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Two tests, two results: What are kids learning?
Educators call the exit exam different, not easier.
By Erika Chavez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, August 23, 2004
When state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and
other state education officials unveiled the latest statewide test
results last Monday, the mood was unusually subdued.
Following several years of steady gains in the California Standards
Tests, which measure students' academic mastery of a state-set
curriculum, progress was stalled. Scores were about the same as last
year's, and worse in some cases.
As in past years, high school results were especially discouraging.
Just 35 percent of 10th-graders scored at the proficient level or
above in English-language arts; a mere 6 percent of sophomores who
took the algebra exam showed mastery of its standards.
But a separate test given to the same students had radically different
results. Last year's 10th-graders will graduate from high school as
the class of 2006, the first class that needs to pass the California
High School Exit Exam in order to receive a diploma. They were the
first class to take the recently revamped, mandatory test after a vote
by the state Board of Education last year to postpone the requirement
for two years.
The results: 74 percent of those students passed the math portion of
the high school exit exam, and 75 percent passed the English-language
arts portion.
How to explain the disparity? The divergent results "suggest that when
the stakes are low, the standards are high," said Bruce Fuller, a
co-director of the Policy Analysis think tank and professor of
education and public policy at UC Berkeley.
But when it comes to the exit exam, "the stakes are high, and the
standards dip down."
Untrue, say state education officials. The two tests are different in
content and purpose, said Janet Chladek, manager of the state
Department of Education's high school exit exam office.
"You can't compare the two tests," she said. The high school exit exam
"is not an easier test, it's a different test."
The California Standards Tests, or CSTs, are meant to guide students
in reaching high levels of proficiency, said Deb Sigman, director of
standards and assessment for the state Department of Education.
The California High School Exit Exam, or CAHSEE, measures the bare
minimum that students should know and be able to do in order to
graduate, she said. The math portion of the exam tests students in
concepts that are routinely taught in the sixth, seventh and eighth
grades; the English portion covers ninth-and 10th-grade academic
standards.
All of which just serves to further confuse parents and students
trying to navigate and comprehend the alphabet soup of annual
statewide tests, Fuller said.
"On the one hand, the system is saying, 'You passed the CAHSEE,' "
Fuller said. "Then they get the CST scores and those say, 'Sorry,
you're not proficient.' That sends terribly confusing signals to kids
and parents alike and makes the system look silly, I think."
State education officials often refer to California's academic
standards as "rigorous" and "world-class," and those standards don't
change when it comes to the high school exit exam, Chladek said.
What differs is the degree of difficulty of the questions, she said.
Education experts are aware of the differences.
"We have these world-class standards, but how an actual question is
designed will impact how kids do on the tests," said Brian Edwards, a
senior policy analyst for EdSource, a nonprofit education policy and
data group.
The exit exam originally was supposed to take effect beginning with
the class of 2004; but initial passage rates were low, particularly
for the math portion of the exam. Groups representing disabled, poor
and immigrant students threatened the state with lawsuits for what
they considered an unfair graduation requirement, especially for
students who faced learning obstacles ranging from dyslexia to
dilapidated classrooms.
An independent review of the exit exam found that the class of 2004
had not yet benefited from extensive education reforms, including a
standards-based curriculum. The state board voted to streamline the
test and postpone the requirement.
The revisions resulted in the English portion of the exam being cut
from two days to one. Students now are required to write one essay
instead of two and answer 79 multiple-choice questions instead of 94,
Sigman said.
Some math questions involving complex statistical equations were
eliminated or revised, and some problems were swapped for others that
test one mathematical concept at a time.
These changes do not signal a "dumbing down" of the test, Sigman said.
Rather, the revisions "made the items less confusing for students
while still faithfully assessing their knowledge of the standards."
Fuller of UC Berkeley acknowledges that the state must engage in a
delicate balancing act when it comes to high-stakes testing.
"It's a painful political dilemma," he said. "I sympathize with the
board because they're trying to set demanding standards for all
students, and at the same time not penalize many kids in mostly poor,
rural and urban communities who have been forced to attend lower
quality schools. It's a contradiction, like the state is trying to be
fair to all kids while demanding more from them."
The dilemma is shared by dozens of states across the country grappling
with high school exit exams, according to a recent study by the
nonprofit Center on Education Policy.
The nationwide survey found that more than half of all public school
students now are required to pass an exit exam in order to graduate;
that number will rise to 70 percent by 2009.
The survey also found that the vast majority of high school exit exams
don't gauge whether students are ready to enter the work force or go
on to college; in fact, most exams are, like California's, geared
toward ninth-and 10th-grade learning levels, said Keith Gayler, lead
author of the report.
Still, exit exams serve a valuable purpose, Gayler said.
"These tests are something where there was nothing in the past in
terms of accountability, and of making sure that kids aren't being
written off in the middle of high school," he said. "The point of
these exams is to get students to a minimum level of competency."
Gayler said the revisions to California's exit exam were necessary;
had the state board stuck to the original test and timeline, "one out
of four kids wouldn't have gotten a diploma. The reform would have
gone away; the inevitable lawsuits would have killed it," he said.
Instead, the two-year reprieve has given school districts time to
target vulnerable students with remedial instruction. State
Superintendent O'Connell expressed concern that the most recent
passage rates dipped precipitously for African American, Latino,
English-learner and special education students.
Members of the class of 2006 who failed to pass either portion of the
exam will have five more chances to take it, Sigman said.
While the exit exam won't be revised again anytime soon, Chladek said
state officials have left open the possibility of revisiting the test
in seven or eight years, after a whole new generation of students has
benefited from standards-based education starting in kindergarten.
"In the future, we might look at ratcheting up the difficulty," she
said.
www:sacbee.com Writer: Erika Chavez
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