So, this little gem has popped up as SB 172 in California.
In it, it reads:
The bill would, until July 31, 2018, require the governing board or body of a local educational agency, as defined, and the State Department of Education on behalf of state special schools, to grant a diploma of graduation from high school to any pupil who completed grade 12 in the 2003–04 school year or a subsequent school year and has met all applicable graduation requirements other than the passage of the high school exit examination.
The biggest question here is why have a high school exit examination at all? If the student does everything else, this law states they don’t even have to take the test to graduate.
So why was the test put in to begin with?
To make sure that kids who graduated actually knew things?
Perhaps, but all over all one sees is how poorly test scores are. They continue to drop despite spending more and more money on education.
So again, the question is why have this exam if it means nothing to graduate?
Here’s a better idea, stop the tests and use the money that was given to the tests and give the teachers a raise.