By Maysen Marolda
Staff Writer
California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill that states that for at least the next two years, the state of California will no longer require students to take the California High School Exit Examination in order to graduate and receive their diploma. The exam did not improve the overall achievement of California students and negatively impacted both students and teachers, resulting in this new bill being beneficial for each and every school.
According to the researchers at the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice, the CAHSEE has not improved the overall achievement of California students, which was one of its main intentions in the first place, New America’s education policy brief said. People who earned a diploma after initiation of the CAHSEE requirement were no more qualified than those who graduated earlier. Therefore, it is more suitable to either eliminate or dramatically alter the test as it adds nothing to the high school learning environment.
As stated by a recent study from the Center on Education Policy, teachers who adjusted their curriculum to help students pass the exam had less time to focus on much-needed in-depth learning. Now that the test is no longer in effect, teachers can teach content that is deviated away from the test, Costa math teacher Mike Ninnis said, which is more beneficial as students can acquire more diverse knowledge on many different topics.
Exit exams are not beneficial due to the unfair impact they have had on minority students. According to California Department of Education figures, of the 19,679 students from the class of 2014 who did not pass by the end of their senior year, 68 percent were Latino, 49 percent were English learners and 77 percent were low-income. According to a report by Children’s Defense, minority students were particularly disadvantaged since they were denied the opportunity to learn the material covered on the test due to a lack of significant and adequate investments in educational resources. Consequently, exit exams unfairly punished minority students by not allowing them to graduate.
If the state does choose to revive the exit exam, in order to improve the passing rates among minority groups, there should be a different test to fit the learning environment of every socioeconomic level. This way, all levels of academic learning could be tested in a fair way to ensure that no one is given the test after enduring a less rigorous academic environment in their previous years of school.
Additionally, students must pass the exam in English in order to graduate, which is unfair to native speakers of another language who have to perfect the English language prior to the test, the California Department of Education said. Therefore, there should be a version of the test available in all languages to assure that everyone is given a fair chance to pass the examination and receive a diploma.
The suspension of the CAHSEE at Costa and all high schools throughout California is beneficial because it allows for teachers to teach more in depth topics and critical thinking skills rather than content necessary to succeed on the test, and it eliminates the chances of minority students being negatively affected by their test scores due to their socioeconomic conditions.
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