High School Exit Exam for State Hits Roadblock

California’s plans for a high school exit exam, intended to be the centerpiece of Gov. Gray Davis’ ambitious education reform efforts, have been thrown into turmoil because of the state’s muddle over what should be tested and the resulting unwillingness of commercial companies to develop the exam in time for field-testing next spring.

Particularly at issue, state officials say, is algebra. Davis has insisted that students be tested on their knowledge of that subject, yet state law does not make algebra a condition of high school graduation.

Half a dozen commercial testing companies notified the state this week that they would not tackle the exam. Firms said the short time frame made it impossible to formulate the more than 9,000 test items demanded by the state, especially given the small amount of money, $1.8 million, offered for the job.

“We viewed it by and large as an impossible task,” said Michael Kean, a lobbyist for CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of the nation’s largest test publishers. “We will not endeavor to take on work that we do not feel we could do properly.”

State officials speculated that one reason test publishers did not bid on the test contract is that the uncertainty left them vulnerable to lawsuits.

“We will need to be very careful and thoughtful about all these implementation issues,” said Scott Hill, the state’s chief deputy superintendent for accountability, “because we will be asked to defend what the system has done to provide every student an opportunity to pass the test.”

The fear of lawsuits, he added, “would make any publisher consider very carefully jumping into the game.”

The State Board of Education, meeting Thursday in Sacramento, failed to reach a consensus on how to proceed. That raised questions about the California Department of Education’s ability to hew to the schedule required by a law passed with great fanfare just last March.

Under that law, part of Davis’ multi-pronged effort to boost the level of public school education in California, the exit exam is to be given starting next fall to the Class of 2004. If students fail in their freshman year, they will have multiple opportunities in future years to pass the test to get a diploma.

State Education Secretary Gary K. Hart said he was surprised by the test publishers’ response but remained optimistic that the state could meet the schedule.

“We think something can be put together that will be valid and reliable,” he said. “It is not our intention to give serious consideration to delaying the exam by a year.”

One option, state officials said, would be for the state to select a test publisher to develop quickly a short-term solution so that field testing could begin on schedule in the spring.

Separately, Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, has suggested that the state Department of Education patch together items from existing tests, such as the Golden State Exams and the augmented portions of the Stanford 9 that are designed to test students on state standards.

That idea, however, makes testing experts nervous.

The high-stakes nature of such an exam “adds a requirement that [officials] be especially vigilant,” said Eva Baker, co-director of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA.

Opponents of high-stakes testing said this marks another example of politicians rushing in without thinking through how to develop such tests or the consequences for those who take them.

“It shows that politicians have gone so overboard in their testing craziness that even the test manufacturers can’t keep up with them,” said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest, a testing watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass.

Legal, Emotional Fallout

Many other states have had to cope with the legal and emotional fallout from high school graduation exams. Hawaii recently abolished its requirement that high school seniors pass a competency test to get their diplomas. Massachusetts last month set a low passing mark for its new exit exam for fear that too many students would otherwise fail.

In Texas, state officials have been sued over the high school graduation test by opponents who say minority students are failing in disproportionate numbers. Fear of such lawsuits last year prompted Arizona to delay its graduation test; this year the state’s students turned in a disastrous performance on the exam.

Nevada and Arkansas have each canceled exams that proved too difficult. Florida was sued by parents at schools where as many as three-quarters of the students had failed a standardized exam, saying they had been shortchanged educationally.

Davis has forcefully declared that he wants California’s exit exam to be the toughest in the nation. In remarks to the State Board of Education last month, he said the exam should test for proficiency in algebra.

He noted that between 25% and 40% of the state’s high school students do not take elementary algebra, a decision that automatically precludes them from going to University of California campuses and some other elite academic institutions.

The proceedings of the 36-member panel charged with overseeing the exit exam have been dominated by the algebra question. The committee included a number of members, appointed by Eastin, who are prominent opponents of the state’s math standards.

At issue was whether the exam would cover the standards for eighth-graders, which include a comprehensive treatment of algebra, or whether they would mainly include seventh-grade math, with a sampling of algebra, geometry and statistics and probability.

James R. Brown, the superintendent of schools in Glendale and co-chairman of the exit exam committee, said the panel decided last month to recommend that the focus be on the seventh-grade curriculum and most of eighth-grade algebra. “The governor said he wanted a challenging test, and we think we gave him that,” Brown said.

Brown said geometry and probability and statistics could be added in later years.

“Districts are going to need some time to ratchet up to this,” Brown said. “Many districts don’t have algebra as a requirement, the state doesn’t require algebra, and there are opportunity-to-learn issues here.

“That will be a huge problem and subject to all sorts of litigation, so we think we’ve made enough of a leap for the first time around,” he said.

Hill acknowledged that the department’s nebulous specifications for the test left many questions unanswered--including what would have to be covered on the test.

Such uncertainty, he said, made it difficult for companies to submit bids. “It’s . . . a moving target,” he said.