The California Department of Education delays the high school exit exams

Last week, without a law suit having been filed about the California High School Exit Exams, the head of California's schools suspended the exam until he and the Board can ensure that students have been taught the materials they would be tested on.

That glaring error was one of the main problems with the exit exam. Schools across the nation are instituting exit exams and other forms of exams at the behest of the federal government. It is the Republicans' way of bring accountability to teaching.

But the program has run into problems in a number of states. In California, the problem has been parents and students are complaining that much of the materials the students are to be tested on has not been material they have received teaching on. That is a problem of common sense, so the state of California has halted the tests until it can ensure the material has been covered in the classroom.

Another problem California was bracing for was the law suits it was sure to receive as a result of students having passed their course work but failing the Exit Exam and not being allowed to graduate because of that one test. The state has not resolved that issue, other than allowing students to take makeup parts they have missed and to have summer courses especially in test-taking and certain sections of the exam.

With the suspension of the test, the state has not faced the onslaught of law suits it anticipated. But in California, much like other states, only approximately 45% of those taking the test for the first time passed it. And that approximately 55% who failed most are nonwhite students. This pass/fail ratio raises the issue of test bias.

The California Exit Exam will surely generate a number of law suits, but the state suspended the test not as a result of a threat of or an actual lawsuit. So for now, all is peacefully in California schools as they try to deal with the issues exit exams have raised. []

Gibbs Staff