Another case of "What the..."

The California Appeals Court is going to hear arguments considering the "fairness" of the State's high school exit exam. Lawyers for students who failed the exam claim it penalizes students who don't have access to a quality education. They want these students to retroactively receive their diplomas.

Is it just me or is that plain stupid? Let me get this straight... your kid can't pass the high school exit exam so you would like me to go ahead and give him a diploma anyway? On what basis... his attendance? The exam is unfair to those who don't have access to a quality education... hmm... so we make the test easier? To the students who worked hard, diligently studied and passed the exam -- job well done... but it wasn't really necessary. That diploma you got... we're just gonna print a bunch more and give them to anyone who attended school at all.

What kind of sophomoric intelligence is this? Dammit, if the kid fails the exam sit his butt down in a chair and teach him what he needs to know so he CAN pass it. The whole reason behind the exam was to help ensure we weren't letting kids slip thru the system without an education, and the first year the test becomes a requirement, those that fail bitch and moan. I am sorry. I know I wasn't the best student in high school (my apologies to my parents and teachers whose efforts were in vain), but if I had flunked out of school it would have been MY fault. I didn't make the cut, so I would've had to go to summer school, re-take my senior year over again, or pass the GED exam. And by the way the exam, which tests students in English and math, can be taken six times beginning in the sophomore year. It only requires students to demonstrate a 10th grade aptitude in English and an 8th grade aptitude in mathematics. In other words, for students who fail the exam, there had to have been plenty of opportunity to realize areas of concern and work to overcome them over THREE YEARS of school!

If on the off chance a ruling comes down in favor of these students, how comfortable would you feel employing this person? Maybe his reading comprehension is substandard, but he has a diploma, so it becomes automatically assumed his scholastic aptitude is at a certain level (without anyone knowing otherwise). If he misreads a vital set of instructions on the job which places the lives of others in jeopardy, can we hold him accountable? Can we blame the hiring manager? He did his job by ensuring this person was "qualified" for the job. After all, the guy graduated with a diploma!

Over the past couple of years tire companies have been employing ad campaigns spouting "who is riding on your tires" -- using kids and family members as guilt fodder to get people to buy their product. We can use that same kind of philosophy with "Who is maintaining our roads?" "Who is building our homes?" and even "Who is wiring the electricity in your house?" If the high school diploma is devalued to accommodate those who didn't make the grade, the only responsible decision our employers would have would be tougher hiring policies to ensure they are hiring qualified personnel. This would mean -- guess what -- APTITUDE tests!

Taking this to the next step, if these kids manage to get their diplomas without having to pass the exit exam, how can we justify NOT giving degrees to students who don't meet their college major requirements? Is it really any different? Yeah, now THERE'S a doctor I want to trust with the life my child.

The bottom line here is what value to we wish to place on a High School Diploma. It is that simple. The exit exam has a 90% pass rate. Let's not discredit the efforts of that ninety percent to appease the other ten. And one more thing: Personally, I think the exit exam standards are too low. Seriously -- 10th grade English and 8th grade Math? California is 46th in the nation in Education. Can't we do a helluva' lot better than that?