High School Exit Examinations Essay Example for Free

High instill day Exit Examinations EssayIn order to pronounce the educational ability of disciples Standardized Tests or examinations, kick in been designed, which do so in an unbiased manner, irrespective of social background and educational experience. One such hear is the multiple-choice examination, wherein the students spend a penny to make a selection from a soma of answers for a token question and indicate their choice on a test form. Such tests are frequently given over to students who study in elementary and secondary coachs (Standardized Tests, 2006).These examinations benefitted students to a large extent, because they had to homecoming just one trammel of examinations, in order to apply for admission to different trails. The College Board initiated the Scholastic Aptitude Test or the SAT in 1926. The SAT is a multiple choice test that was based on the psychological tests given to US Army recruits. The SAT, by the category 1940, was being widely employ ed by educational institutions in the US (Standardized Tests, 2006). Standardized tests are taken by elementary train and high school, and undergraduates and graduates.The mass of these tests are controlled by the Educational Testing Service or ETS and the American College Testing or impress Program. The results of these tests help educational institutions to assess scholastic surgical operation and to ascertain the suitability of a student for a particular undergraduate or graduate degree program (Standardized Tests, 2006). The Center on Education form _or_ system of government or the CEP had made it mandatory for fifty two percent of the students studying in the prevalent schools to take the high school difference examinations.However, the carrying into action of this policy became difficult as the CEP had realized that opposition from the public towards this compulsory high school fleet examination had been on the increase. It was also decided that students who failed to obtain a pass scotch in this examination would not be awarded the high school diploma. This decision to infer high school diplomas to students who failed in the hap examination was greeted with a great deal of resistance (Darling-Hammond, Rustique-Forrester, Pecheone, 2005). The instruction execution of the sound examinations also caused a gradual reduction in the number of graduate students.This was evident in the Afro American and Latino students, English language learners and students with disabilities. This reform would result in reduced incentives for students who had been striving to persist in school, a reduction in the curriculum and a disregard for higher order public presentation skills, because of the utilization of limited measures and irrelevant judgments regarding student learning (Darling-Hammond, Rustique-Forrester, Pecheone, 2005). The use of exit examinations varies from state to state. Some states have already implemented them, whereas different states have not implemented them.A majority of states have mould forward several options and alternatives. So far only eight states have implemented the mandatory exit examination as a compulsory requirement, in which the student has to obtain a pass retard, in order to obtain a high school diploma. Further, this system does not take cognizance of the worth of performance of the students and their academic record and is solely guided by whether the students have obtained a pass scrape in the exit examination or not (Darling-Hammond, Rustique-Forrester, Pecheone, 2005).Most of the states have implemented multiple measures of performance in order to evaluate the students capability of learning. The student requires a pass mark in the state examination, which is used as an indicator for the students ability to obtain a state diploma. Moreover, the student is also indispensable to obtain a pass mark in other alternatives that test the student by using a wide range of methods so as to r ender their academic learning.In these states, there is not just a single test to disqualify students from start but there exist an array of indicators to determine the knowledge of the students (Darling-Hammond, Rustique-Forrester, Pecheone, 2005). In an important report relating to the implementation of the high school exit test in the state of Mississippi, sixty five recommendations had been proposed. Some of these are, it would be tot entirelyy inappropriate to require students to obtain a pass mark in an examination that strikeed tangible that had not been taught to the students.Further, the exit examination should be based on a multiple choice system, which would test thinking skills. Moreover, the exit examination would be undesirable for the students of the state of Mississippi. In addition, the national level exit examination would require a total restructuring of the curriculum of the district schools, which would create serious difficulties. Furthermore, measures tha t evaluate the students skills and performance should be segmented.Moreover, great care would have to be taken while implementing tests that evaluate the performance and skills of students (ED384990 Issues To Consider in Moving beyond a Minimal Competency High tutor Graduation Test, 1995). The states of Arizona, California and do introduced high school exit examinations, in which high school students from the year 2006 have to obtain a pass mark, in order to be awarded a high school diploma. In most of the states of the Union that enforce such high school exit examinations, students are required to take it in the sophomore year.The level of these tests is of the tenth strike out and students who are unable to obtain a pass mark are provided with a number of opportunities to again take this test. Sixteen of the twenty terzetto states that have made these tests compulsory have directed the schools to provide indemnification to students who fail to obtain a pass mark. Furthermore , in states that are introducing these examinations, financial help for such remediation has in most of the cases been provided by it (David, 21st June, 2006).In the state of New York students have taken these high school exit tests with a very high degree of success and have obtained a large number of diplomas. However, this has not turn up to be applicable to students belonging to the minority communities. The Education Commissioner disclosed that eighty one percent of neat students obtained their diplomas in due course, whereas the students of minority communities found the obtention of pass marks in English, mathematics, global history, geography, US history and science to be a daunting task.Consequently, only forty two percent of the Latino students, forty five percent of African American and sixty eight percent of Asian students obtained their diplomas at heart the stipulated time (Hoff, 23rd of March, 2005). A survey conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcome s has revealed the position that fifty percent of the states of the Union have made it mandatory to obtain a pass mark in the exit test, in order to be eligible to obtain a high school diploma.However, very few states have implemented an alternative procedure for evaluating disabled students, which is of an equivalent standard in comparison to the test applied to fastness students. This report goes on to state that the absence of tests for the disabled and regular students that are of equivalent rigor, gives rise to the impression that disabled students are not competent to undertake grade level work (Samuels, 4th of May, 2005). In the state of California, the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed a law that exempts disabled students from victorious and obtaining a pass mark in the high school exit test.This new law states that if a student had been permitted to follow an individual education plan and if such a student had satisfied all other criteria for being awarded with a hig h school diploma and further if that student had received remediation for the exit test, then that student would be allowed to graduate, irrespective of having obtained a pass mark in the exit test. The objective of this law was to enable the state of California to provide better instructions for disabled students (Jacobson, eighth of Februray, 2006).In the state of Utah, even if students who do not obtain a pass mark in every portion of the high school exit test, they are awarded the high school diploma. However, such diplomas contain a statement that the student had not obtained a pass mark in the high school exit test. Several states of the Union are having second thoughts about continuing with such high school exit tests and at the same time a several students have proved to be thwarted in obtaining a pass mark in their graduation examinations.The law in the state of Utah has made it mandatory for high school students to obtain a pass mark in mathematics, tuition and that part of the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test that comprises of tests on writing skills, in order to be awarded with a high school diploma (Olson, 25th January, 2006). In another study it was established that states of the Union, in which high school exit tests are in vogue, have a graduation rate and college enrapture examination marks that are significantly lower than states that do not have such tests.In particular, students from states of the Union, that had made it mandatory to obtain a pass mark in the high school exit examination, fared worse than students from states of the Union that did not insist on such a condition, in the internationally declare Scholastic Aptitude Test. Moreover, such students had a significantly lower rate of graduation (Viadero, 2nd of February, 2005). It has been opined by galore(postnominal) people that high school exit examinations result in an increase in the number of students who discontinue their studies, before obtaining a high school diploma. The detractors of such exit examinations have very pertinently pointed out the fact that the already low graduation rates are being forced waste to a much lower level. Many critics have stated that it would be patently unfair to cover a student who had completed thirteen years of schooling a high school diploma, only because that student could not obtain a pass mark in the high school examination. Moreover, many persons consider such a denial of a high school diploma to be ruthlessly unjust, because such a diploma is essential for ensuring a bright future.