The dems are making excuses for the lack of progress in the education arena. In the state of Calif., spending on education is among the highest in the USA and the CTA(Calif Teachers Assoc is among the most powerful politically), yet we are getting pretty a low ROI on the amount spent. This has been going on for years. And now the dems want more time how much time are they going to get?
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[url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/05/02/high.school.exam.ap/index.html]Many California seniors will fail exit exam[/url]

Friday, May 2, 2003 Posted: 11:33 AM EDT (1533 GMT)

RELATED
Click to read the [url=http://www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/cahsee/eval/AB1609/index.html]report on the California Department of Education Web site[/url]

"Can we really flunk up to two-thirds of kids with disabilities and say this is a motivating way to hold students and administrators accountable?"
-- Bruce Fuller, education professor University of California, Berkeley

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- A fifth of California's high school students expected to graduate in 2004 won't receive their diplomas if they are required to pass a state-mandated exit exam, a new report says.

Twenty percent of all incoming seniors will fail the mathematics section of the California High School Exit Exam because they have not taken the necessary classes to learn the test subjects, according to the report, released Thursday by the Human Resources Research Organization. The test also has an English-language arts section.

The Class of 2004 is the first class required to pass the exam, though the state Board of Education can postpone the graduation requirement.

After seeing the report, board President Reed Hastings told the Los Angeles Times said he favors delaying the test for up to three years so students can be better prepared.

"It becomes a question of, not whether to delay it, but for how long to delay it," Hastings said. The board has until August to make its decision.

Try, try again
The evaluation of the California High School Exit Exam was ordered by the Legislature when it passed a law in 2001 giving the state Board of Education the option to postpone the graduation requirement.

Students start taking the test as sophomores and can retake it 3 times a year until their graduation date. An analysis of scores at 1,843 high schools found that more than 80 percent of the class has already passed the English portion of the test, but just over 60 percent has passed the math portion.

The evaluation found that lessons in some schools weren't aligned with the state's standards, adopted in 1997, until the Class of 2004 was already in high school.

The researches also said that about half of students who aren't fluent in English and three-quarters of special education students won't pass the math portion.

"Can we really flunk up to two-thirds of kids with disabilities and say this is a motivating way to hold students and administrators accountable?" said Bruce Fuller, professor for education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and researcher for Public Analysis for California Education.

Gov. Gray Davis said in a statement released Thursday that the test had improved curriculum and instruction and is "a powerful motivator" for both students and schools.

"All over California, students are studying harder and reaching a higher bar," Davis said.

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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

I know I would fail the math portion of the exit exam. I would also be unable to meet the foreign language requirments at most Cali Highschools.

The making of some loyal democRats

Well DUH! Many of them can't SPEAK english, much less READ it.

I bet that the answer to this problem will be the lowering of testing standards.
Also, I bet that the vast majority of the students who will fail are [i]not[/i] white or Asian.

[b]"All over California, students are studying harder and reaching a higher bar," Davis said.[/b]

Not if the CTA and the California Democratic leadership can help it.

Think about it: If California high schools started cranking out students (all of whom are eligible voters or soon-to-be eligible voters) who could actually think rationally, the Democratic stranglehold on California would be history within two election cycles. Four cycles, max, and it would actually start affecting Presidential elections, due to California's many seats on the electoral college.

Trust me, they want to keep the kids dumb. No matter how much it costs.

cynic

Apparently the liberal disease isn't limited to CA either. Here in TN the Congressional Black Caucus wants to lower the GPA minimum for lottery based scholarships from 3.0 (B) to 2.0 (C).

Apparently these dumbasses haven't yet figured out that a student wholly unprepared for college slows down the entire class & is a waste of money besides. I have yet to figure out WHY my school had remedial classes for freshmen. I thought one knew how to read & write by the time they graduated?

Anybody ever catch some of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" episodes?  There's some dumb mofos in California.  What is especially distressing is how awful their knowledge of history is.  I remember one kid that identified the famous photograph of the Hindenburg in flames as "the Titanic?"