Disabled students in California will have to pass the graduation exam to qualify for a diploma. “Passing the exit exam became a requirement for all seniors in 2006, but lawyers from Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley won exemptions for special-education students in 2006 and 2007,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The case was settled this week: Disabled students will get tutoring to help them pass but no exemptions.
Anecdotal student Shaneka “Precious” Washington, a learning-disabled senior, will have to pass the test on her sixth try. She’s passed the math exam, but repeatedly failed the reading test, a four-option multiple-choice test which requires a 60 percent to pass. The hardest questions require 10th-grade reading skills; most questions are easier.
Shaneka says she wants to be a lawyer. Handing her a diploma will not enable her to pursue that goal. She can’t read well enough.
Requiring an exit exam doesn’t make high school graduates more attractive to employers, notes Eduwonkette, citing a new study that compares graduates’ earnings in states with and without an exam.
In short, exit exams do nothing to increase the labor market value of the high school diploma. At the same time, other evidence suggests that exit exams (especially more difficult ones) are associated with lower public high school completion rates . . .
Most state graduation exams are too easy to impress employers.
I have 2 children with learning disabilities, particularly in math, that do not test well because of very poor short term memory issues. This is going to be a nightmare for us. Kids can be very strong in one area and weak in another and will eventually find their nitch and do well, but this is going to really throw a boulder in their path.
I have had students with disabilities struggle to pass state tests. Some of these kids worked so hard and accomplished a lot, but the tests were confusing for them. What seems easy for one person is sometimes very difficult for someone else. It’s sad to think that a child might become discouraged and just give up due to not passing a test.
This comment in no way aims to denigrate the problems of those with disabilities. But look: The overwhelming majority of high school kids, by any rational measure, are not disabled. And the test in California is so easy as to be meaningless.
Takes 60 percent to pass; 4-option multiple choice; no penalty for wrong answers (i.e., no “right minus wrong” scoring). Fine. My 6-year-old grandson could take the test, and by placing random choices on the multi-choice answer segment, likely could score somewhere between 40 and 50 percent.
Sure, kids are being tested. But if the test is so easy as to be meaningless, then what does that say, frankly, about the prospects of those with learning and other disabilities, if they can’t pass? More to the point, what does that say about all the other kids who can’t — or won’t work at some minimum level to master the material — pass?
Bill
Bill said, “This comment in no way aims to denigrate the problems of those with disabilities. But look: The overwhelming majority of high school kids, by any rational measure, are not disabled. And the test in California is so easy as to be meaningless.”
Thank you, Bill. Well said. Most students who have been clasified as LD or ADHD are not disabled but have been classified as such for the sole purpose of receiving services. They are students whose test scores are in the average range. They should be able to pass these tests. The students I feel for are the ones who have a REAL disability.
This debate will perpetuate itself based solely on how people feel about students with disabilities. What stuns the argument is when people start thinking about the value of an education. If you want the high school diploma to reflect an achieved level of knowledge/education, then you are a person who supports the maintenance of standards. On the other hand, if you feel that everyone is entitled to a high school diploma, then you feel that standards are something to manipulate to the level of mere suggestions.
I am a teacher. Everything I do at work can be measured against an established standard. I am not permitted a suggested level of performance. I understand why there are Olympic competitions and Special Olympic competitions. I don’t understand why we’re confined to only one category for high school graduation.
“Shaneka says she wants to be a lawyer. Handing her a diploma will not enable her to pursue that goal. She can’t read well enough.”
90% of the people I met in law school should NOT be lawyers, though they almost all now are. She’ll be another one, since she’ll sue to get into some law school somewhere.