Editorial Editorial (May 21, 2004)

Raising the bar for Class of 2004

With final exams starting shortly and graduation just three weeks away, high school seniors can soon pack their calculators away and put down their pencils for a couple of months of respite before heading off to college. This year's class, the Class of 2004, may be among the most tested ever. Besides the finals, midterms and classroom quizzes, they have taken a battery of Pleasanton and state-mandated tests aimed at assessing their skills in almost every subject. Cengiz Gulek, the school district's Director of Assessment and Evaluation, is shipping out this week 400 boxes of state-ordered assessment tests to outside services approved to grade and evaluate them. While fellow educators are taking their summer breaks, Gulek will be at his desk evaluating the results of some of the more than 10,000 tests given this year to determine, by school, class and even specific individuals, what changes should be made in the 2004-05 school year to boost test scores and academic achievement. In Pleasanton, assessment tests are given starting in kindergarten. Each student undergoes five to six hours of these tests annually, plus many more hours preparing for them in their classrooms. While parents used to think of the SATs as the most important college prep exam their child would take, and it still is, many more are given throughout the years to keep pace with ever-tougher academic programs. Even in the lower grades, gone are the days of simplified report cards showing As, Bs, Cs or worse. Today, these reports to parents assess the student's performance against multiple standards that are set both by the local district and increasingly by state educators. They are determined to keep the pressure on every student for the entire 13 years as they progress toward high school graduation.

This year, a new requirement orders that only students who have taken and passed Algebra I can receive a high school diploma. Seeing the importance of this basic math program, Pleasanton educators two years ago moved the course out of high schools and to the middle schools. Most eighth-graders now move on to their freshman year already prepared to handle geometry, trigonometry and higher math courses that California colleges are increasingly requiring. As a result, this year, with the Algebra I mandate in effect, only 14 out of a graduating class of 1,020 won't meet the requirement, mostly special ed and recent transfer students. Some are taking the course now in hopes of receiving a passing grade before the school year ends.

Unfortunately, that's not the case elsewhere in the state, even in surrounding districts. Two hundred school districts have petitioned the state Board of Educaiton for waivers for more than 14,000 students who did not take or did not pass Algebra I. They've had four years since State Sen. Charles Poochigian (R., Fresno) sponsored SB 1354, the Algebra I mandate that the Legislature approved in 2000. The state board has indicated that it will grant the waivers, including those to Pleasanton students who can't meet the requirement, so that all graduates will receive a high school diploma this year. But the educators warned that this will be the only year waivers will be granted.

Earlier, the state also backed off its mandate that the Class of 2004 pass the California High School Exit Exam. Pleasanton, whose students have been taking the test on a preparatory basis along with the district's own similar proficiency exams for several years, had already qualified almost every graduating senior. But other districts, mainly in Southern California, screamed to their Legislators that their students weren't prepared. Alarmed that as many as a third of California seniors might be denied a diploma, the state board moved the mandate forward two years, with the Class of 2006 to be the first to face the requirement. These state mandates, carefully drafted by a state education commission of academic leaders, including some from Pleasanton, raise the bar for all California graduates. That's good. And they should be enforced as scheduled with notice to every school district that it must prepare its graduates to meet the mandates so that every graduate is adequately schooled for college or career, which will benefit us all.

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