Published Friday, June 8, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

State says D grade gets a diploma

MOST NINTH GRADERS FLUNKED HIGH-STAKES TEST ON THEIR FIRST TRY EDUCATION BOARD SETS BAR FOR EXIT EXAM; 70% CORRECT DEEMED TOO HIGH

BY JESSICA PORTNER AND KATE FOLMAR Mercury News

The State Board of Education ruled Thursday that a D grade is good enough to pass California's new high-stakes high school exit exam. Even so, more than half the students flunked on the first round.

With passing scores set at 60 percent in English and 55 percent in math, less than 45 percent of the state's freshmen scored high enough to qualify for a diploma in 2004. Minority students fared the worst; only 25 percent of Latinos and 23 percent of black students passed the math tests, the board said.

Already faced with legal challenges to the exam, the board unanimously adopted the passing scores advocated by state schools chief Delaine Eastin and rejected a higher mark recommended by a standards-setting committee earlier in the week. The panel of 100 educators -- most of them high school English and math teachers -- suggested that the passing score for both tests be set at 70 percent, traditionally a C. But state officials estimated that a passing mark that high would have ended with three out of four students failing math.

``At 70 percent, too many kids would have failed,'' said Eastin after the vote. ``We don't want to punish kids because schools weren't embracing the standards.''

But some critics said state leaders should have set the passing score high enough to encourage educators to ratchet up student achievement. They argue the state set the bar just high enough not to be embarrassing but low enough to pacify low-achieving school districts, which have argued that the state education reform effort is demanding too much too fast.

State figures show that only 8 percent of the students in the states' lowest-performing schools passed the math exam even at the lower score.

``It's a D or D-. I don't think the minimum is enough,'' said Lance Izumi, director of education at the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank. ``When they lower the bar, that gives students no incentive to do better.''

But Eastin said the board may revisit the passing score in 2003.

10th-grade material

The exit exam, unlike the standardized test on which California's accountability program is built, is based on detailed academic standards the state board adopted in 1997. It tests what students are expected to have learned through Algebra I in math and by the end of their sophomore years in English.

Some 380,000 of the state's 480,000 ninth-graders voluntarily sat for the tests in March. They will get as many as eight more chances to pass the two parts.

Nationwide, exit exams have become popular education fixes, as lawmakers attempt to ensure that students who receive high school diplomas are both literate and able to function in society and the workforce.

But the exams also have been enormously controversial. Several states, including Virginia, have pushed back test requirements for graduation when confronted with the prospect of denying diplomas to thousands of students; others have faced lawsuits about the test's effects on minority and special education students. Even before the state board meeting, disability advocates filed suit against California's exam, claiming it discriminated against pupils with learning disabilities.

Given the potential for high failure rates and lawsuits, an outside evaluator hired by the state last year urged the state to delay the tests' consequences for a year or two, a suggestion that Davis said is still premature. Concerns have also arisen about how the test might affect some minority students and those who live on the economic fringe -- two groups of students who historically have not fared as well on standardized tests as middle- and upper-class white students.

New Haven Schools Superintendent Ruth Ann McKenna, who will learn in August how her students fared on the test, said the board's grading system was neither too lenient nor too harsh.

``This is just right. It's reasonable,'' she said.

State education leaders said that the overall failure rate in math may reflect the fact that many freshman students have not taken Algebra 1. The math tests students on geometry, algebra and statistics.

And it may be harder to decipher mathematical phrases if English is not your native language, some San Jose school officials said. Statewide, only 17 percent of non-native English speakers passed the math test, while 30 percent passed the English test.

``If they can't read what the question's about, how are they supposed to answer it?'' said Jack Hamner, a math teacher at San Jose's Oak Grove High School.

State Sen. John Vasconcellos worried that poor, minority students are going to be left behind unless districts get the support they need to raise scores.

``Millions of kids might not be able to graduate,'' said Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, who is backing a $300 million training bill for English and math teachers. ``We need to find a way for kids to catch on and catch up.''

In San Jose's East Side high school district, educators are pinning hopes on a curriculum that channels most freshmen into algebra. Still, they acknowledge persistent testing problems among some ethnic groups.

``We need better strategies for teaching students of diverse backgrounds,'' said deputy superintendent Bill Kugler.

One of the most serious issues East Side faces is the transitory nature of its students. In some schools, as much as 60 percent of the student body turns over during a four-year period.

But Kugler added: ``I don't think we should be making excuses. We should be finding ways to effectively educate students so they're on a level playing field.''

Special education

Several disability groups reiterated their charges Thursday that the test is unfair to special education students. Only 12 percent of special education students passed the math exam, while 22 percent passed language arts this year. The board's decision to adopt the lower passing scores ``is a well-intentioned but thoroughly misguided attempt to patch up a sinking ship,'' said Sid Wolinsky, director of litigation for the Oakland-based Disability Rights Advocates, which represents students who have sued the state over the exit exam. ``The test is fundamentally defective and unfair in myriad ways.''

Tony Ibarra says it doesn't seem fair that his daughter Jennifer, who suffers from short-term memory loss, could pass all her classes at San Jose's Gunderson High School but be denied a diploma because of the exam.

``I worry she might get discouraged and call it quits,'' Ibarra said. ``When she looks at the end of the tunnel, there's this big obstacle she has to jump. I don't know if I can help her on this test; I don't know how to prepare her for it.''

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2001

Answers

Now that I'm reaching an age where it could be more difficult finding a new job, I consider it job security of a sort that the kids fresh out of school are so illiterate.

OTOH, I do hope that they have pulled themselves together by the time I need them to finance my social security checks.

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2001