TheSequitur.com Editorial Board
June 7, 2006

Students as well as teachers already have it tough fighting through the public education system. Teacher morale is almost as low as teacher salary; metal detectors and school lockdowns are a norm for most teenagers. What incentive do kids have to complete, much less attend, high school today?

If you can make it through the four years, maintain a passing grade point average and show up the majority of the school year, you get a diploma. While there can be only one valedictorian (absent a tie, of course), every student must meet certain requisites before receiving their diploma. Additionally, most school districts have an exit exam to test basic competency before releasing these young adults into the working world. Perhaps all of them should.

This year, up to 60 Alameda County high school seniors who did not pass the required California High School Exit Exam still will receive a ‘certificate of completion.’ The Alameda Unified School District had already made this decision back in November, but the California Supreme Court ruled narrowly last month to revive the exit exam, which requires graduating seniors demonstrate middle school math competency and a 10th grade understanding of English. Should the state Supreme Court decision retroactively affect the district’s decision?
     
Alameda officials say they still will issue their ‘certificates’ to students who met all other requirements for graduation. Ostensibly, these pieces of paper will not be the same as a traditional diploma, but they might cause confusion over its academic value, and even possibly encourage kids to bypass the exams in the future.

These exams, as arduous as they may be, serve as a check-and-balance to the arbitrary assignment of grades given by teachers. It provides proxy evidence of a child’s progress through the school system, giving us a better perspective on the development of our most precious resource.
     
California students take the test in their 10th grade year and have five opportunities to retake the test if they fail.

So in the case of the Alameda kids - they tried … and they fell short. It sure would be a shame to hurt those kids’ feelings by not letting them in with the others, wouldn’t it? Who really wants to be ‘that’ person who didn’t graduate and got held behind? The embarrassment itself would be enough to prevent a person who might be intellectually at par with their peers to give up on institutionalized learning.

There is a root to this problem. The current system in place applies a ‘cookie-cutter’ template approach to the nurturing of these fertile minds, which is obviously not a success. Teenagers continue to choose to try their luck in the “real world” without a complete education, which ultimately is a trammel to us all.

School is inherently not for everyone, but the interaction that occurs in that scholastic congregation of youth is, in itself, a learning experience.

If students decide school is not for them, they still should have to take a graduation equivalency test in order to receive any form of certification of completion. This is the only mechanism in place that will give a second opinion on the subjective decisions of the teachers and faculties of the schools and prevent the deflation of the value of an already meager high school diploma.

This is why we create standards. Sure, most students are able to get their rubber stamp grades from teachers during their twelve years of public school. But even students who view school as merely a moratorium until the hours after the school bell manage to accumulate enough knowledge to pass basic competency tests.

We understand many schools have inadequate resources to help struggling students. Nevertheless we need an elastic learning system that can conform to the individual needs of students to solve our country’s educational ills.

The underlying issue is that all young adults need skills and smarts to be productive members of society. Keeping them in school and providing a curriculum that best fits their inherent potential is essential to fostering the growth of America's future leaders.

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