High School Graduation Test on Fast Track, Ready or Not

Won’t somebody, anybody, develop a high school graduation test for California?

Spurned last month by test publishers, state education officials have issued another plea. It is in the form of a memorandum inviting publishers to submit “an informal bid” to develop and implement the high-stakes test that Gov. Gray Davis wants in place by the next school year for the graduating Class of 2004.

Bids--or, as the California Department of Education put it to publishers, “two-page concept papers”--are due by the close of business Monday. Publishers received the memo after the close of business Thursday.

In December, publishers declined to tackle the exam, citing a lack of time to develop the requested 9,000 test items for field testing this spring and the scheduled first formal administration of the test next school year to high school freshmen.

At that time, many test experts suggested that Davis was unrealistic to expect that the job could be done well and on time. And the stakes, they noted, couldn’t be much higher: Unless they pass the exam at some point during their high school years, students will not get a diploma.

“It’s on an electoral cycle instead of an educational cycle,” said Lorraine McDonnell, a professor of political science at UC Santa Barbara.

But Davis has put education officials and publishers on notice that he has no intention of backing down from the timeline established by legislation passed last spring. He views the exam as a crucial component of his drive to make schools, teachers and students accountable for academic achievement.

“We’re trying to move forward expeditiously,” Davis said Thursday. “I’m not relaxing the timetable.”

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Though still replete with sometimes vague requirements, the request for informal bids eases some restrictions. Among other changes, it solicits a short-term and a long-term solution. In the short term, for example, field testing could be done with items that could be gleaned from existing tests.

Critics say that approach is risky because a graduation exam must mesh with academic standards and must meet other criteria, including reliability, validity and fairness.

Exit exams across the nation have had a rough road. In Texas, state officials were sued over the decade-old graduation test by opponents who said minority students were failing in disproportionate numbers. On Friday, a federal judge upheld the test, rejecting the discrimination claim.

U.S. District Judge Ed Prado wrote in his ruling that the plaintiffs had failed to prove that the adverse effect from the test is greater than the positive effect or that “other approaches would meet the state’s articulated legitimate goals.”

Texas officials argued that young people in Texas are going to college in record numbers since the advent of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is widely expected to appeal the decision.

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Publishers expressed interest in filing proposals with the state but still had reservations.

“The timeline is shrinking every day,” said Robert Rayborn, with Harcourt Educational Measurement of San Antonio, which publishes the Stanford 9 achievement test that California public school students must take.

Moreover, he said, it would be risky to arrive at a lump-sum cost of developing and implementing the test, given the many variables.

People familiar with testing said they found the department’s approach troublesome.

“It’s egregious and outrageous to do this on the fly,” one knowledgeable person said. “We’re talking about kids’ lives.”

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Times education writer Richard Lee Colvin contributed to this story.