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 FL
Governor softens stance on FCAT
CA
LAUSD may put moratorium on exit exam
FL Governor softens
stance on FCAT
by Nicole
White, The Miami Herald, April 9, 2003
Gov. Jeb Bush, who has made the tough Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test the backbone of his education reform, now says
he is willing to consider alternatives to help some students who
fail the test to graduate from high school.
Bush softened his stance after a meeting with several members of
Florida's Puerto Rican community, who visited the Capitol on
Tuesday.
Strategists say the hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans who
live in the state will be key in the 2004 election as the
governor's brother, President Bush, seeks reelection.
"We are considering it. We're first of all trying to define what
the universe is. . . . The question is how many people would be
impacted by that," Bush said.
Still, the governor cautioned that he was "concerned about
lowering standards or making accommodations to the point where
de facto standards are nonexistent." "But on the other hand," he
said, ``we want to make sure that we're not missing some
opportunity of a really bright kid who comes in 11th grade or
12th grade from another country where English is not spoken and
they show they have the skills to graduate."
A bill sponsored by Rep. John Quiñones, a Republican freshman
legislator from the Orlando area, would allow the state Board of
Education to use a 2.5 grade-point average or ACT or SAT scores
to issue a high school diploma to students who are enrolled in
English as a Second Language programs and who do not pass the
FCAT.
Quiñones said he is encouraged that the governor is at least
willing to consider the issue.
"I think the governor is beginning to see that this is a
positive bill, a bill that will make sure that no child is left
behind," Quiñones said.
Quiñones' proposal has the support of several Hispanic lawmakers
who worry that thousands of students will not receive a diploma
this year. In South Florida alone, more than 6,000 high school
seniors are expected to fail the FCAT this year. This is the
first year seniors must pass the test to receive a diploma.
A similar measure sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Frederica
Wilson, D-Miami, would make the alternatives to the FCAT
available to any student who fails the test.
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CA LAUSD may put
moratorium on exit exam
by Helen Gao, Los Angelas Daily News, April 8, 2003
To the cheers of dozens of students and parents who are fighting
to overturn the California High School Exit Exam as a graduation
requirement, the Los Angeles school board voted Tuesday to
explore establishing a moratorium on the high-stakes test.
The board came short of making a commitment to issue diplomas to
students who fail the test in defiance of state law, although
board member Genethia Hudley Hayes suggested the idea and said
she personally would support such civil disobedience.
"Their opportunity to get a decent job is zilch without a high
school diploma," said Hayes, who along with board member Jose
Huizar authored the resolution calling for a moratorium.
The Coalition for Educational Justice, which led the campaign
for a moratorium on the exit exam, asserts the test is "racist"
and "class-biased," noting that 72 percent of African Americans
and 70 percent of Latino Americans throughout the state failed
the test in the spring of 2002.
Coalition members say it's unfair to withhold diplomas from
students when the school district is doing a poor job of
educating them. They cite severe overcrowding, inadequate
instructional materials and inequitable distribution of
resources in the district.
"Instead of giving our children hope and inspiration, our
students continue to come up against obstacles that set them up
for failure," said parent Dale Martin.
Board members were sympathetic to parents' concerns.
"The more appropriate role for the exam is to use it as a
diagnostic tool to find out where we are failing," said Huizar.
"Right now, we are asking students to be held accountable when
it's in fact the school district that should be held accountable
for how we teach our kids."
The board's action comes three months before the state Board of
Education is due to make a decision on whether to enforce the
exit exam as a graduation requirement starting in 2004. In
addition to Los Angeles Unified, school boards in San Francisco
and Oakland have also been discussing a possible moratorium on
the test.
The board directed the district's Office of Legislative and
Governmental Affairs to investigate the legal, financial and
policy implications of establishing a moratorium.
It also asked staff to investigate alternative ways of measuring
student achievement and inequitable distribution of resources.
The statewide goal is for all high school students to pass the
exit exam starting with the class of 2004.
However, since the test was first given in 2001, only 49 percent
of LAUSD students have passed the English portion and 30 percent
the math portion. The state board is expected to reconsider the
exit exam as a graduation requirement this summer.
At the same meeting, the school board voted to trim
administrative expenditures by $16.8 million by slashing
spending on an office lease, energy conservation efforts and a
host of other accounts.
Each of the LAUSD's 11 minidistricts are reducing their budget
by $190,000. The LAUSD faces a deficit of about $100 million in
the current fiscal year, which ends July 1, and an estimated
$400 million deficit in the next fiscal year.
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