Mastery of twelfth grade work entails the following:
Three years of History, four years of English including composition, rhetoric, and literature, a foreign language, science through physics and (therefore) math through trigonometry and (certainly) statistics.
What kind of "exit exam" would test "basic reading, writing, and arithmetic"? The third grade exam?
Um -- I am not talking Prep School here. This is a basic test, just simply to get people out of high school. In inner city Los Angeles. They have to have the basics to get through life; I doubt seriously that all students have that, are being challenged to know even that.
It is not what I demanded of my homeschooled son, either. But this kid I am tutoring, foster kid, remedial reader, will have a tough time with the statistics part of it. And, frankly, why should he have to know that? That's what is screwy, to me. The schools have had him for 12 years. Granted his life has been totally chaotic. I think he could do the basics on this test, but to ask him to understand statistics, when he will most likely not use them, doesn't make sense to me. And -- he will be an adult soon, and working. Without a high school diploma, WE will be paying for him.
Statistics -- it is a terribly-written test, imho.
Probably depends. What is your definition of 'basic' and what is mine?