Exit Exams: A California failure

We are in a crisis: the California Unified Public School system needs a complete overhaul. Our high school students are not passing the exit exam, and parents and teachers need to know why and how California can change this fact.

Are any of our fine Elected officials running for office addressed the issue of education? Alameda and Contra Costa counties both are having problems with the education of our county high school students. Ninety percent of disabled students, 26,400, are not passing their exit exams, while 75% of African American students, 41,000, and 65% of Latino American students, 32,000, are also not passing their exams--a whopping 90,000 students in California. Alameda and Contra Costa counties need to expeditiously modify and transform their school systems.

The above numbers are very disturbing. They should be sending wake up alarms in both counties' Board of Education central offices. The results are different for Asian Americans and White Americans-- 75% of Asian Americans passed the test, while 70% of white students passed. Something must be very wrong with California's education system to have these despairing and different numbers.

We need to know how two groups (Asian and White) pass, while most of the Public School Students did not. Are they teaching in a different language? Are they teaching foreign subjects? There is a need for both counties Boards of Education to study and investigate all students to passing test scores. How can minority sophomores do so well and two years later minority seniors fail?

When only 10 percent of the disabled students and 25 percent of the African American students pass this test that should be a warning to public school system officials. The State of California CAN PAY NOW (putting qualified teachers, skilled councilors, drug free school zones, and child friendly buildings) OR PAY LATER (with prisons full). Education is a fundamental right not a privilege in America. The high school students of California deserve better educational institutions.

In 2004 these students will not be receiving their diplomas. The State Board of Education could delay this action, but in 2005 this very bad procedure will be in place. Students that do not pass exit exam will not graduate. The question remains: are these students receiving the materials needed to pass this exit exam? If they are not getting the material to pass, why not?

Some of the answers are simple to fix. Here are some examples of how to make it accessible: a reader for a blind student, a sign interpreter for the deaf disabled student, and a note taker for a person like me with Cerebral Palsy. Teach subjects in Spanish and English for Latino Students. America and the state of California have been fighting this issue for years. The State of California will be a tri-lingual state in the near future--English, Spanish, and Chinese. Do we want Latino students to acquire the knowledge of each public school subject or do you want them to master English? I would prefer the former.

Asian and White students may be help some African American students in their studies, but the true responsibilities are parents and friends. We have to go back to the past, back to guiding each child in high school because our public school system is currently overwhelmed. WE HAVE TO BECOME MENTORS! WE HAVE TO GET INVOLED NOW!

Last week, the Alameda County School District stated that it was going bankrupt. School buildings are falling apart, after school programs are being cut, and the high school students are suffering. Many teachers in these schools are not accredited teachers, and even I could teach history in any public school in California. They are begging people to come into public schools to teach. Many inner city schools have volunteers teaching. This is unfair to the students of California. The Disabled, African American, and Latino students may need more assistance. Assistance that these young volunteer teachers cannot give.

How many school districts told the parents that a non-accredited teacher is teaching their child? Sid Wolinsky, an Oakland lawyer who heads the firm Disability Right Inc., is filing a lawsuit on behalf of California's Disabled students. He wants the State to make reasonable accommodations for all disabled students. Once again disabled people have to go to court to get basic needs other Americans have been awarded. Once again disabled people have to wield the big legal stick to get institutions to do the right and just thing.

Will African Americans and Latino Americans file a similar suit? High school students are not getting their diplomas; Disabled, African American, and Latino American students are not learning how to grow up in life; these high school students are being denied the right of a respectful, fruitful, and healthy future. This has to change. []
THAT IS THE GRAY LINE!

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