GILROY
– Despite the state’s move to cancel administration of the high
school exit exam this summer, demand for remedial classes at Gilroy
High School remains high.
As summer school started today, nearly all of the 150 students
enrolled in remedial classes have opted to remain in them, the high
school said.
GILROY – Despite the state’s move to cancel administration of the high school exit exam this summer, demand for remedial classes at Gilroy High School remains high.
As summer school started today, nearly all of the 150 students enrolled in remedial classes have opted to remain in them, the high school said. It is one of other signs that Gilroy Unified School District has successfully created a culture of educational reform independent of the state, some district officials say.
“A couple of districts actually ended up canceling (certain remedial) summer courses,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz told school board trustees last week. “Those kids were recommended for those courses because they had deficiencies in their skills. We’ve really taken a position in this district that we’re targeting instruction based on student needs. So our position is independent of what the state does.”
GHS officials spent last week personally contacting remedial students and their families to offset what administrators thought may be a large drop-off of students willing to take classes specifically designed for passing California’s high school exit exam.
Diaz said the state continues to fund intervention programs even though its plan for withholding diplomas from seniors who do not pass the exam remains up in the air. The extra money helps make GUSD’s remedial program significantly more doable in these tight budget times.
“The funding for intervention did not go away, so we will get reimbursed from the state,” Diaz said.
Last week, state Superintendent of Schools Jack O’Connell canceled the July administration of the controversial exam. And next month, the state Board of Education is expected to delay the practice of withholding diplomas from the Class of 2004.
The original plan to give diplomas only to those students who pass both the math and English section of the exam could restart in 2006, state education officials have stated publicly.
At a Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group meeting last week, O’Connell announced plans to make a notation on Class of 2004 diplomas indicating whether a student passed the exit exam, according to Gilroy Trustee Bob Kraemer. Kraemer is critical of the state’s move away from its original diploma plan.
“We’re leaning forward in a race that’s about to begin and the gun doesn’t go off,” Kraemer said. “All that anticipation and all that work by students and teachers and administrators – to me that doesn’t help the reform we’re doing and what the state needs to do.”
Opponents of the high school exit exam have cited a recent study that claimed students have not been adequately prepared to pass the exam.
The exam, which tests students in math and English, covers material up to the 10th-grade level. It has been described by GHS Principal Bob Bravo as “not representative of what we aspire to,” but rather a bare minimum of what students should know.
On tests taken this spring, 43 percent of GHS 10th-graders passed both sections of the exam. Under existing state guidelines, these students would have seven more chances through the summer after their senior year to pass the exam.
For 11th-graders, 84 percent have passed the English section and 73 percent have passed the math portion. Passing rates vary between the two grades because the Class of 2004 (the 11th-graders) has been taking the exit exam since their freshman year.
GHS Associate Principal Karen Spaulding said this year’s 10th-graders, who took the exam for the first time this spring, had a higher passing rate on their maiden test than their 11th-grade counterparts. Spaulding did not have details on such a comparison readily available.
Assuming all classes are generally equal in ability, the increase in passed tests indicates that remedial courses are working, Spaulding said.
“We’re seeing improvement. It’s not as great as we’d like it but there is some,” Spaulding said.
