By Michael Beeli
Staff Writer
For the next two years, California students graduating from high school are no longer required to pass the California High School Exit Exam due to the passage of California State Senate Bill 72 on Oct. 7, 2015. Exit exams are an essential component of ensuring students are ready for the world past high school; all high schools should require students to pass some form of an exit exam to properly examine their extent of learning.
According to a 2014 Human Resources Organization report, academic proficiency as well as graduation rates improved over time across the board since the initial institution of the exam. This result reflects a common understanding that exit exams are a necessary means of evaluating whether or not students have effectively mastered the material they were supposed to learn throughout school and better guide students toward sufficient academic standards.
Former California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said in a press release that the exam was a necessary process of ensuring accountability to the graduation process and, although it had become outdated, an adapted exam is necessary as soon as possible. Without an exit exam, no concrete measure remains in place to evaluate students on their mastery of high school course materials. Without such a process, the value of a diploma fades away, an unfair consequence for those who have displayed effort throughout their high school career.
According to the Public School Review website, the test-taking skills measured by exit exams serve as an effective simulation for the wide variety of standardized tests that students will experience during and after high school. California, and consequently Costa, should therefore reinstitute exit exams not only to test students on knowledge but also to test if they possess the abilities associated with test-taking necessary to graduate.
The CAHSEE has been a graduation requirement since 2006 and had a pass rate of 95.5% in 2014, according to the California Department of Education. According to the Department of Education, with a pass rate so high, the CAHSEE serves as a fair exam that most students succeed on. It is not fair that the 4.5 percent of students who do not display the basic academic skills necessary to pass the exam are able to graduate because it jeopardizes the integrity of the educational experience.
A CDE report listed pass rates for the CAHSEE in 2012 as 98.6 percent for white students, 94.2 percent for low income students, 93.8 percent for Hispanic students and 80.6 percent for students who were not proficient in English. Although the CAHSEE clearly had divides among socioeconomic and racial lines, the basic standards of a high school education should not be compromised for everyone due to lack of proper education for some. Instead, the state should focus on ways to improve education in lower socioeconomic areas.
Although exit exams of the past have been proven to be flawed in many areas, the concept of an exit exam is crucial to qualify students to graduate and demonstrate their ability to succeed in as well as pass high school. California should reinstate exit exams as soon as possible because without exit exams, it is much more difficult to assess whether students demonstrate sufficient academic skills that determine whether they deserve to graduate.
Leave a Reply