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We’ll know very soon who among us really cares about the quality of education that our kids are getting – administrators, teachers, students, parents and politicians. Who among those is going to push to have the exam invalidated? A state-sponsored meeting begins today at 10am to suggest alternatives to the high school exit exam. The requirement to take the exam in order to graduate from high school has been in place for 4 years. The purpose of the exam is to make sure that all kids from every part of the state are held to the same standards to graduate. These are not tough standards – 10th grade English and 9th grade math to be a high school graduate.

Do we care what our kids learn or do we only care about what grades they get?

Jerre

Jerre,

Do you know where I can post an article on this meeting?

Tim

Tim:

Did you see the news on literacy today?

Scott

The meeting on Wednesday was in Sacramento. It was called by Garramendi, but he was in SoCal at the time.

The SacBee has an article today about the outcome. Predictably, there were many calling for the cancellation of the exam. Some called for the state to spend a year developing an alternative to the test. Twenty-two percent of this year's seniors have not passed both parts of the exam. One parent was planning on moving her daughter out-of-state for the last semester of high school in order to get a diploma.

Should high school students meet some level of learning to get a diploma?

Jerre

Jerre:

Two things...

1. Does the High School exit exam tie in with state standards?

2. If state officials and parents do not like an exam, then does creating an alternative test make sense?

Scott

This is from CNN...

Question: if 11 million adults are considered not literate, how does that effect their children the school's children...

Education starts at home. Maybe, we should start designing programs that target this problem, instead of focusing on holding only schools accountable for what they receive to work with.

No advances made in adult literacy, study says
1 in 20 U.S. adults not literate in English

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English, meaning 11 million people lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks, a federal study shows.

From 1992 to 2003, adults made no progress in their ability to read sentences and paragraphs or understand other printed material such as bus schedules or prescription labels.

The adult population did make gains in handling tasks that involve math, such as calculating numbers on tax forms or bank statements. But even in that area, the typical adult showed only enough skills to perform simple, daily activities.

Perhaps most sobering was that adult literacy dropped or was flat across every level of education, from people with graduate degrees to those who dropped out of high school.

So even as more people get a formal education, the literacy rate is not rising. Federal officials say this trend is puzzling and worthy of research.

Adults with ability to perform challenging and complex reading tasks made an average yearly salary of $50,700 in 2003. That is $28,000 more than those who lacked basic skills.

The adults deemed illiterate in English include people who may be fluent in Spanish or another language but cannot comprehend English text at its most simple level.

"Eleven million people is an awful large number of folks who are not literate in English, and therefore are prevented access to what America offers," said Russ Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the Education Department.

Some 30 million adults have "below basic" skills in prose. Their ability is so limited that they may not be able to make sense of a simple pamphlet, for example. This total includes 7 million adults considered not to be literate in English but with enough knowledge of the language at least to be tested. The remaining 4 million deemed illiterate did not have enough English skills to be tested.

By comparison, 95 million adults, or 44 percent of the population, have intermediate prose skills, meaning they can do moderately challenging activities. An example would be consulting a reference book to determine which foods contain a certain vitamin.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is considered the best measure of how adults handle everything from completing job applications to computing tips.

Black adults made gains on each type of task tested. White adults made no significant changes except when it came to computing numbers, where they got better.

Hispanics showed sharp declines in their ability to handle prose and documents. The background of U.S. adults has changed since 1992, when the test was last given; fewer people in 2003 had spoken English before they started school.

"We can no longer afford to ignore the unique needs this population has demonstrated for years," said Jose Velazquez, director of the Hispanic Family Learning Institute at the National Center for Family Literacy.

Overall, the study represents a population of 222 million adults. The results are based on a sample of more than 19,000 adults, age 16 or older, living in homes, college housing or prisons.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pledged to coordinate adult education programs across the government. She also promoted the Bush administration's campaign to increase testing and specialized reading help in high school.

"One adult unable to read is one too many in America," Spellings said.

Millions of adults with limited reading skills have enrolled in literacy programs at high schools, libraries, workplaces and community colleges. Advocates of those programs said the new scores prove that a greater investment in adult literacy and research is essential.

"It's really hard to have a well educated and highly intellectual population of children if they go home to parents who do not have adequate reading skills," said Dale Lipschultz, president of the National Coalition for Literacy, a broad range of education groups.

Neither of the articles from the Sacramento Bee mentions whether or not the state exam is aligned to the state standards.

And if, as you say, state officials and parents do not like an exam, it may very well make sense to create an alternative method. Don’t subject the students to any stress in taking an exam. After all, once they get out of high school, they will never have to take an exam again.

And when those same kids want to get their driver’s license, but they don’t want to take the standard driving test, maybe the DMV provide an alternative method to demonstrating their driving skills.

The real question is “do we need a high school exit exam at all?”

Jerre

This is from the Ca Department of Education

Purpose and Content

The primary purpose of the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) is to significantly improve pupil achievement in public high schools and to ensure that pupils who graduate from public high schools can demonstrate grade level competency in reading, writing, and mathematics. The CAHSEE helps identify students who are not developing skills that are essential for life after high school and encourages districts to give these students the attention and resources needed to help them achieve these skills during their high school years. Beginning in the 2005-2006 school year, no student will receive a public high school diploma without having passed the CAHSEE, as well as having met the district's requirements for graduation.

The CAHSEE has two parts: English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics. The ELA part addresses state content standards through grade ten. In reading, this includes vocabulary, decoding, comprehension, and analysis of information and literary texts. In writing, this covers writing strategies, applications, and the conventions of English (e.g. grammar, spelling, and punctuation). The mathematics part of the CAHSEE addresses state standards in grades six and seven and Algebra I. The exam includes statistics, data analysis and probability, number sense, measurement and geometry, mathematical reasoning, and algebra. Students are also asked to demonstrate a strong foundation in computation and arithmetic, including working with decimals, fractions, and percents.

State law requires that the CAHSEE be administered only on the dates designated by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Students must retake the examination until the ELA and mathematics parts are passed; however, students may retake only those parts not previously passed. The first opportunity students have to take the CAHSEE is in the second half of grade 10. Students who do not pass the CAHSEE during this administration have up to five additional opportunities to pass the CAHSEE.

Looks like Arleigh's present has come early. This from the L. A. TImes today:

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education advisor said the administration is prepared to consider raising taxes as part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing California schools.

The statement by California Education Secretary Alan Bersin came in a Dec. 1 speech to the California School Boards Assn. It was posted on the group's website Friday.

His comments mark the first time any top administration official has acknowledged that new taxes could be needed to restore the quality of state services.

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So, who will get hit by the new tax and what will the additional monies raised by the tax fund?

Jerre