Here's some information about the test from the article:
English-language arts goes through grade 10 standards. The mathematics portion is a little bit of grade six standards and a lot of grade seven standards, and there are 12 Algebra I questions out of 80 total questions that students are scored on in math....
Students have to get 55 percent correct on the math part of the test and 60 percent correct on the English-language arts part of the test to pass each of those portions.
I don't understand the argument that a diploma should be given for 12 or 13 years of seat time. Why should one be given if students cannot pass a test to these minimal standards?
4 comments:
Look it how ghetto those kids are. Honestly, schools need to make the CASHEE harder, because I heard it's one of the easiest tests you take. Too many people who don't deserve a high school diploma get one. Well, maybe not, because the stupid kids probably wouldn't pass the CASHEE in the first place, let alone pass with a 1.0 GPA. Screw the CASHEE, why does it even exist? Nobody has to study for it. Oh well, the school system is retarded anyways and there's nothing that can be done about it.
Georgia began testing highschool students this year with exit exams, and I'll admit, I don't know much about the cut scores for those. However, the standardized tests we give our elementary kids are a joke. Students only need to get 40% correct on a 60 question test to pass in reading.
I love the exit exam, for the following reasons.
1) It professes to put a seal of quality on the high school diploma, yet tests at a level well below what one would be expected to show as a high school senior.
2) Its Draconian administration requirements force us to send 3/4 of our students home for the equivalent of one day of instruction so that we may proctor the test in small groups.
3) Because the state apparently assumes that teachers are no smarter than the students that they are testing, I get to watch have half an hour of my life sapped away as I watch a video teaching me how to administer the test. Among the helpful hints? Apparently, you shouldn't leave the test materials where students can get at them, nor should you tell them the answers.
My favorite complaints are those from the people who get all As and Bs, but can't pass the test. Possibly the only value that the exit exam has is to identify incompetent teachers. If you're an English or math teacher who has given an A or a B to a student who can't pass the high school exit exam, you absolutely have no standards.
Dan
Point #2 is a district decision, a bad implementation of the CAHSEE requirement. Can't put that one on the state.
As for your other points, there's some merit. Algebra I and 10th grade English--low standards, to be sure, but we've got to start somewhere. Maybe eventually they'll get tightened up. Putting *some* sort of standard seal on a diploma seems like a good idea to me, even if the standard is low. There's no standard now.
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