Re: 90.4% pass high school exit exam

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 15:57:23 GMT, jimstevens
<jimstevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 3 Jun 2006 06:59:00 -0700, "Golden State Poppy"
<GoldenStatePoppy@xxxxxxx> wrote:

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/california/story/14263164p-15076194c.html

The biggest controversy in California now is the high school exit exam.
About 10% failed it, and it is mostly Hispanic students. To me it
illustrates the huge burden for the schools with the influx of
immigrants, both legal and illegal. It is amazing that they are doing
as well as they are.

I can't say in strong enough terms how these tests are dumbed down.
Here in Virginia for example there is no precise score for passing!
They first administer the test and then adjust the score to get enough
kids passing. Thus, in one area they give kids 70 questions, then
they throw out a bunch of "bad questions" and then they will set
passing at 51.5%.

Really, that passing score is somewhere around 34% if considered on
the original 70 questions. NCLB allows states to set their own bar
and they set them so they look good.

Go back and look at a dozen other factors on these tests and they are
a massive fraud. They also spend most of the year teaching to the
test and then have a massive review aimed at passing the test. The
review is geared towards specialized material developed by a
contractor paid by the state so the review is even more specialized
teaching the test.

Then there is massive cheating in many classrooms. Teachers have no
incentive to stop cheating since their 'performance' is being measured
by the results.

If America really knew how bad education was in most of America, they
would put education at top of priorities in politics.

Here in Hawaii, there may be still the "basic competencies" test which
is a very low standard, and some students may re-take many times to
pass it. IIRC I heard that one student re-took it 6 times until he
finally met the minimum passing grade. Don't know of anyone who has
not eventually passed it, so I can't figure out what the purpose of
the test is.
.

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