A CLOSER LOOK -- Exit exams are test of commitment

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Angelica Sinajon was blissfully unaware that she and her

fellow eighth-grade students would be among the first in the state

required to pass a rigorous exit exam to earn a diploma.

The 13-year-old said she and her classmates have no idea what lies ahead

for them.

“I don’t think anyone really knows that there will be an exam to get out

of high school,” she said. “We’re sort of like guinea pigs.”

Angelica and her friends are not alone, as most students seem unaware of

the looming exam. Yet they are the first crop of students responsible for

proving they have achieved the new state standards that teachers began to

implement in classrooms this school year.

In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, students must pass a

district proficiency test prior to graduating. That test, however, is

child’s play compared to the new exams that all students beginning with

the class of 2004 will take, said Peggy Anatol, director of curriculum

and assessment for the district.”Now, it’s minimal proficiency that’s

really the equivalent to an eighth-grade proficiency,” Anatol said. “This

will be dramatically different and will include algebra and all the state

standards.”

The test in place now was written by teachers within the district and and

covers topics as simple as when to capitalize a word, putting words in

alphabetical order and adding and subtracting.

In fact, much of the material covered in the old test is now taught at

the elementary school level under the new state standards. One of the

higher-level math questions in the district test is calculating the

perimeter of a rectangle -- something they cover for the Stanford-9 test

in the second grade.

The new high school exit exams will test students only on English and

math but will be a comprehensive measure of whether or not they have

mastered the state standards in those areas.

The English/language arts section of the exam will begin by testing

students on reading and writing skills and will eventually include

literary analysis and writing strategies.

The mathematics section will look for a student to have mastered algebra,

geometry and mathematical reasoning.

“It’s going to be hard,” Anatol said. “It’s going to be a very difficult

test.”

Being accountable

The exam is the result of state Senate Bill 2 passed last spring. Written

by Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), the legislation calls for

education accountability and a high school exit examination. The purpose

of the law is to make the schools and students accountable for achieving

the rigorous state standards.

Several states, such as Texas, Arizona and Florida, have adopted high

school exit exams, Anatol said, but standards vary drastically from state

to state, making comparisons difficult.

The new California test will be administered four times a year to

students beginning in the ninth grade. Once a student passes a section of

the test, that portion does not have to be retaken.

Students now in the 10th grade will begin taking the exam this fall but

will not be required to pass it to graduate.

Students entering the ninth grade this fall will have the option of

taking the test but will not be required to do so until their sophomore

year in high school. Those students will then continue taking the test

until they pass each section.

By 2004, any student who has not passed the high school exit exam will

not receive a diploma.

What does the future hold?

Student reactions are mixed.

“I’m not really nervous,” said 14-year-old Brad Larson, who is in the

eighth grade at TeWinkle Middle School. “Other people might have trouble

with it, but if they study it doesn’t sound that hard.”Angelica was not

quite as sure.”That’s a lot to think about because if you don’t pass it,

you’re staying,” she said.

Students will have 1 1/2 hours to answer 100 mathematics multiple-choice

questions, two hours for 100 English multiple-choice questions and 1 1/2

hours to prepare two essays.

A field test will be conducted next month by various districts across the

state. Newport-Mesa declined to take the field test, Anatol said, because

it conflicted with other testing.

The panel of 52 teachers, business people and professors who created the

test will evaluate the results of the field study and finalize the exam,

which is scheduled to be adopted by the State Board of Education by Oct.

1.

The district will begin notifying parents of the exam through letters

over the summer break.

Like the children, most parents are still in the dark about the testing,

with most of them having heard only the barest details. Some of the

parents who have caught wind of the changes, however, say they seem

positive.

“We need to challenge the kids,” said Leslie Dean, whose daughter,

Suzanne, is in the class of 2004. “And I think kids will rise to the

challenge if you give it to them.”

The concern, Dean said, is if the standards are raised but the students

are not taught to that level.

BOXStructure of the field test in various districts during May.

English/language arts will have 100 multiple choice.

Reading will contain 70 questions:

10 vocabulary

30 informational reading

30 literary reading

Writing will contain 30 questions:

18 written oral-language conventions

12 written strategies

Mathematics will have 100 multiple-choice questions:

13 statistics, data analysis, and probability

13 number sense

46 algebra and functions

20 measurement and geometry

8 mathematical reasoning

There will be two written essays.