Exit-Exam Retreats Reflect Fears That Students Lack Skills

Gripped by fears that too many students will flunk, California and many other states are pulling back on plans to require passage of a single high-stakes exam before seniors can earn diplomas. From Alaska to Maryland, states are paring questions or postponing the tests.

Earlier this month, the state Board of Education in Sacramento proposed to make California’s test easier and shorter than originally envisioned. The board also suggested waiting until next school year to set the passing score for the Class of 2004, the first that will have to take the exit exam.

The modifications reflect a harsh reality: In many states, indications are that a high percentage of students do not have the necessary skills, especially in math, to clear this graduation hurdle. In large measure, that is because they have not been taught the often-rigorous material that has found its way onto the exams.

Arizona officials, for example, had planned to require their Class of 2001 to pass the state’s high school exit exam. That was before they learned that only 12% of that class achieved the passing rate in math as sophomores. A revised schedule now calls for the Class of 2002 to take the reading and writing portions, with math put off until the Class of 2004.

Arizona and many of the 22 other states that now or soon will require graduation tests thus find themselves in a precarious spot. Out of a legal need to be fair, they think they must buy time. But they must also try not to upset the political apple cart.

“The trick is how to do that without being perceived as backing off from high standards,” said Matt Gandal, director of standards and assessment with Achieve Inc., a group set up by corporate leaders and governors to promote rigorous academic standards.

The need to proceed with caution grows out of a case decided last January in a federal court in Texas. In 1997, several students filed suit against the Texas Education Agency after failing to receive high school diplomas because they flunked the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test. They argued that the test unfairly discriminated against minority students, who failed the “exit” portion of the test at twice the rate of whites.

Handing Texas a victory, Judge Edward Prado ruled that he could find no evidence of racial bias in the test, which Texas acknowledges measures only minimal competence. He further held that the test does not violate the constitutional or civil rights of minority students because students who fail get extra help aimed at ensuring that students leave school with a core set of academic skills.

Still, other states, California among them, took notice. Education officials realized that they too could face lawsuits unless they were prudent in developing and implementing such tests.

The tests should be meticulously crafted, and parents and students should be notified of the consequences well in advance. Perhaps most important, and obvious, the students should be taught the material before they see it on the test.

Higher Standards Not Yet Implemented

That is an issue in states such as California, where recently toughened academic standards have yet to work their way into many textbooks and classrooms. Each question on the exam is derived from the standards.

According to an independent evaluation by Human Resources Research Organization of Alexandria, Va., fewer than half of the state’s districts have a plan for ensuring that all high school students receive instruction in each of the content standards. Particularly at risk, the report found, are students who are still learning English or who have special needs.

If it tests students on material they have not had the opportunity to learn, the state risks legal challenges, said Paul Warren, a deputy superintendent with the California Department of Education.

“We have to look at this as a starting place where we can be as legally defensible as possible,” he said. “That is code language for: Are we being fair to the kids?”

With that in mind, the Board of Education recommended that the highest-level algebra questions be lopped off and that the math test be shortened from 3 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours. The board also suggested trimming the language arts section from 4 1/2 hours to 3 hours.

The exam will cover standards through first-year algebra, and reading and writing standards through 10th grade.

Whether the current crop of high school freshmen receives diplomas in 2004 could well hinge on students’ understanding of box-and-whisker plots and upper quartiles. Those statistical concepts, foreign to most high school students, are likely to figure prominently in the exit exam.

To get her ninth- and 10th-grade students up to speed, math teacher Lisa Reed has been using multiple-choice work sheets and lots of classroom time to drill them on such topics. One recent morning at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta, she reminded students several times that similar items would pop up on the exit exam.

“She’s been kind of stressing about it,” said ninth-grader Cameron Masters. “She says it will be hard and wants to prepare us for it.”

If the proposed changes go through in California, as expected, students’ first chance to pass the exit exam would come in 2002, when, as sophomores, they would be required to take it. They would have several chances throughout their high school years to pass it.

The state had planned to give this year’s freshmen the chance to pass the exam in the spring. But officials decided earlier this month that it would be sounder policy to wait a year before setting the passing standard.

Students Urged to Take Practice Test

Because a practice test planned in March is strictly voluntary, it’s expected that many students will pass up the opportunity. But many schools will be urging students to take the practice test so the schools can identify weak performers.

“We’re taking this dead seriously, just as seriously as if a student could have passed it,” said Linda Evans, co-principal at Crescenta Valley.

Rich Blough, who oversees assessment for Tustin Unified School District, fears that the March test will not produce much valuable feedback because the state expects to trim the number of questions.

Nonetheless, the district will require parents to fill out a form stating whether they want their children to take the test.

The push to hold high school students accountable has forced states to examine their curricula in a new way. Many are finding that children are arriving at high school without the skills they need to succeed.

“I believe what we’re seeing is curriculum issues,” said Billie J. Orr, Arizona’s associate superintendent. “It raises a question: Are schools siloing kids into different groups?”

The critical thing, she added, is “not to dumb down the standards. We don’t want to be giving a diploma for eighth-grade skills.”

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TAKING THE TEST

The proposed exit exam includes questions using math, English language and writing skills. B2