes, including the elimination of many of the highest-level algebra questions, were approved Thursday by the State Board of Education at a regular meeting in Sacramento.

John Mockler, Davis’ interim education secretary, left open the possibility that a small advisory panel that the state plans to assemble might yet recommend that the math and English test be pushed back by a year or two. However, he emphasized that the governor “thinks it will be ready” on schedule for the Class of 2004, despite indications that significant numbers of high school students would probably flunk.

In a news conference, Mockler said the changes were necessary to ensure that the test could stand up to court challenges. In previous legal cases in Florida and Texas, the key issue has been whether students have been adequately taught the material covered on the states’ graduation tests.

The board also agreed to a year’s postponement of when the test will begin to count and when the passing mark will be set. Under the current law, ninth-graders could take and pass the test next spring. Now, they can take it only for practice.

The alterations will require the passage of urgent legislation in January, which is expected, given Davis’ support for the changes.

This year’s freshmen are the first who must pass the exam during their high school years to be eligible for diplomas.

Across the nation, such high-stakes exams have unnerved educators bedeviled by fast-paced reform efforts.

In Massachusetts, where the Class of 2003 will be the first required to pass a state test to graduate, teachers lambasted the graduation exam after it appeared that about half of the students would fail it. Wisconsin, Maryland and Arizona are among the states that have postponed exit exams or have drawn up easier tests rather than face high failure rates.

Mockler said California was attempting to learn from other states’ troubles.

California has attached sizable monetary rewards to its Stanford 9 standardized testing program and the related Academic Performance Index. But the exit exam has by far the biggest implications for individual students. Students will have several chances to pass the exam, but each time they will face a substantially new version.

The exam covers math standards through first-year algebra and reading and writing standards through 10th grade.

Studies by independent evaluators and American Institutes for Research, the Palo Alto company that is developing the exit exam, have indicated that a significant number of California students would probably fail it. To date, about 16,500 students have field-tested the exam.

Human Resources Research Organization of Alexandria, Va., one evaluator, has urged that the exit exam be postponed for a year or two.

American Institutes for Research’s survey showed that, on average, students who took a field test this fall correctly answered only 44% of the math questions and 55% of the English-language arts items.

Such figures “were alarming to all of us,” said Bruce Cantley, director of student services at Paramount Unified School District.

He praised Davis’ and the board’s decision to backpedal a bit. “With these high stakes, it’s good to take time to assess whether students have had the opportunity to learn,” he said.

The elimination of many high-level algebra questions disturbed James R. Brown, superintendent of Glendale Unified School District and a member of a panel of teachers, administrators and others that has been advising the state Department of Education on the exit exam.

He said many panel members would have preferred leaving the rigorous content intact but delaying the test to give teachers and students more time to cover the material.

Algebra, which Davis has insisted be a key component of the test, is not yet a requirement in many school districts. It has only recently become a statewide requirement.

These are among the key changes proposed by Davis and approved by the board:

* The math portion of the test will be cut from 99 questions to 80 and from 3 1/2 hours to 2 1/2; the English-language arts section will be reduced from 100 questions to 82 and cut from 4 1/2 hours to 3 hours. There will also be two writing questions that ask students to compose answers.

* The passing score will now be determined after 10th-graders take the exam in 2002, rather than after the ninth-grade administration next spring. Mockler said that change satisfies a legal requirement, clarified in the Texas and Florida cases, that the state test a full sample of students before setting the passing level.

* The state plans to publish the prototype test after it is given in March and will consider releasing the actual test once a year after that. Doug Stone, a spokesman for the California Department of Education, said publishing the exam gives students and teachers a chance to understand what will be required.