Entering sophomores will have to take the state test
The last day of school for Morgan Hill School District students on June 13 was a red-letter day for students for another reason: on that day, state education chief Jack O’Connell canceled the next scheduled administration of the high school exit exam, paving the way for a delay of the controversial test.
Wednesday, the State Board of Education voted to delay the test until 2006.
Students who will be sophomores when school starts Aug. 26 will have to pass the test in order to graduate.
The tests – one day of math and two of English – are aligned with the academic standards California adopted in 1997. But the state didn’t anticipate how long it would take to also align the textbooks and curriculum with the new standards, O’Connell said.
Students have eight chances during their high school years to take the test and pass the math and English/language arts portions.
The class of 2004 – next year’s seniors – would have been the first class to have their diplomas dependent on their passing the state test.
O’Connell canceled this year’s July test, and said he would also cancel the September and November tests. The test will resume early in 2004, he said, which will give students in the class of 2006 many opportunities to pass the exam.
Jill Peterson, a to-be freshman at Martin Murphy Middle, said she doesn’t enjoy taking tests, but she isn’t worried about her class, the Class of 2007, being the second one to be required to pass the exam to receive a diploma.
“I don’t know that much about it yet,” she said. “I do think it’s fair that students should be required to know tenth grade stuff to graduate from high school, but I still don’t think it’s fair to base it all on one test. I think there should be some way to take what you’ve put into your work all your years of school on a daily basis and consider that, not just one test.”
Morgan Hill School Board Trustee Amina Khemici, a special-needs teacher at Pinnacle Academy, a San Jose private school, said although the test has been delayed, it will eventually be a valuable tool.
“I think the test is a good thing to have as a whole, personally and professionally,” she said. “But whether we have it in two years or four years or six years, not everyone will be happy with it. There were people protesting (Wednesday), students, parents and teachers, that two years was not enough. In two years, there will still be protests.”
The important thing, said Khemici, is to make sure Morgan Hill students are ready whenever it comes.
“We must prepare our students for it,” she said. “We need to get the students ready emotionally and academically, to make sure they know at the end of high school, they will have this test. This is something new, and people tend not to like changes. But I think people will eventually get used the idea.”
But Live Oak High juniors were not in as bad a case as other students around the state. After the first round of testing, Live Oak staff went to work to provide support for students that had not passed the exam.
Approximately 155 10th graders combined took the English/language arts part of the exam last year. Forty-one percent passed, compared with 62 percent countywide and 54 percent state wide. Combining the 2001 and 2002 scores, approximately 88 percent of Morgan Hill tenth graders passed the English/language arts portion.
In the math section of the exam, approximately 228 10th graders combined took the test in 2002. Of those, 29 percent passed, compared with 43 percent countywide and 32 percent statewide. Combining the 2001-2002 scores, 69 percent of the Class of 2004 in the district passed the math portion.
The 2002 scores include eight Central High students and one Community Adult School student.
Live Oak High staff, with the help of the state in the form of “intervention funds” of approximately $3.25 per student per hour, got busy after the first year of tests. Former Live Oak Principal Rich Knapp, current Principal Nancy Serigstad, math coach and teacher Thomasine Stewart, literacy coach and teacher Christina Filios and Assistant Principal Aid Fraser-Hammer, with the support of the Live Oak staff, created several remedies for students who were having difficulties passing.
“For the past two years, we have had a ‘zero period,’” Filios said, referring to an extra period tacked on to the beginning of the school day and devoted to bringing students up to standards. “A big part of the curriculum has focused on the exit exam.”
Other tutorials and workshops, including teacher training, take place throughout the year.
The high school has also enlisted the help of Extreme Learning Inc., an educational company that offers students remedial support and extra challenges.
“We have a contract with the high school to provide intervention for sophomores or juniors at either Gilroy high or Live Oak High,” said owner David Payne. “The program is free to students because of the state intervention funds.”
A typical program for a student is between eight and 10 hours a month, which would cost approximately $275. Extreme Learning absorbs the difference between state funds and the cost because, Payne said, “We’re committed to helping kids academically in our communities.”
Each student has an individual learning plan that is based on the standards, said Payne. Approximately 100 students are enrolled in the program, with more from Gilroy High. Payne said the difference is due to Live Oak’s own intervention programs.
The district’s contract with Extreme Learning expired last month, but will be considered for re-negotiation, according to district officials.
The delay of the high school exit exam will not mean the district will back off on intervention methods or consider not renewing its agreement with Extreme Learning.
“It will always be our goal to step in, if students are in danger, if they are not going to pass, to always offer some type of support services,” said Assistant Superintendent Claudette Beatty. “If the state stopped funding those types of intervention (such as Extreme Learning), that is the only way that we would consider stopping those classes. But we would continue with some form of intervention in-house.”
Even if Morgan Hill students are ahead of other students in the state, there is still plenty of room for improvement.
“This is not going to go away,” said Patricia Blanar, director of curriculum and assessment for the district. “To me, this says we have to continue our efforts, continue to push forward. We need to continue to show growth and make yearly progress, to increase our scores on standardized tests. We have to stay the course, we have to continue to push to teach the standards. We want our students to be able to do well with algebra, to read and write at competent levels. We want them to have mastered the California standards before they get out of high school.”
With the delay of the exam, some educators have speculated that students who don’t have to take the test will breathe a sigh of relief and give up on intervention efforts. Others have suggested that students will continue to work to meet standards because they think it’s important and because teachers and support systems are emphasizing support.
The state will allow high schools to recognize students in this year’s graduating class and next who have already passed the exam with a certificate of achievement.
“Even if we have good percentages, we can still work harder on improving our percentages,” Khemici said. “I think this won’t affect how our students focus. I think people will really work harder toward that goal for two years or more, knowing that it is coming.”
