SAN DIEGO -- Sometimes
when I see what my fellow Latinos are up to in the area of education
reform -- such as fighting for school vouchers, organizing immigrant
parents in makeshift PTAs, or trying to pull their kids out of
bilingual education classes -- I want to stand and applaud.
Then there are the
times when parents or their advocates pursue such dumb courses
of action that they hurt the very kids they're trying to help.
That's when I shake my head in disbelief.
One of the latest
to travel down this dead-end road is Arturo Gonzalez, a San Francisco
attorney who recently filed a lawsuit, on behalf of 10 high school
students and their parents, challenging a controversial ``exit
exam'' that California public high school students must pass in
order to get a diploma. The test includes a section of eighth-grade-level
math and another section of ninth- and 10th-grade-level English.
Students can take the test multiple times, and they only have
to give correct answers to little more than half of the questions.
Gonzalez insists
that the pass-to-graduate requirement is illegal and discriminatory
because poor, minority students with limited English proficiency
have not been prepared for the exam. A couple of years ago, his
firm won a class-action suit accusing the state of denying poor
children adequate school resources. California agreed to pour
hundreds of millions of dollars into teacher training, textbooks
and facility improvements. But the settlement was reached in 2004
and so, Gonzalez says, high school seniors haven't had ``a fair
and equal opportunity to learn the material on this test.''
The lawsuit seeks
an injunction to immediately suspend the mandatory requirement
that students pass the test.
In non-lawyer talk,
this means Gonzalez must believe that students should be able
to fail the exit exam and still graduate from high school. His
clients feel the same way. One mother, whose son has repeatedly
failed the math portion of the test, told reporters that the message
behind the exit exam is ``go to school for four years, work hard,
stay out of trouble, get passing grades, but, by the way, if you
don't pass, all your efforts stood for nothing.'' The mother called
that ``criminal.''
When I hear something
like that, it makes me think that people ought to pass a whole
battery of exams before becoming a parent. What a terrible message
that sort of attitude sends to the child -- if you don't pass
your tests, don't worry. Mommy will hire a lawyer and make it
all better.
Why stop here? Why
not do away with tests all together? We should go into individual
classrooms and throw out chemistry tests, algebra tests and, of
course, those dreaded English tests. I mean, it's just not fair,
the argument would follow, that a student could show up to class
every day and work hard and then have his grade boil down to his
performance on a single exam.
If Gonzalez gets
the injunction, it would allow those California high school students
who have not passed the test to graduate this year. One study
estimated that as many as 100,000 12th-graders -- about one out
of five in the state -- had not yet passed at least one section
of the test.
You see the problem.
What we should be worried about isn't the test but what the test
is revealing, namely that our public schools are failing to provide
many of our kids with even basic academic skills. Now that's criminal.
This isn't just another
nutty California adventure. Other states -- about two dozen of
them -- also require that high school students pass exit exams
in order to graduate. And in those states, you'll no doubt find
lawyers and spineless parents eager to make life cushy for their
kids.
So you better watch
out. This brand of lunacy could be coming to a school district
near you.
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CORRECTION
-- My Jan. 15 column included a poorly constructed sentence which
incorrectly stated that more than a dozen members of the family
of late United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez earn six-figure
salaries from the UFW and its affiliated organizations. While
a dozen Chavez family members work for various UFW-related entities,
current National Farm Workers Service Center President Paul Chavez
is the only one who earns more than $100,000. (According to the
Los Angeles Times, staff compensation is modest compared
to similar organizations.) Furthermore, since 1994 the Cesar E.
Chavez Community Development Fund has donated $4.9 million to
several related nonprofit groups that assist farm workers.
©
2006, The San Diego Union-Tribune
