Taking a test is nothing new for a high school student. But for the first time in state history, passing or failing an exit exam will determine whether California high schoolers from the classes of 2006 and beyond will get their diplomas.
While the state of California is praising this year’s results, researchers from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access are contesting the results and optimism in a new study released last week.
The California High School Exit Examination figures released by the California Department of Education on Aug. 15 showed an estimated 88 percent of students passed the English-language arts portion of the test, while 88 percent of students also passed the mathematics section.
Education officials lauded the results, which surpassed even the state’s projections.
“I knew that our students could rise to the challenge of higher expectations, and I am proud of the rate of student success thus far on the exam,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in an Aug. 15 press release.
But authors of the UCLA study argue that the way the state calculated the results is misleading, The state does not count dropouts or students who did not take the exam as “not passing.”
According to David Silver, coauthor of the UCLA study, the exclusion of these groups of students leads to a misperception that a higher percentage of students have actually passed the test.
Silver also said the state’s separate reporting of the results of the English and math sections glosses over the fact that many students designated as “passing” by the state have only passed one section of the test and are not eligible for a diploma.
When accounting for dropouts and students who didn’t take the test, the study found that the percentage of students who passed the English-language arts section of the exam fell to 81 percent, while the percentage of students passing the mathematics section dropped to 80 percent.
The study’s authors say these smaller percentages of students passing either section of the test are more accurate because they include previously excluded groups of students.
But Matt Taylor, a consultant for the California Department of Education, said including those students who have dropped out or who have not taken the test artificially inflates the number of students taking the exit exam.
Taylor said the numbers the state used to get the results were the most appropriate.
“We believe our number is more accurate,” he said.
Tenth-grade high school students have been taking the California High School Exit Examination every spring since 2001, but the Class of 2006 will be the first that must pass the test to graduate.
Regardless of the results, John Rogers, coauthor of the study and associate director of the institute, said the state is failing to examine the effects of an apparent disparity in the learning environment between schools on pass rates for the exit exam.
The study found that low pass rate schools are more likely than high pass rate schools to be critically overcrowded, have less fully-credentialed teachers and have at least half of their math classes taught by teachers who are not certified in the subject.
Schools where less than 70 percent of students passed either the math or English part of the test were labeled as “low pass rate,” compared to “high pass rate” schools where more than 90 percent of students passed both sections of the test.
Schools with severe teacher shortages and dramatic overcrowding have an average failure rate of 44 percent on the math section of the test and a 40 percent average failure rate on the English portion, according to the study.
Rogers believes these students will be held back because they haven’t been given the “essential tools” to be successful, and questioned the appropriateness of the exit exam in general.
“The question is whether it’s justifiable for the state to move forward with tests based on these inequalities,” he said.
Silver believes students from substandard schools are at a disadvantage when taking the exam, greatly diminishing their chances for a diploma and success in life after high school.
“The state handicaps a vast group of students with insufficient educational resources and, at an alarming rate, the (exit exam) policy then locks those same students out of the most basic future opportunities that a high school diploma offers,” Silver said.
Since high school exit exam scores are not used when evaluating freshman applications at UCLA, the controversial test would not appear to affect future applicant pools to the university, said Undergraduate Admissions Director Vu Tran.
But Tran noted there is a relationship between high school exit exam scores and standardized test scores, such as the SAT, which are considered by the university when making admissions decisions.
“Although standardized test scores are not used as exclusive factors in UC and UCLA admissions decisions, they are nevertheless important ones,” Tran said.
Students who fare poorly on the high school exit exam would most likely perform poorly on standardized tests, lessening their chances of admission to selective universities like UCLA, said Tran.