Calif. exit exam abolished, diplomas to be awarded

Preparing students to take phony exit "exams" is a
monster multi-billion dollar industry.

Phony "Exit" Exams Attacked

• From 1850 on somehow California students managed to graduate high school without Big Brother "exit" exams and went on to live normal lives. 
• Democrats do Something Right  -  Giving diplomas to those unfairly fucked over the this corrupt Big Government system is a start. But all exit exams should be abolished.
• GOP is fucked up as usual  -  It is interesting that the so-called "small government" GOP naturally opposes any cracks in this increasingly federalized education system.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  Upending a hallmark of California school reform, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a bill that will award diplomas to thousands of young people who failed the California High School Exit Exam in the past decade.

The new law, which takes effect in January, will allow former high school students who failed the test as far back as 2004 to now graduate, as long as they passed all of their required high school classes. The new law effectively undoes the decade-old requirement, imposed after a hard and bitter fight, that students pass a standardized exam in order to earn a high school diploma in California.

SB 172 by Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, also suspends the exam as a graduation requirement for current freshmen, sophomores and juniors. It passed the Legislature on a partisan vote, with Republicans objecting.

Follow the Money
Test taking is all about getting more government tax dollars, not education.
A school district can scream "our scores are 3.6% below the average,
We need more cash."
But it is a phony bullshit system. By the very nature of statistics 49% of
those taking any test will always fall below the "average".

The exam "never had the coherence we need in a state accountability system," said Chris Funk, superintendent of the East Side Union High School District in San Jose. "I'm happy that it was dropped."

But the bill was divisive.

"I'm very sorry and disappointed to hear the governor signed it," said Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon. "Removing the exit exam not only impairs our ability to ensure we have taught our kids, but impairs our ability to hold our education system accountable for that responsibility."

But some of those who pushed hard for establishing a statewide exit exam weren't sorry to see it go. "It may make sense," said Ryan Smith, executive of the Oakland-based Education Trust-West, which backed the legislation embedding the exit exam as a graduation requirement. He noted that students who've failed the exam can't retake it now, because it doesn't exist. The state Department of Education ceased offering the exit exam last spring.

It is uncertain exactly how many young people the bill will make eligible for a high school diploma. The California Department of Education does not keep records of those passing the exit exam after they finish high school -- students may keep trying to pass while in community college or adult school. But from the Class of 2006 through the Class of 2014, the CDE records show, 32,000 failed to pass the exam while in high school. Some of those passed later.

For the rest, school districts now will be required to award a diploma to those who completed 12th grade in 2004 or later, and who met all other graduation requirements.

Even years after leaving high school, a diploma matters. It's required to attend four-year universities, receive financial aid, enlist in the military or join apprenticeship programs.

Read More . . . .

GOP Big Government Socialism
The so-called "Conservative" George Bush Administration, backed by a "Conservative" GOP Congress, worked to unconstitutionally Federalize local education and violate the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
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Since taking control of Congress in 1995 the GOP controlled Congress has consistently voted to grow the size and scope of the Federal government with no thought at all about the Constitution.