Posted on 06/09/2006 6:52:36 AM PDT by SmithL
RICHMOND - During the bittersweet farewell to high school Thursday night, seniors Andrea Mallory and Liliana Valenzuela donned their red caps and gowns, ascended the steps of the Richmond Convention Center stage and grasped the hand of their principal.
After four years at Richmond High, both girls captured a spot on the honor roll. Both plan to attend college. Both dream of entering medicine; Mallory for physical therapy, Valenzuela for nursing.
When Mallory descended the wooden steps, she left proudly clutching a facsimile of the diploma she will pick up next week.
Valenzuela held her own certificate. But in a way, she left empty-handed. She does not qualify for a diploma after failing the English part of the high school exit exam -- a denial she keenly felt during the ceremony.
"I am not OK with that," Valenzuela said.
In what marks a historic moment in California education, nearly 42,000 seniors will not be eligible for a diploma this spring after failing the California High School Exit Exam, a rule that was enforced for the first time this year.
Some of those students lack enough credits for a diploma. However, from 9,000 to 22,000 students will not graduate with their class solely because of the test, according to a state Department of Education estimate.
At Richmond High, a brick compound in the heart of what is known as the state's most dangerous city, nearly a third of the 346 students in the class of 2006 stumbled over the test, having to take it more than once. Paul Ehara, West Contra Costa school district spokesman, said 66 of them will not receive diplomas because of the exam.
"It is a very different graduation," said counselor Carlos Taboada.
As tensions rose throughout the year, the campus morphed into the epicenter of the ongoing fight over the exit exam. Five Richmond seniors formed a core group of plaintiffs who sued the state and California Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell over the test in February.
Three named in the complaint -- Valenzuela, Mayela Barragan and honor student Laura Echavarria -- fell short on the exam. Plaintiffs Mayra Ibanez and honor student Noemi Cervantes have since passed it and dropped out of the suit, said Jessica Miller, spokeswoman for law firm Morrison & Foerster, which filed the complaint.
On Thursday, Cervantes waited to take her seat in the auditorium, alternately smiling and nervously teetering on her rhinestone heels. She is headed off to college in Tulsa, Okla., but she seemed painfully aware that her friends will leave only with a worthless sheet of paper.
"I'm happy," Cervantes said, "but at the same time, I'm sad because my friends didn't pass."
Throughout the ceremony, speakers touched on the controversy. Student Patricia Corvera, nearly censored for her speech, decried the test and said all students deserved their diplomas.
School board member Dave Brown tipped his hat to the seniors who sued.
"To the five women ... that have so much courage, I pay tribute to you. The history books will prove you were right," said Brown, who in April proposed that the school board allow the students to graduate regardless of the test.
"Please do not listen to those who say it's impossible," Brown said. "Si se puede, si se puede."
Valenzuela clapped. Echavarria thrust her arms in the air, loosening the white band tied to her wrist in protest of the test.
Though the specter of the controversial test hung in the air, some happy Richmond High graduation traditions brought jubilation.
The band pounded out Santana before segueing into "Pomp and Circumstance." Before the celebratory tossing of the caps, students shifted their tassels from left to right, just on cue.
Afterward, the students sauntered out of the auditorium to the rhythms of "Black Magic Woman."
Mallory celebrated in a blue and green frock from Nicole's in Marin, the hard-won result of money saved from slinging fries at McDonald's in El Cerrito.
The 17-year-old leaves for Knoxville College in Tennessee at the end of summer.
What she will miss about being home in Richmond: singing "I will Bless the Lord" with her mom, Carole Ford, at the Bethel Temple, their Pentecostal church. Strumming India.Arie songs on an acoustic guitar in her room.
The best memories she will carry away from high school: jumping into Beaver Creek fully clothed with friends on a school trip to Lake County. Stealing her first kiss. Plucking out her first gray hair, which she attributed to Advanced Placement calculus. ("It was right here," she says, pointing to a patch of bangs.)
But the most unforgettable aspect of her senior year, she said, was the battle over a test that kept 66 of her classmates from graduating this year.
"I think the biggest thing I'll remember is the exit exam," Mallory said. "I have friends who still haven't passed it, and they're just as smart."
During the ceremony, Valenzuela sat in the back with Cervantes, Echavarria and the honors students who traditionally pick up their diplomas after everyone else. In the audience sat Valenzuela's 3-year-old daughter, Aileen, and mother Adelma Ojeda.
Finally, her name boomed from the speakers.
She stepped to the podium under the bright lights, the last to walk the stage.
A High School Diploma is supposed to mean something.
I heard somewhere that the high school exit exam actually tests 8th grade proficiency in these subjects.
Even if that is not true I have no sympathy for these students. You should know this stuff to graduate.......period.
...snip...
She does not qualify for a diploma after failing the English part of the high school exit exam
Obviously, the honor roll at Richmond High doesn't mean much.
Valenzuela wants to be a nurse. I want my nurses to speak, understand and use the English language proficiently.
How can you be on the honor roll after failing your exams?
Valenzuela held her own certificate. But in a way, she left empty-handed. She does not qualify for a diploma after failing the English part of the high school exit exam -- a denial she keenly felt during the ceremony.
If she wants to go into nursing she absolutely needs to be fluent in English. Jumping into college immediately would be a mistake, she ought to take English classes now and then go to college.
A lot of people are going to college unprepared, having to take remedial courses to get caught up, and then still dropping out.
Perhaps if she had spent more time studying and less time becoming impregnated, she would have PASSED THE EXAM?
Boo-freaking-hoo... Whiners all!
No sympathy. Tired of graduating idiots with high self esteem.
Don't want to learn to speak english? GO BACK TO MEXICO!
Wow...who would have thought the purpose of school was to learn silly things like English...
Well if I remember correctly, from the original article about this, she is an illegal. Therefore, she would need an anchor baby, even if she was 13-14 (maybe 15) at the time of her pregnancy.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Is this an article or an editorial? It's thick with touchy feely crap! The kids FAILED! No diploma, no celebration.
If this really is testing 8th grade proficiency, those kids should be denied a diploma and be required to take the necessary classes to get up to speed. I wonder f lack of English fluency is part of the problem. The names were all hispanic. If they can't bother to learn English properly, then it is their own faults, not the test's.
A school board member who thinks speaking spanish in this country is a good thing. He sets a good example - NOT.
Don't worry about those silly tests to be a teacher, nurse, etc. They'll SUE!! It's the American way! Si?
When our new principal came in, he established a similar program, albeit more severe. If you don't pass all sections of the test, you don't participate in graduation, period.
When it first happened, parents went bonkers, complaining that it was unfair and the kids had worked so hard and blah blah.
What they failed to mention is: 1.) the students were warned well in advance, around a year; 2.) tutoring for each test was provided free to any student; 3.) some students were pulled out of classes to attend other classes reviewing the same information on the tests; 4.) the local media, press and letters were sent to parents in English and Spanish, informing them of what was going to happen.
I am hard pressed to believe this article completely. I refuse to believe that the teachers and adminstration would leave these kids hanging without some auxiliary assistance. Leave it to the MSM to not cover the entire story.
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