High volume

You know you'll find plenty of highly-concentrated stupidity in a place labelled Youth Voices. The topic? The horrendous high school exit exam.

Ianna Vasale gets it, but doesn't want to recognize that:

The common belief for many is that the test is incredibly practical and easy to pass for all students, and those who have trouble with it aren't smart enough to maintain important jobs later in life anyway.

Teens with learning disabilities have an extremely hard time figuring it out.

Folks with learning disabilities aren't smart enough to maintain important jobs later in life anyway, so I think it actually works out pretty well here.

Judy doesn't know how to solve the quadratic equation. Jeff doesn't know how to write an essay that even remotely makes sense. Jill's vocabulary is not large enough to know what "tolerate" means. All OK if they were eighth-graders, but they are not. They are college students.

Without standardized graduating tests such as the California High School Exit Exam, these frightening scenarios might actually come true.

Juliana Rehbein messes up here with the word 'might.' A more appropriate word would be 'have.'

Stirling Lundquist is probably saying something. Let's see if we can puzzle it out. It'll be like a high school exit exam question.

The test is actually designed for the school's benefit, not the student's. Tests such as the California High School Exit Exam are used to judge a school's performance academically and can guarantee more funds. Do these funds affect the students? No. Students are in high school because they have to be, not because they want to be. Do they care if their school receives extra funds for having done well on the exam? No, they do not. So is the test benefiting the student? No, it's benefiting the school. If we truly believe that school is about the student and not the school itself, then of course the answer is no.

The 'answer' here doesn't appear to address any question. What Lundquist does seem to touch on is the fact that standardized tests usually don't matter for students, so they don't try particularly hard to pass them. Making them matter for students is actually a pretty good idea to deal with that problem.

Ben Pack needs to retake the Analogies portion.

Imagine traveling to a foreign planet. You get there and a different language is spoken and there is a different type of mathematics. Now imagine that, to get off that planet, you need to take a test and score high enough.

That situation is real for some people, in a planet called high school. The California High School Exit Exam provides that same challenge to people who speak English as a second language and people who have learning disabilities.

Well, actually, the better analogy would be that you have to take a test and score high enough not to "get off that planet," but rather to "become recognized as a functioning member of that planet."

I do believe that all students have what it takes to complete the test, but it may take some students years to pass. I think it should be reasonable so everyone can get the kind of future they want.

Hey, I want to be supreme ruler of the world. I think tests should be reasonable to allow that. Hopefully, no one else wants the same thing, or else letting everyone get "the kind of future they want" is going to require some serious planet-conquering. Also, everyone is a singular noun. Looks like Ben needs to study the English section.

Bennett Vanleuven knows that the way to talk about high school is to compare it to the founding of a nation.

Independence, individuality and abstract thinking -- these form the foundation of a progressive society. These qualities have been encouraged from the birth of our nation.

Ah, yes, I remember. "Give me abstract thinking or give me death!!!"

It presents a substandard to what is required from an average student; therefore it should not be a requirement to graduate.

Hmm... dictionary.com doesn't seem to think 'substandard' is a noun. It could mean "a standard that is not as high as it should be," but if folks can't pass such a test, I can't help but think they'd have trouble passing "a standard to that stuff," too. Of course, the idea that learning things in pursuit of a goal makes you incapable of engaging in abstract thinking is pretty silly, too.

posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 2/01/2006 05:54:00 PM #
Comments (3)

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Comments:

Maybe the kids should seek advice from their teachers on how to avoid basic competency tests--the teachers unions have been very successful at THAT for years! I also notice that most of the letters come from the same two or three schools...a teacher-mandated writing assignment, perhaps? Next week's topic: 'Why our overworked public school teachers deserve a raise.'

# posted by  Anonymous : 12:10 AM, February 02, 2006

 

First of all, I'd like to thank whoever wrote this blog for their "compliments". I'm commenting to help explain the context of my writing. This was a mandatory assignment for my English class, and we were asked to submit our papers when finished to the San Francisco Chronicle. Unfortunately, what was published was only a sample of my original essay. I was dissapointed that more of my essay was not published, and that the part they chose to keep was taken so terribly out of context. The "answer" does in fact address a question.

# posted by  Anonymous : 2:46 PM, June 19, 2006

 

well you must feel all high and mighty making fun of a few high school kids. Picking on some kids who are only 3/4 done with thier HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASSES is like a giant fighting a midget. (p.s. that my friend was an analogy)

# posted by  Anonymous : 11:56 AM, November 16, 2006

 

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