It's an ominous sounding-date: Friday, Jan. 13. That's the day high school students will learn the results of the latest round of California High School Exit Exam testing.
CAHSEE inspires lots of debate. Given that, at best, it tests tenth-grade level material, questions about its value are understandable. It's difficult to understand how students who have accumulated enough credits to graduate can fail this exam.
After all, credits are earned for passing grades, and grades are supposed to measure comprehension and performance, not desk time.
According to the most recent statistics from the California Department of Education, more than 200 students in San Benito County and 100,000 across the state still need to pass the math and English portions of the exit exam to graduate.
But, as the number of students struggling to pass the exam demonstrates, California schools are willing to give passing grades to students who have not mastered the material presented to them.
That cheapens the the diplomas distributed on graduation day. Requiring passage of the CAHSEE doesn't completely fix that problem, but it's a step in the right direction.
At least, with the requirement that students pass the CAHSEE before they can graduate, potential employers can be certain California public high school graduates have at least an eighth-grade education.
That statement is a sad reflection on the state of public education in California.
And it's a prime example of why it's so important that our community redouble its efforts to improve the academic performance of our public high school students.
Those students who receive bad news on Friday the 13th will have one more chance - in February - to pass the test before commencement ceremonies in June.
We applaud efforts to help these students - the first class required to pass CAHSEE in order to graduate - pass this important exam. However, we urge bigger-picture focus, at the same time, on how it is that students can earn credits without first demonstrating competence.
Whether students who fail the CAHSEE graduate or not or participate in commencement ceremonies or not are diverting debates, but let's not be so distracted by them that we forget to fix the real problem that CAHSEE spotlights: awarding passing grades to students who have not earned them.
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