Until October, she thought that the exit exam requirement would not affect her, and that the law would be postponed - which has been the case since it was first administered to students in 2002. However, when passage of the exam became mandatory for getting a high school diploma, Zaragoza went into shock.

 

"Suddenly, it hit home. I said, 'Whoa, maybe I won't graduate.' Lots of students started taking it seriously."

 

For a brief period, it appeared that a court injunction against using the exam to keep students from graduating this year would save her, but a high court decision has reinstated it.

 

While she was awaiting results from her latest attempt to pass the test, she enrolled in an exit exam intervention class at her school just in case.

 

"I'm trying not to be too negative, but I'm under a lot of pressure," says Zaragoza. "My mom is depending on me to graduate and I'm above the number of credits that I need."

 

"Many students were angry when they first came" to the intervention class for seniors at risk of not passing the exit exam, recalls instructor Cheryl Zenimura-Purdom, a member of the Fresno Teachers Association. The degree of frustration grew as some students passed the exam and dropped out of the course. Those who remained "thought they might as well give up. But we talked it through, decided it was something we didn't have any control over and focused on passing."

 

At last count, all but about 10 percent of this year's seniors statewide had passed the test. Of those yet to pass, the Los Angeles Times estimates 44 percent have limited English skills and 61 percent live in poverty. California is one of only a handful of states requiring students to take the exit exam in English even if they're not yet up to speed in it. Only students with disabilities have been exempted from having to pass the test this year.

 

This past year, the state provided $20 million for intervention programs geared to help students pass the test. Some schools offered classes during the regular school day, while others provided support classes after school and on Saturdays.

 

In high school, where social promotion is not a possibility under normal circumstances, the exit exam may well be the first time students are held truly accountable for their academic performance.

 

Even students who consider the exam unfair admit that it made them put out effort like never before. Brent Williams, a student in Zenimura-Purdom's class, isn't happy about being in the first class required to pass the test in order to get a diploma. "But, yeah, I'm definitely working harder."

 

Zenimura-Purdom empathizes with her students, but still thinks the test is a good idea. "They need to be held accountable. It's a basic test measuring basic skills. Some of them don't have test-taking skills, so we're working on that."

 

Many teachers do not believe a one-size-fits-all test is the only way to make students accountable. Kevin Colburn, a fifth-grade teacher who chairs the CTA Assessment and Testing Committee, and Curtis Washington, a high school teacher who chairs the High School Restructuring Task Force, testified before the California Department of Education in December that students have different learning styles and should be allowed to demonstrate their mastery of state standards through alternative means.

 

Testifying on behalf of CTA, they urged the state to investigate other appropriate criteria for graduation.

 

CTA recommends that the state provide parallel forms of assessment that use multiple measures to assess a student's progress (for example, a portfolio process guided by teachers, essays and personal communications).

 

If students were held accountable at a younger age - especially in middle school - the exit exam would be less of a shock in high school, say some teachers. They suggest requiring students to earn a set number of credits before being allowed to attend high school.

 

"A lot of kids in middle school are not thinking ahead and paying attention to the things they will need to know in order to graduate," says Kim Hassen, an eighth-grade teacher at Cubberley School in Long Beach. "When they get to high school, a lot of them will be wishing they had been listening in their middle school algebra class."

 

"If middle school students were held more accountable, they would find high school much easier," says Jim Jackson, a teacher at Live Oak Middle School. He estimates that 25 percent of his students put out zero effort.

 

"They hold teachers accountable and schools accountable, so why not kids?" he asks. "Sometimes by the time they get to high school, it can be too late."