I graduated high school in New York State, long before the days of exit exams. In New York, there were two types of diplomas you could receive upon graduation, the standard diploma or the Regents diploma. My school required that all graduates must pass the Regents exams and receive a Regents diploma, and so every member of my class did just that. My parents knew the requirements going in, and I and my classmates knew those requirements, and so we followed the rules and successfully graduated.
In Gilroy, as well as every other place in California, there is no Regents diploma. The only current requirement is one imposed by the state which parents and students have known about since this year’s senior class were freshman; passage of the CAHSEE. Passing the CAHSEE grants you the standard diploma. The test is not difficult, any student who enters Gilroy High who has tested proficient or above at middle school will pass the CAHSEE on their first attempt.
Less than half of Gilroy students enter Gilroy High proficient in English or Math. The majority of Gilroy students have four years of high school to learn the basic skills which they need to know to fulfill the requirement for graduation. Everyone is clear on this in their freshman year.
The recent injunction to suspend the requirements for the class of 2006 is a cruel joke being played upon the senior class. It is also a cruel joke to the future employers of these students. This ruling blames the teachers and school districts, but that blame is misplaced. Who is to blame when students go through years of school and still don’t become fluent in English? The blame falls squarely on the non-English speaking parents of these students. Instead of hauling a child and an interpreter into court, perhaps these parents should be learning to speak English so they can assist their child in learning.
How convenient it is to use the excuse of “economic disadvantage” for not passing a basic skills test. Where is the research showing that poor students are less capable than middle class students? In GUSD, disadvantaged students are provided with a free education, free lunch, waivers of fees for testing, and access to summer school and tutoring at no cost. Middle class folks like me support these measures to level the playing field. The excuse that being poor makes you unable to pass a basic skills test is a slap in the face to the thousands of disadvantaged students who worked hard to pass the CAHSEE and earn a trip across the stage to get their diploma.
What is needed in the face of this recent ruling is defiance, not compliance. GUSD should take a stand and refuse to award diplomas to students who have not earned them. While they are at it, they should check to see how students can pass the coursework and not pass the CAHSEE.
Something I would like us to institute is the GUESEE (Gilroy Unified Elementary School Exit Exam). Maybe we wouldn’t have the math debacles we currently are wringing are hands over if every elementary school student was on track by the time they entered middle school. I am not taking about MAP testing either. Every fifth grader should be given a basic arithmetic test before being promoted to sixth grade. When my kids were in third grade, they were required to pass 100 addition problems in five minutes or less before going on to subtraction. After completing subtraction, they went onto multiplication. After mastering that, they went on to division. I am not suggesting that we require this by third grade (although I strongly recommend it) but certainly kids need to have this down by the end of fifth grade. They should also have a basic understanding of time, money, fractions and percentages. We can’t hope to start teaching algebra in middle school when kids do not know how to divide by the time they are in seventh grade.
California schools didn’t get in the shape they are in overnight. It took years of diligent work by a bunch of “school is where you get to feel good about yourself” types to do the damage. We can only untie that knot by holding all of our students to higher academic standards upon which what you look like and how much money your parents make is irrelevant. The change required can only come if our district office, our school administration, our teachers, our parents and our students decide that standards and requirements are necessary and worthwhile instead of grounds for a lawsuit.
