High school students set to take new exit exam

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- For the first time, more than 1,600 ninth-graders in

the Newport-Mesa Unified School District will bend their heads in

concentration today as they try to earn their high school walking papers.

Students in four of the district’s high schools, as well as others in

high schools across the state, will take the first of a new two-part high

school exit exam.

Despite recent debates, students in the class of 2004 will be the

first class of students required to pass the new exam before they can

earn a diploma.

“Right now it counts, but the governor does have a bill on his desk to

make it just a practice,” said Peggy Anatol, the district’s director of

curriculum and assessment.

The new exams test students on English and math and will be a

comprehensive measure of whether they have mastered those areas according

to state standards.

The English and 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, Anatol said.

The mathematics section will determine if students have mastered

algebra, geometry and mathematical reasoning.

At about 8 a.m. today, Newport-Mesa’s freshmen will begin the

four-hour English portion of the exam. On Tuesday, they will tackle the

four-hour math exam. Over the course of the next several years, students

will be given the opportunity to take the test again until they pass it.

When students pass a section, they do not have to take that section

again.

The exam is the result of state Senate Bill 2, passed in the 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

fulfilling the rigorous state standards.