CTA | California Educator

Recent changes made by the state Board of Education in how the High School Exit Exam (HSEE) will be administered are definitely a step in the right direction, according to CTA leadership and staff who are monitoring the implementation process.

Changes include:

The math portion of the test will be cut from 99 questions to 80 and the time from 3.5 hours to 2.5. The English-language arts section will be reduced from 100 questions to 82, and the time from 4.5 hours to 3. There will also be two writing questions.
This year's test scores by freshmen will count only as "practice." Ninth-graders were supposed to be given the opportunity to pass the test this spring and must still pass the test to receive a diploma. The pass-fail scores were supposed to be set this spring, but will now be determined by how next year's 10th-graders perform. Some say that this delay is unfair to those who are currently freshmen, since they will have fewer opportunities to pass the test than future graduates.
Some of the highest-level algebra questions will be eliminated. Since fewer than 30 percent of California students take algebra, many educators believe it makes no sense to test students on a subject they haven't been taught.

"Reducing the number of algebra questions makes it more fair and applicable as an exit exam," says Curtis Washington, a member of the San Mateo Union High School District Teachers Association who serves on the state Department of Education's HSEE Panel. "Not everyone in California is taking algebra and there is no real mandatory curriculum in California. In the future, we may want to test for higher-level math and geometry. But, for now, the test must reflect what students are taught."

Both an independent evaluator and some members of the HSEE Panel have recommended that the test be postponed for at least another year, because schools need more time to prepare students to meet the recently adopted state standards on which the exit exam questions are based.

"It's a very difficult situation if students have not achieved the standards they are supposed to know by the time they get to high school," comments Angela Marese Boyle, a CTA Board member who serves on the HSEE Panel. "There is no time for high school teachers to go back and teach standards that were not in place when students were in earlier grades. Teachers are now supposed to teach standards in their own content area." She adds many teachers are still unfamiliar with teaching the standards, which in some cases are not aligned with curriculum and frameworks.

"Instead of targeting last year's eighth-graders for the HSEE, we should have targeted last year's second-graders," says Boyle.

Boyle and Washington suspect that the state might have made changes in the HSEE out of fear that massive numbers of students would flunk the exam and not receive diplomas. During last spring's pilot testing of thousands of students, only 47 percent of math questions and fewer than 60 percent of the language arts questions were answered correctly by students.

According to the pilot-testing report, "Minority students, special-needs students and English language learners are particularly at risk of failing." They scored lower than other students on the test. English language learners will have to take the test in English. Special education students must also take the test, according to federal law. Some fear that the exam could increase the level of student dropouts throughout the state.

"The state has finally opened its eyes and realizes that if it were to follow the original path, we could face many, many lawsuits," says Boyle. "Now, the state realizes that it better take a second look."

"If we try to deny students their diplomas, we must prove that we've taught these students everything they need to pass the test, or they will have a case against the state," says Washington.

Teachers have pushed for the HSEE to provide diagnostic information about student learning and programs. The state Board of Education, which originally did not view this as a purpose of the HSEE, is gradually changing its point of view, says Boyle.

"At first, the state said the HSEE exam didn't meet the criteria of a diagnostic test, while teachers were saying, 'Give us some information from this so we can help our students.' Now, the HSEE has changed to being a diagnostic test of sorts. While it won't show teachers which specific standards students aren't meeting, it will show general areas where students need improvement, or the 'cluster' under which the standard falls."

The HSEE is probably not in its final form and will continue to evolve, predicts Boyle. More changes are likely to take place before students voluntarily take the exam as "practice" this spring.