Last month a study predicted that 20 percent of California's class of 2004 may fail the state's high school exit exam due to inadequate preparation. (This despite the fact that students have eight chances to pass it; almost half have already done so.) In response, the state's schools chief has cancelled the July administration of the test and is recommending that the state board of education delay until 2006 the requirement making passage of the test a pre-requisite for graduation. Thus our largest state joins the shameful bandwagon of those that adopt standards (often none too ambitious to start with) and tests and consequences but then quietly back away when the consequences begin to inconvenience people. [See "Resist urge to "refine" graduation testing," ADD LINK FROM LAST WEEK'S EDITORIAL.] That it's possible to resist these pressures is evident in a few states such as Massachusetts and Virginia. Will California's state board also have the backbone to stick with standards-based education?
"Schools chief cancels July test," by Erika Chavez and Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee, June 14, 2003