Essay 1.1 High School Exit Exams

High school systems expect a lot of their students, but without high expectations what would be driving the majority of students to perform on a high academic level? High schools across the country are enforcing standardized tests in order to receive your diploma. This is leaving many students frustrated and stressed and their parents outraged. This topic is widely argued but my personal rebuttal will focus is on the editorial, Opposing View: Keep Students’ Dreams Alive, published in the USA Today. The author, Carlos Mariani, a Minnesota politician and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, has taken the stance that making high school students pass tests designed by adults is outrageous. He is writing to appeal to the average American that was held to these standards and he is trying to gain their support in his attempt to not “water down our standards” (par. 3), but to make passing the tests more achievable. From personal experience I believe these tests are highly passable. I took the High School Assessments (HSAs) in my Maryland high school and didn’t have any trouble passing the assessments. Each state has the liberty to use the test of their choice but many, 34 to be exact (Achieve 4), are in the process of adopting HSAs to evaluate their students’ academic capabilities. If this many state-wide school systems can enforce this sort of tests, then there must not be a large percentage of students unable to graduate. Some students just need to understand that they’re in school for a reason, to get an education, and they need to step up their game whether they like it or not.
A high school diploma is the new standard in the workforce. We live in a world that is growing and will not stop because educators in America aren’t teaching their students what they need in order to pass straightforward high school assessments. In our grandparents school days they were lucky to finish high school, and that was acceptable because many had to go into the workforce to support their families. However, in today’s world if you don’t have at least a high school diploma there are very few jobs available to you. So it is important now more than ever that high school students are given a strong background in English and math so they can excel in college and the workforce. “For those [students] who go straight from high school into the workforce, some 60% of employers rate the graduates' English and math skills as fair or poor” (par 5). There is a highly accessible public school system for a reason. It was developed to give every child the chance of having a good basic knowledge in subjects that they will continue to use for the rest of their life, hence the “No Child Left Behind” act. Without skills in English and math students are unable to communicate efficiently and perform basic calculations. These tests are only assessments to prove to the school system that students are able to be successful after school. School systems need a way to be sure that their graduates are going to flourish after high school and assessments are the best way to prove that. States don’t want to send an undereducated student into the workforce only to have them fail because they were unable to have an intelligent conversation with a customer or employer.
Here at James Madison University academic assessment sites have rated JMU’s undergraduate program in business number 35 nationally (BusinessWeek), best value for money in the nation (Forbes), and one of the best masters-level university in the South (U.S. News and World Report). The way we get these reputations and honors is because the school is determined and successful in preparing the student body for professional jobs during school and after graduation. The school board puts students though general education courses and rigorous testing to ensure that their graduates will be successful. High schools should take the same pride in their academic guidelines. They shouldn’t just pass students because it’s the “normal” thing to do. Recent high school graduation rates have shown that “even though the number of kids getting a high school diploma has climbed to 75%, according to the U.S. Department of Education, close to half take remedial classes in math, writing, or reading when they get to college, [and] half drop out” (par 3). High schools that don’t enforce these tests are just passing kids through high school because they feel it’s the right thing to do, but ultimately they are hurting their students by throwing them into a world they aren’t ready for. Students that are just passed on have to pay large amounts of money to go to college and obtain the skills they should have learned in high school and many of them never make it to the college graduation because they are so far behind from the start. State schools should take pride in the fact that they only pass students that are ready for more extensive education, not just advance students to get higher graduation rates.
For most of my academic career I was in private school. Sophomore year I made the switch to public school education only to learn that I was already 2 years behind other students in the field of High School Assessments. It was up to me to now pass a test in Algebra I and English I, commonly taken by students after their 8th grade year, Government, taken in 9th grade, and Biology, taken sophomore year. When tests were offered that spring I was able to take and pass all of my required tests. These tests were extremely realistic and highly passable. However, if a student was unable to pass a test they were registered, by the school, to take an HSA preparatory course that was built into your regular school schedule. Then the student was given as many tries as needed to pass the HSA. However, in some cases there was a second option of the Bridge Plan which can replace the test for special needs circumstances. Most students take these tests in plenty of time to pass them and the Bridge Plan isn’t necessary. Ultimately the school systems set students up for success in high school and beyond in whatever path they choose.
There are endless advantages to testing students on their skills needed for advancement in the working world. The problem faced is how to make these tests passable for students that actually possess these skills and challenging for those that don’t have adequate knowledge in the areas tested. Mariani brings up the point that many scholars in high school excel in all aspects of school except these tests and are then ineligible to graduate because they were unable to pass one test. The test which he is describing is one specific test used in Minnesota last year. He stated that these tests were causing much controversy and therefore they were retracted and pushed back until 2014 when the board of education could hopefully come up with a more practical test. However, if each state that choose to give tests would just adopt the HSA standardized test then a lot of their problems would be resolved. 87% - 95% of students that are required to pass the HSA in order to graduate did so successfully (WC Board of Edu. 3). They found that when students are obligated to meet these demands by graduation they were successful. The Board of Education proposed that high success rates were attained because of the reinforcement, classes offered, and the opportunity to earn graduation status if you got a 1602 combined on all your tests vs. getting passing scores on each individual test. With these high passing rates and growing popularity there are few reasons to want to design a completely new test that has proven to be too challenging when the HSA is proven effective and already in use across the nation.