Don’t ax schoolexit exams

California’s decade-old effort to add meaning to high school diplomas is in jeopardy. Senate Bill 172 proposes to “suspend” the California high school exit exam for three years while new academic standards are rolled out as part of the national Common Core initiative.

Aligning the exam’s questions with the changing curriculum and expectations of Common Core makes sense. But suspending the test very well could result in killing it. That is unacceptable.

The high school exit exam was fully implemented in 2004 as part of a bipartisan effort to give all Californians an objective way to assess whether students were learning the basic language and math skills needed to perform entry-level jobs and have a shot at getting into college.

Independent evaluations say exit exams work. Over a 15-year period, exam scores rose for all students and, importantly, for low-income and minority students. In 2014, more than 95 percent of graduating seniors passed. Graduation rates climbed, dropout rates declined.

Such exams make the path of least resistance unavailable to students or school administrators. That’s their great value.

SB 172 calls for an advisory panel to suggest how to align the exam to new standards. Great idea. But that can be an ongoing project. A three-year hiatus would leave students and teachers in limbo and give foes an opportunity to talk the exams to death. That is the last thing California’s public schools need.

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Don’t ax schoolexit exams."