Exit exam in the balance

The state-required high school exit exam is facing a possible suspension after legislators proposed cutting the exam as part a budget proposal that has yet to be passed.

Students take the California High School State Exit Examination, known as the CAHSEE, in the 10th grade to test their basic knowledge in reading, writing and math and must pass both sections to receive their diploma. Students can retake the test until they pass the exam and are given multiple opportunities to pass as well as assistance in the subject they need help in.

The possible suspension of the exit exam is part of the current legislation, but whether the proposed suspension will come to fruition won’t be known until the budget passes, Pam Slater, state information officer, said.

“It’s part of the overall big budget plan, but the governor said he will veto the plan,” Slater said.

With the budget still up in the air and the governor’s disapproval of the idea, Carol Osbrink, Huntington Beach Union High School District assistant superintendent of educational services, said the school will continue preparing for the CAHSEE until the state decides.

“We have learned to continue with business as usual,” Osbrink said. “We are going to continue to do what we need to do according to the law and the [educational] code, because we don’t want to hurt kids.”

The exam gives the state the tools to set standards for education and makes them accountable for those principles and allows students to know exactly what knowledge and skills they must have to earn their diploma, Osbrink said.

Recent Huntington Beach High School graduate Ashley Alewine, who passed the exam after two tries in the 10th grade, said the suspension wouldn’t be fair to students who already passed the exam.

“I feel that they should need to know the information on there to get their diploma,” Alewine said.

If the legislators do temporarily suspend the test, the curriculum and standards of the district won’t change,, but it would be a waste of the time and money the state spent refining the exit exam, Osbrink said.

“I think it would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” she said.

The exam will still be given to all sophomore students once as a tool to measure growth, but won’t be used for graduation requirements, if the budget prevails, Slater said.

The exam is given to students until they pass, according to Osbrink. Students like Alewine have four opportunities a year to pass the section they are having trouble with. On Alewine’s first attempt, she said she wasn’t at the appropriate level of math yet and failed, but on her second attempt, she succeeded in passing.

Students who don’t pass both sections but complete all other requirements are allowed to walk at graduation and are enrolled in a summer adult class for CAHSEE prep where they are given another chance to pass and earn their diploma, Osbrink said.

The district doesn’t give out certificates of completion for students who don’t pass the exam.