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Disabled students required to pass exit exam Posted By: Caliboo818
Posted On: 04/08/2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

High school seniors in special-education classes will be required for the first time this year to pass California's exit exam to qualify for a diploma after lawyers for the disabled failed to get them an exemption.
A legal settlement, expected to be filed today in Alameda County Superior Court, will end a 7-year-old lawsuit that challenged a state law requiring all students - including those with mental or physical disabilities - to pass the test of basic math and English skills to graduate.

Passing the exit exam became a requirement for all seniors in 2006, but lawyers from Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley won exemptions for special-education students in 2006 and 2007.

Both sides said today's settlement includes no exemptions.

That means Shaneka "Precious" Washington and other seniors in special education who have met all other graduation requirements will not get diplomas on graduation day unless they pass the test in time.

"I would be heartbroken," said Washington, 18, a senior with learning disabilities at Balboa High School in San Francisco. "I don't like to cry in front of people, but that would be the day I would."

Students have six chances to pass the test between grades 10 and 12. Washington has passed the math portion, but not the English.

It's not clear how many students face a similar challenge. Although 47,000 seniors attend special education this year, not all are on a diploma track like Washington and classmate Darinell Collier, 18.

Collier said he has worked hard for 12 years despite a learning disability that hampers his ability to read and write.

"If I did all this to get this far, and I don't get a diploma, I'm going to be mad," he said.

All diploma-track students in special education are considered part of Chapman vs. California, the class-action lawsuit against the state Department of Education and state Board of Education filed in 2001.

Back then, having to pass the exit exam was either a threat or a welcome improvement, depending on who was asked.

"The exit exam is in the students' best interest," said state Superintendent Jack O'Connell, who wrote the exit exam law in 1999 while serving as a Democratic state senator from Santa Barbara. "To me, this is all about helping students succeed."

O'Connell has argued that the exit exam represents the minimal level of academic skills students need to function in an increasingly competitive economy. He says the exam lends meaning to a high school diploma, and he is quick to remind critics that those who fail can try to pass indefinitely beyond graduation day.

He said the anticipated settlement will provide tutoring for each senior in special education for two years after graduation day at a cost to the state of $525 per pupil each year.

The courts have generally agreed with O'Connell, whose law has withstood efforts to derail it.

While ultimately unsuccessful, the Chapman case handed some interim victories to the students. The case influenced state lawmakers in 2004 to delay the exit exam as a diploma requirement for two years, giving schools time to establish better programs to help students pass the high-stakes test. And when the courts gave the go-ahead in 2006, the Chapman lawyers won exemptions for disabled students that year and in 2007.

"We've been successful for several years in a row about getting kids exempted, but we were not able to do so this year," said attorney Sid Wolinsky, the founder of Disability Rights Advocates. "The exit exam is a disaster for kids with disabilities."

About half of all special-education students who take the exit exam fail it. That's worse than the rate for English learners, whose failure rate is 23 percent. By contrast, 7 percent of students in regular education fail.

Attorney Roger Heller at Disability Rights Advocates would not disclose the specifics of the anticipated settlement but said it will establish a panel of neutral experts to study the exam's impact on special-education students and make recommendations.

"The idea here is to try to find a long-term solution to benefit kids going forward," Heller said.

Among those who want to shield special-education students from the exit exam is state Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, whose bill exempting them was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October on grounds that it conflicted with the wishes of Superintendent O'Connell and the state Board of Education.

Now Romero is trying again with SB1446, an emergency bill that would exempt this year's special-education students and those in the Class of 2009.

But even the students' lawyers aren't counting on it.

"Without the support of the Department of Education, I don't think it has much of a chance," Heller said.

At Balboa High, meanwhile, Washington said she'd like to become a lawyer and work for a firm like Disability Rights Advocates.

"I will get a diploma, I promise you," she said. "I will make sure that Shaneka Regina 'Precious' Washington will cross that stage."

E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/02/MNMRVTENI.DTL

And what hurt me more was the comments left by some of these people on this thread. I have picked a few that were quick sicking

grownman wrote:
Boy the equal outcome set is really in fine form-the definitional requirement for 'disibility' has been expanded=we spend 1/3 on special ed= they have all kinds of 'accomodations-you damn right they should be held to the same standards! In fact I say make the test harder-raise the standards-my kid passed it as a sophmore-and he's lazy-equal outcomes through lower standards? We've don't need C students in Med -schools dsummoner wrote:

Boo freaking hoo. Cry me a river. If you can't pass a 7th-10th grade level English and mathematics examination then you don't deserve a 12th grade diploma. Half the state budget goes to the so-called "education" system in this state? Hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars thrown down the rat hole to provide an "education" that I would suspect is grade school equivalent of that provided in many foreign countries. Couple that with "can't grade with a red pen" and "we don't want to hurt any feelings so you all get As" feel-good crapola and even with such watering down we get handwringing and whining. whattimeisit wrote:

If the parents of regular ed kids ever got wind of how much money is actually being spent on so few "special" kids, there would be riots in the schools. I did part of my psych internship in a school setting, and the aides, the materials, the attention that were given to kids who had no business being there in the first place was unbelievable. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced it first-hand. It's great that these kids have to be held to the same standards are the regular ed kids. sfsomaguy wrote:

What a total and absolute bunch of bunk! Why have any standards for anything at all, it's discriminatory. What a joke. Why not just hand out HS diplomas to everyone like their just pieces of toilet paper and have no meaning whatsoever. A HS diploma should mean that at the very least that a person could read and write English and perform basic math. The test is so watered down that an ordinary elementary school kid could easily pass it yet most of the people commenting here find that to somehow be unjust! Where are your brains? As to aiding "Special Ed" kids, the State pays billions in doing so and mainstreaming them while gifted kids go wanting for funds and schools are going bankrupt due to compliance with ADA requirements. If you want to give them something for taking up space, extra effort by teachers, special accommodations, and billions of our tax dollars ( and we have the timerity to have them pass a basic test) then just give them a certificate and don't cheapen a diploma. ChgoSaint wrote:

"I am disabled! Treat me like an equal! (except when I want something, then give me favoritism.) whattimeisit wrote:

Special education funding has been cut, just like all education funding has been cut. What does that mean? It means the "special" classes were cut. Where do the "special" kids end up? In regular ed classrooms. And the teachers tear out their hair dealing with these kids, many of whom are simply behavior problems and waste the teacher's time and disrupt the classroom. The diagnosis of "learning disabled" is a complete sham, cooked up by the educational psychology contingent to keep "school psychologists" employed. School psychs do nothing except adminster I.Q. tests to kids expressly for the purpose of slapping the "labels" on kids to shuttle them to special classes. Special education is a huge scam that has shuttled billions over the years to serve a tiny minority of kids. Regular ed parents are clueless about this, for the most part. perm3800a wrote:

I am so tired of this culture. Not every human condition is NORMAL or should be treated as EQUAL. We are NOT all created equal - if we were, I would be built like Raquel Welsh with Albert Einstein's brains and Marilyn Monroe's sex appeal. I'm not. A diploma is not a reward for showing up. If it is to mean anything, it has to be earned. For many children with profound disabilities, 'educating' them is just an very expensive way of making their parents feel like they didn't produce something useless by forcing society to treat the child as as valuable as a less damaged one. Sorry, cruel as it sounds - your kid is damaged goods. You may love them, they may have a winning personality or a special talent but they are NOT normal and no amount of money or teachers aides or toilet paper diplomas will make them so. If they can't pass the test for the diploma, they don't deserve the diploma. Really. perm3800a wrote:

jkmm - while I am sure that you love your handicapped child very much, s/he is disabled. Not Normal. I do seriously resent the amount of money spent to keep one non-verbal, profoundly impaired chld in school for fourteen years while music, art, phys ed and other 'enrichment' programs are cancelled for the other students because of the resultant budgetary shortfalls. Your selfesteem is NOT worth the thousands of bright students who drop out each year because schools teach to the lowest common denominator and they just can't make themselves sit through it anymore. I would gladly park your kid's chair in the park if it meant that the bright kids in his school would get language labs and art teachers and smaller classroom sizes. Your child deserves love and understanding but not a disproportiate allowance of a very limited resource
       
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