Most local students do well on state's high school exit exam
By Rebecca Ray
For the most part, local sophomores who took the California High School Exit Examination, which the state administered for the first time in March 2001, thought it was a breeze. They also considered it an inconvenience.
Senate Bill 2, enacted in 1999, requires that California students, beginning with the Class of 2004, must pass state tests in math and English to graduate high school. Members of the class of 2004, who are now sophomores, took the tests for the first time as ninth-graders in March and May 2001.
Students who failed, or who haven't taken the exams, will have several more chances to take them before graduation. Once a student passes an exam, he or she never has to take it again.
Most local students passed both tests. Thirteen out of 14 students at Los Gatos High School, and 15 out of 16 students at Saratoga High School, passed each exam. Eighty-two percent of the test-takers at Prospect High School in Saratoga passed the English test, and 70 percent passed the math test.
Statewide, 64 percent of students passed the English test, and 44 percent passed the math test.
Prospect students say the tests were too easy. Sophomore Kelly Kinney, 15, said her middle school made a big deal about them in eighth grade, and that she was nervous about taking them. But when she took the exams, she said they were much easier than she expected. Kinney's classmate Azra Kocan, 15, said the questions were so easy, it seemed as though whoever wrote the tests thought students were dumb.
Prospect sophomore Monique Machado, 15, however, thought the math test was too hard for freshmen, and that it should be given to students after their freshman year.
The math test covers math through algebra I, which some freshmen have not taken. The English test addresses content standards through sophomore English.
Assembly Bill 1609, which would forbid freshmen from taking the exit exams, is on Gov. Gray Davis' desk, awaiting his signature.
"[The tests are] pointless and stupid," said Los Gatos sophomore Chris Eichinger, 16, because students can't receive high school diplomas unless they pass the exams, not even if they get good grades. "That's pathetic," he said.
Some people can't take tests, even though they're smart and they know the material, said 15-year-old Prospect sophomore Nolan McDonnell.
Prospect principal Rita Matthews concurs that students have different learning styles, and that state performance measures should account for them. Matthews and Gail Wasserman, assistant principal at Saratoga High School, said they feel that state standardized tests should be consolidated. In addition to the high school exit exam, students in California encounter the Golden State Exam and Standardized Testing and Reporting Program, or STAR, tests. Students can take the Golden State Exam after completing certain courses. Those who receive high scores are recognized as Golden State Scholars. The STAR tests are mandatory, nationally normed state standards exams that test second- through 11th-graders in various subjects each year. State officials are discussing consolidating the exams, said Jan Chladek, manager of the high school exit exam office.
Matthews and Wasserman, however, support the idea of the high school exit exam. They said they believe high school graduates should adhere to minimum state standards in math and English.
In March 2001, school administrators received mixed messages about whether the high school exit exams would count and whether they were mandatory. This is because Senate Bill 84, which would have made the tests practice tests, died two days before schools administered the exams.
While around 300 students at Prospect took both tests, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District discouraged its students from taking them. This is because the exams were administered during class time, and the students could spend as long as they wanted to on them. Wasserman said, however, that the district will encourage freshmen and sophomores to take the tests in March 2002.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
