Support for New High-School Test Fades
After years of momentum, the drive to make students pass a test to graduate from high school has stalled — and it's likely to stay that way, a private study contends.
Wed, Aug. 16, 2006 Posted: 14:17:05 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) - After years of momentum, the drive to make students pass a test to graduate from high school has stalled — and it's likely to stay that way, a private study contends.
Not a single state adopted a new graduation-exam requirement in 2006, and one state even took a step back, abandoning plans to withhold diplomas for kids who failed the test.
In total, 22 states require students to pass a test to graduate high school, and three others are phasing in these "exit exams" by 2012. But no other states are close to joining in, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, which released the study Wednesday.
"It shows that there's been a kickback against testing," Jennings said. "And some states are pretty satisfied with their schools. They aren't lining up to follow the same policy."
Even still, graduation exams remain an influential part of U.S. education. About two-thirds of the nation's 15 million public high school students are required to pass one.
But most of the tests don't cover a full high school education. To get a diploma in many states, students must only show they can handle 10th-grade level content.
In Idaho, the passing score is at 8th-grade level this year. The state plans to raise it.
Unlike testing under the federal No Child Left Behind law, in which testing is used to grade schools, graduation exams have personal consequences. And that can cause backlash.
In California, for example, state officials stuck with their exam despite protests and legal challenges. Last week, a state appeals court upheld the test. Roughly 40,000 students from the class of 2006 have had their diplomas withheld because they didn't pass the test.
Utah, meanwhile, was to start withholding diplomas this year. But the state changed course as it became clear how many students would be left behind, the study says. The state opted instead to note on a diploma whether a student had passed the graduation exam.
The states that use the exams generally run from New England to the South to the West Coast. "It's the inner part of the country that's not affected," Jennings said.
The goal of these tests it to ensure that students have mastered at least basic knowledge in math and reading, and perhaps social studies and science, before they graduate.
Yet critics say students are often penalized because the education they receive doesn't prepare them for the exams. Higher numbers of poor, minority and disabled students tend to fail the tests.
States have come up with ways to try to address that. Many offer remedial courses, particularly when the tests are new and a state is about to deny diplomas for the first time.
States have backup plans too. They let students take the test a few times. Some allow class grades or other test scores to be substituted. Waivers and appeals are common.
"It's a matter of which strategy you want," Jennings said. "Do you want to start out low and raise the bar? Or do you want to set the bar high and take your lumps in court and with public resistance?"
Half the states don't chose either one.
They say they measure achievement in their own ways, but not with a high-stakes test.
Based in Washington, the Center on Education Policy advocates for public schools and researches issues that affect them.
States that require high-school graduation exams: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
States phasing in exit exams by 2012 but not yet withholding diplomas: Maryland, Oklahoma, Washington.
Source: Center on Education Policy
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Ben Feller
AP Education Writer