By Ellie Ashford
7/22/03 -- Danielle Papillion, a senior at Escambia High School in Pensacola, Fla., graduated with a 3.7 grade point average and a college scholarship but failed to pass the state's exit exam.
Papillion was among 12,600 students in Florida, and thousands more across the nation, who faced the prospect of not receiving a standard diploma because they came up short on state-mandated tests.
Now that these tests are beginning to have real consequences for students, some states are rethinking their exit exam requirements. California, Georgia, Arizona, and Alaska, for example, postponed their exams. Florida enacted legislation to allow alternatives for some students, and New York, faced with the prospect of high failure rates, has set aside this year's math exam results.
Meanwhile, students, parent groups, and other organizations have staged protests and have filed or threatened lawsuits in several states, including California, Florida, Louisiana, and Massachusetts.
According to the Center on Education Policy, 24 states require exit exams, and 19 states have already begun withholding diplomas from students who fail to pass them.
Students who complete their coursework but fail the exit exam in these states receive a "certificate of attainment," "certificate of attendance," or similar alternative to a standard diploma.
Supporters of exit exams say they help raise student achievement and help make schools more accountable for results. Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, says it's important "to make sure high school diplomas are meaningful and represent the skills and knowledge kids need to succeed in college and the workplace. Exit exams are one principal strategy to make that happen."
Opponents argue exit exams lead to higher dropout rates, reduce classroom instruction to test preparation, and are discriminatory because of the disproportionate numbers of minorities and poor students who fail to pass.
"You don't make important decisions about individuals or institutions based on a single test -- even if you take the same test more than once," says Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest.
High-stakes exit exams unfairly put school improvement on the backs of students, Neill charges. "You need to hold schools accountable before you hold students accountable," he says. "You can't expect miracles when students go to underfunded schools with few social supports. That is not the way to improve schools."
C.C. Campbell-Rock, a co-founder of a New Orleans-based organization, Parents for Educational Justice, says exit exams are causing about 2,000 students to leave New Orleans public schools every year -- they either drop out or transfer to private schools.
Her group is preparing to file a federal lawsuit to halt the state's high-stakes testing program, arguing that it violates students' due process rights because school districts can't prove they properly prepare students to pass.
Delay in California
Faced with large numbers of students failing to graduate, the California State Board of Education voted unanimously July 9 to delay the state's exit exam as a requirement for graduation for two years.
Initially, students who graduate in 2004 were required to pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) to receive a diploma. Now that requirement will take effect for the class of 2006.
State board President Reed Hastings says the delay was approved "to give our reforms more time to work for more students before requiring the exit exam as a condition of high school graduation."
A report by the Human Resources Research Organization found that fewer than half of all students in the Class of 2004 have passed both the math and English portions of the test and are on track for graduation. According to the New York Times, 92,000 California students would have been denied a diploma next year if the exit exam was not postponed.
The California School Boards Association testified before the state board in support of postponing the use of the exam as a requirement for a high school diploma. "Many schools haven't aligned the curriculum, and kids haven't had the opportunity to learn the standards," says CSBA Policy Analyst Stephanie Farland.
"CSBA opposes the use of a single paper-and-pencil test to determine whether a student can graduate from high school," Farland says. "It's not a good measure of what a student learned in high school." CSBA prefers the use of multiple measures, such as portfolios, oral exams, grades, and written exams.
Californians for Justice, a group that spearheaded protests against the exit exam, calls the two-year delay "terribly inadequate." A report released in May by the group, First Things First, says schools with large concentrations of disadvantaged students are more likely to have less-qualified teachers, inadequate supplies of textbooks, less access to a rigorous curriculum, and fewer resources -- and these deficits show up in the test scores.
According to that study, 46 percent of students statewide failed the English portion of the CAHSEE in 2002 and 68 percent failed the math portion. But schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students had much higher failure rates. For example, at McClymonds High School in Oakland, 71 percent failed the English exam and 94 percent failed the math exam.
Waivers in Florida
In Florida, where an exit exam went into effect for the class of 2003, the FCAT Protest Coalition is considering a lawsuit and has called for a boycott of Florida industries, including orange juice and theme parks.
About 12,600 seniors failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test this year, although that includes students who did not complete their coursework and would not have graduated anyway.
In response to critics of the exit exam, the state legislature passed a bill in June that allows seniors who failed the FCAT to still get a diploma if they have acceptable scores on the SAT or ACT. The measure is expected to help only about 405 students who have already taken those exams, and the remedy is only in effect for one year.
The bill also provides free remedial help this summer for limited-English-speaking students who completed their senior year and who have been in the country for less than two years. These students can retake the FCAT after the summer immersion program.
The legislature also had passed a bill to allow test-taking accommodations for certain students with disabilities.
Gov. Jeb Bush told the Miami Herald the waiver for students who passed a college entrance exam "creates another option that's a fair one and does not lower standards."
Exit exam opponent State Sen. Fredericka Wilson (D-Miami), who co-sponsored the bill, says the legislation is a step in the right direction but doesn't go far enough.
By denying students a diploma, she says, "we're creating an underclass of people who will never escape poverty."
She notes that allowing the SAT or ACT as an alternative won't help many students who are not college-bound and haven't taken these tests but still need a diploma.
It's unfair to deny a diploma to penalize students who have mastered the skills but can't pass a standardized test, says Ruth Melton, legislative liaison for the Florida School Boards Association. "You can't even get into the military without a standard diploma. Everything from insurance rates to eligibility for a mortgage loan are affected by having a diploma."
"No one is arguing there shouldn't be accountability for students, teachers, and schools," Melton says. "But there needs to be appropriate exceptions. All students should have a viable alternative to demonstrate skills as an alternative to the FCAT."
Wilson, a former Dade County school board member, says seniors shouldn't have to pass an exit exam "until we properly fund schools, provide appropriate training for teachers, have appropriate class sizes, and recognize that poverty does make a difference. You can't serve the pie while you're sill baking the pie."
New York test flawed
In New York, state Education Commissioner Richard Mills announced that the math portion of the state Regents exam students took in June was flawed and agreed to invalidate the scores for graduating seniors.
According to the education department, two-thirds of students who took the test failed -- far more than usual. For example, the 2002 test had a 61 percent passing rate.
The Associated Press reported that about 3,000 graduating seniors who were otherwise in good academic standing failed the test in June.
"The inconsistency indicates there was a problem in the process of creating this exam," Mills says. Finding that problem and fixing it will take time and study." An investigation is under way.
Tim G. Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, says Mills' decision "acknowledges what had become obvious to school districts throughout the state: The exam is not a reasonable gauge of students' ability and knowledge."
Kremer urges the state education department to "do a better job of pre-screening test questions to ensure that they are valid and that the tests are credible."
Among the problems with the exam cited by Bas Braams of New York University: confusing and ambiguous word problems, at least one multiple-choice question with more than one correct answer, too much emphasis on the names of mathematical concepts, and questions that test students' ability to use a calculator rather than understand math concepts.
Lawsuits in Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, where there have been several organized protests against the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), a lawsuit is pending, charging that the state board of education exceeded its authority in creating the high-stakes exam.
The Massachusetts Association of School Committees is considering filing an amicus brief on behalf of the plaintiffs, says Executive Director Glen Koocher. "The high-stakes test needs to be rethought in light of the outcomes for special education, limited English, and vocational/technical education students," he says.
Other lawsuits have been filed by students who charge they weren't taught the material on the MCAS.
According to Koocher, it's "particularly annoying" that Massachusetts is now using the MCAS, which was designed to assess how students are achieving with regard to a particular curriculum, to assess school and district performance as required by the No Child Left Behind Act. Florida school leaders expressed similar concerns about the FCAT.
The Massachusetts education department claims that 92 percent of seniors passed the exit exam.
But Koocher calls that a "deceptive figure," because it only includes students who were still enrolled in school by the time they were seniors. It does not include students who dropped out or were held back before their senior year, he says. Of students who began the ninth grade in 1999, 80 percent graduated in 2003.
A handful of school committees had threatened to defy the state and give diplomas to seniors who failed the MCAS but met all district graduation requirements. Most backed off, however, when threatened with a cutoff of state funding.
One Massachusetts district found a way to give diplomas to seniors who failed the MCAS and still comply with the law.
The Hampshire Regional School Committee gave all seniors who met the district's requirements a diploma -- including three who failed the MCAS -- but does not identify them as "graduates."
"It's a matter of semantics," says Superintendent Bill Erickson. "The law says a student who doesn't pass the MCAS can't graduate but doesn't mention the word 'diploma.'"
He says the state education department conceded that the district is technically correct and won't take action against it.