California high school exit exam gets a failing grade in Stanford study

Submitted by anthony on Fri, 2009-04-24 19:33

Article here. Boys are doing well on this particular test and its now considered a problem. It's acceptable for girls to outperform boys, but not the other way around. I suspect California will act quickly to change these testing outcomes while boys still wallow in special education classes. Excerpt:

'Graduation rates for low-achieving minority students and girls have fallen nearly 20 percentage points since California implemented a law requiring high school students to pass exit exams in order to graduate, according to a new Stanford study.
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The study also said the exam is not a fair assessment of the basic skill levels of minority students and girls, because it takes higher skill levels for them to pass the test.
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"Clearly the exam has had a disproportionately negative impact on students of color and girls," said Sean Reardon, an associate professor of education at Stanford and the study lead author. "That is consistent across all four school districts we studied. It's a statewide phenomenon, not just a problem of one or two districts. These findings are troubling."'

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"'Graduation rates for low-achieving minority students and girls have fallen nearly 20 percentage points "

Gee no kidding? If someone is a low achiever and the test is made harder, there is less likelihood of passing it? This stuff is way too hard for the average guy to figure out - thank God for progressive educators.

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Submitted by axolotl on Sun, 2009-04-26 06:50

From what I know about California's state test from my mom's studies of boys and education (she heads an educational group that advocates for boys and education particularly in the area of ADD mis-diagnosis) California finally has high educational standards after years of trying to feminize math.

State tests need to be watched as many are being feminized. This is evident when boys outperform girls in certain areas on the SAT and other traditional tests, but score lower on state tests. Since the whole education system is run by women, they change the material, question format, and scoring criteria to match the female learning process.

If girls in California need help, I hope they get it, but I fear that some how boys will end up getting screwd.

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Submitted by Kris on Thu, 2009-04-30 16:37