May 19, 2006
View From Lodi, CA: With California’s Exit Exam
Gone, So Is Credibility
By Joe Guzzardi
Alameda County Superior Court Judge
Robert Freedman’s decision to scuttle the California
high school exit exam as a graduation requirement is
a bad idea.
If you doubt me, dwell for a few
moments on the comments of two plaintiffs after they
received news of their victory.
San Francisco Chronicle
reporters Nanette Asimov and Bob Egelko, in their May 13th
story "Judge
Blocks Exit Exam for State’s High Schools"
interviewed two 18-year-old seniors who failed the exam,
Mayra Ibanez and lead plaintiff Liliana Valenzuela.
Ibanez, speaking in
Spanish even though she has lived in the US for more
than four years, said, "The judge has lifted a big
weight off us. He has given me the opportunity to
continue studying and not be discriminated against for
not having a diploma."
And Valenzuela, also speaking in
Spanish, said, "I feel very happy. Now I’ll be able
to have my diploma and fulfill my desire to be a
nurse."
Someone, perhaps their lawyer Chris
Wood, needs to take these young ladies aside for a
pointed lecture on life’s realities.
Ibanez may well "continue studying" but where?
Seniors who cannot pass an eight-grade level math
test and a 10th- grade level reading test have uncertain
academic futures.
And as for Valenzuela, whose head is even more in the
clouds than her classmate Ibanez, she has next to no
chance to become a
nurse. Apparently, she does not even have a clue
what’s required for professional nursing. Students
who
barely function at a junior high school level in
math are unlikely to pass pre-nursing requirements.
If high school seniors can’t get by the basic and
not-very-challenging exit exam, they don’t deserve a
diploma.
After all, students first take the test as
sophomores, need only 55 percent in math and 60 percent
in English and have more than one chance to pass the
test. That’s pretty generous.
Nevertheless, it’s true that California has a large
percentage of students who are
poor,
non-English speaking and have special needs. Many
are all three.
And some schools are run down and staffed by teachers
who have less experience than we’d like.
But that’s not enough of a reason to make a
high school diploma a gift.
The problem is that once a
meaningless high school diploma reaches the hand of
the
unqualified graduate, certain truths set in.
That student must now find a
job and perhaps even have to pass a test to get that
job. I know if I were the personnel manager of any
business, I’d
give my own test to make sure my new hires could
read and do math. Or I would send the applicant to the
Lodi Adult School to see if he could pass the
G.E.D.
With the exit exam eliminated, employers will be
leery of a California diploma. What, if anything, does
it mean?
As Superintendent Jack O’Connell said about the
decision, "It’s bad news for California students who
have worked hard to pass the exit exam, bad news for
employers who want meaning restored to our high school
diploma and bad news for public schools that have risen
to the challenge."
Had the exit exam requirement remained, however, a
graduate of the Lodi Unified School District could state
that he had finished four years of course work, written
and passed his
Senior Project and passed the California exit exam.
From that I know that the graduate had perseverance
and stuck by the rules, could work independently write a
comprehensible essay and could pass a fundamental test
covering basic math and reading.
The most troubling thing about Freedman’s decision is
that it reinforces the mentality that hard work really
isn’t necessary. What’s wrong with putting a nose to the
grindstone?
My favorite question of parents who complain about
their child’s lack of progress in school is, "Has he
opened the book?"
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English
at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly
column since 1988. It currently appears in the
Lodi News-Sentinel.
