Students, Parents Sue Over High School Exit Exam
>From Staff and Wire reports
A group of high school students and their parents filed a class-action lawsuit today against the State Board of Education on behalf of the tens of thousands of California students who have failed the exit exam required to graduate.
The suit seeks a court order allowing students in this year's graduating class to earn their diploma regardless of whether they passed the math and English portions of the exam.
Lawyers for the students plan to argue that underfunded schools have failed to adequately prepare minority and disadvantaged students for the exam and that the state board did not consider alternatives to the test, as required by law.
"We are telling kids that they do not get a diploma if they do not pass an exit exam. We think that is unfair. It is unwise and it is illegal," said Arturo Gonzalez, the lawyer for the group.
"Many students in California have not been given a fair opportunity to learn the material on the exam," said Gonzalez, who filed the lawsuit in Sacramento.
Students in the class of 2006 are the first required to pass the two-part test to receive a diploma. At the start of this school year, about 100,000 seniors had not passed at least one part of the exam, which has sections for English and math. State officials have said they do not have updated figures.
Gonzalez said the state failed to study alternatives for students who could not pass the test, particularly English-learners, as the legislation required when lawmakers approved the exam in 1999. The lawsuit also claims that the state is denying some students their fundamental right to an equal education.
The suit was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court and names 10 students and their parents as plaintiffs. The state of California is also included as a defendant. Department of Education spokeswoman Hilary McLean said she had no comment because department officials had not seen the lawsuit.
State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who helped write the exit exam legislation, said last month that he had considered alternative assessments for students who fail to pass the exam before deciding against them. The state held a public hearing in December to take comments on its options.
"We would argue that it's more unfair to hand them a diploma that doesn't mean anything and doesn't arm them with the skills and knowledge they'll need," McLean said.
O'Connell has said students who fail the exam can take another year of high school, get extra tutoring, enroll in summer school or attend community college until they pass. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger included $40 million for tutorial programs in his budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
This month, the state settled a lawsuit by agreeing to give special education students a one-year waiver on the requirement.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-020806test_lat,1,3009970.story?coll=la- story-footer&track=morenews
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm