CA: State accused of inflating exit exam data

LA Times ^ | 5/8/07 | Joel Rubin, Times Staff Writer

[BurbankKarl]

California education officials put forth artificially positive results on the number of students who passed the state's controversial high school exit exam last year, according to a recent UCLA study.

The analysis also concluded that about 50,000 fewer students statewide earned diplomas last year compared to previous years, raising the prospect that the exit exam requirement is pressuring students to drop out. The decline in graduation rates was most pronounced in poor, heavily minority areas, the study found.

"We've constructed a system that sets in place incentives for disinformation," said John Rogers, the study's author and co-director of UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access. "People who are making education decisions in this state need to think about how this policy is really playing out."

***

The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, enrolled more than 50,000 students as sophomores, but counted fewer than 30,000 seniors when it calculated the pass rate for the exit exam last year, according to the study.

Rogers further indicated a link between the exit exam and what he says was a precipitous drop in the number of students who earned a diploma last year. In L.A. Unified, for example, he concluded that only about 49% of the students who were enrolled as sophomores went on to graduate on time last year, while the rate was closer to 60% in previous years.

[DumpsterDiver]

In L.A. Unified, for example, he concluded that only about 49% of the students who were enrolled as sophomores went on to graduate on time last year

Business as usual.

[Red in Blue PA]

"We've constructed a system that sets in place incentives for disinformation," Is the LA Times referring to themselves?

[ColdWater]

“In L.A. Unified, for example, he concluded that only about 49% of the students who were enrolled as sophomores went on to graduate on time last year, while the rate was closer to 60% in previous years.”

My wife’s niece graduated just before these requirements. No way she would have ever passed one of these exams.

[Walkingfeather]

Well when you place a bench mark next to the reproduction it is not the bench mark that is wrong....

[chaos_5]

It you look at the SAT data for the various areas in CA, and overlay the scores with the census data, you will notice a remarkable correlation between the “Hispanic” population densities and the lower scores.

Sure correlation does not prove causation, but its sure is interesting.

[Thombo2]

“The failure rate on the exam in these schools was sigificantly higher than at predominately white,affluent schools.These inequities have not been adequately addressed...”Translation:Mo money!

[jonascord]

Is LA Unified trying to prove that the exit exam is beyond the abilities of a student, or just that they need massively more money to teach everything a student needs to pass?

[Carry_Okie]

It took a UCLA study to find this?

Memo to the LAT: A decent newspaper should have questioned the reported improvement the day it was announced instead of sitting on its tush blaring that "spending more money works."