This thing is too crazy for words.
The study also found that the exam does not motivate low-achieving minority students and girls--those who scored in the bottom 25 percent on state standards tests given in the ninth and 10th grades--to work harder and study more in order to earn a diploma.
The researchers found that minority students--blacks, Hispanics and Asians--received lower scores on the exit exam than white students who had the same level of prior and current academic achievement. They also found that girls received lower scores on the math section of the exit exam than boys who had the same level of prior and current academic achievement.
Ok, this one is right out of Monty Python...
The researchers ruled out differences in school quality, as well as racial and gender bias in the test, as explanations for the large racial and gender differences found in the study.
There is more believe it or not.
While white students and boys may experience stress from fear of failing the test, minority students and girls taking the test "experience stress from two sources: fear of failing the test and concern about proving a negative stereotype," the study said.
Yea, we can’t be doing anything that would prove actual facts and reality!
So, what is the bright idea now? Get this...
"If exit exam policies like California's are to be retained it is imperative that they be accompanied by serious efforts to ameliorate their negative effects on minority students and girls," the researchers wrote.
In other words they must find a way to neuter the white males.
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I work at an overwhelmingly Hispanic high school in California. Students arrive in 9th grade and still do not put periods at the end of their sentences. For many, the most basic punctuation and spelling is beyond them. Teachers have “simplified” their curriculum to accommodate huge numbers of failing students. Now teachers have begun teaching the exit exam rather than their subject, since there is so much pressure on them to have their kids pass- and so much federal money involved. Our school dedicated three weeks to simply testing this semester.
I suggested to a couple of students that they had a final that afternoon and they might want to study through lunch to prepare for it. They looked at me like I was crazy. I explained that students at other schools often study through lunch and they couldn’t believe it. They’ve never seen it.
Many of our students don’t even show up for the two days of semester finals. It’s half day and their parents let them stay home. Teachers have started giving finals a week early to ensure the students will be there to take them.
Most of the families do not provide pressure at home to do well in school AND follow through with applying the pressure. Many of our students did not pass the exit exam, but we gave them a nice “certificate” and allowed them to walk in the graduation ceremony in a nice cap and gown. Their families were very happy with that. Exams don’t motivate students; parents do.
Those of you in other states do not understand what the California educational system is dealing with: a tsunami of illiterate, unmotivated students. They don’t know what a seal is; they don’t know how many times 2 goes into 6; they don’t put a capital at the beginning of a sentence; they’ve never been to a zoo, a beach, or a public library; they can’t spell; they all reinforce the poor grammar spoken all around them; they don’t even bring a pencil to school half the time; they rarely take books home; and there is no stability or routine at home. This is our typical high school student- and there about 30 of them in each and every class.
What would you do? This is high school. We are reduced to drilling them on their multiplication tables! These are our future Americans. They were born here, but they have not adopted the American work ethic or standards of personal excellence. At 14, they are truly ignorant of literature, science, math and history.