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May 9, 2007

California Accused of Inflating Exit Exam Data

Joel Rubin:

UCLA professor says officials distorted pass rate on test required for high school graduation. Educators counter that analysis was flawed.

California education officials put forth artificially positive results on the number of students who passed the state's controversial high school exit exam last year, according to a recent UCLA study.

The analysis also concluded that about 50,000 fewer students statewide earned diplomas last year compared to previous years, raising the prospect that the exit exam requirement is pressuring students to drop out. The decline in graduation rates was most pronounced in poor, heavily minority areas, the study found.

"We've constructed a system that sets in place incentives for disinformation," said John Rogers, the study's author and co-director of UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access. "People who are making education decisions in this state need to think about how this policy is really playing out."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 9, 2007 12:00 AM
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