PT's Speak Out for 2006.06.10

From: http://presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_3803001

"As lawyers for parents, students and the state Department of Public Instruction battled Tuesday over whether to postpone the state's high school exit exam this year, callers and letter writers had strong feelings about the exam in general and whether it should go into effect with this year's graduating seniors.

The parents who brought the suit maintain that students in poor areas of large cities are at a disadvantage because, they claim, teachers in poorer districts aren't as qualified as those in more affluent districts.

About 47,000 seniors still have not passed the exit exam, which measures proficiency in math and English. About 89 percent of all students have passed the exam, with whites and Asians at the high end of the curve and Latinos, African Americans, economically disadvantaged, and English learners at the low end.

State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell told reporters that the state would appeal any change in the exit exam. Gov. Schwarzenegger says he feels strongly about denying diplomas to seniors who do not pass the exam.

What do you think?

speakout@presstelegram.com

Should all high school students be held to the same standards?"

Anybody who knows me well enough to know how much our family values education, knows that the above is like waving a red cape in front of me. I simply couldn't resist, and sent a responsive e-mail to the Press Telegram's Speak-Out e-mail alias.

If PT even bothers to publish my words, I'm certain that they will be severely edited, if not completely distorted (they've already done that to me before). You can see what I actually wrote and sent to them below.

From: Allan Gabston-Howell <[INFO MASKED]>
  Reply-To: [INFO MASKED]
  Organization: Gabston-Howell.org
  To: speakout@presstelegram.com
  Subject: Should all high school students be held to the same standards?
  Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 08:52:42 -0700
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The essential question has been put to the PT readership: Should all high school students be held to the same standards?

Absent verifiable physical or psychological disability, of course they should; otherwise the implicit standard of the future High School Diploma is as meaningless as it is today.

Indeed, the CAHSEE is largely meaningless in its present incarnation.

It simply does not probe the body of knowledge implied by its benchmarking position in the academic time line. The CAHSEE should be testing for competencies endemic to the object high school senior; rather than failure, or near failure, performance at the 8th grade and high school sophomore levels. It is a trivial test to pass the first time-around (both of our daughters passed this test as sophomores, calling it a 'joke'); giving rise to grave reservations when one countenances the fact that up to 25% of the high school senior have yet to pass this mild assessment.

Despite this, the litigating parents are correct.

School districts typically invest their funds largely in the affluent areas of their district boundaries. (Even LBUSD is no exception--if not the rule--in this respect.) Our family lives in the fiscally neglected side of Long Beach Unified School District; so, one might go on to say, we know this by direct experience. It is left to us to hyper-compensate for the unforgivable apathy of the school district; which we, of course, do. I can assure you that we are not alone in this.

It is not the luxury of the school district to persist in the abrogation of their responsibilities, simply because such a simplistic excuse sits at hand, namely: Blame the parents completely.

It is the duty of the schools to actually educate ALL of their charges in the areas of competency probed by the relevant benchmarks; as well as retain students for remedial education until the student is able to demonstrate adequate academic performance at each benchmarking stage of the student's academic progression--including high school exit. This is something that the school districts have demonstrated they are not fully prepared to do--particularly in the socio-economically disadvantaged regions of their geography.

It is not the luxury of the parents to step-back and leave their students to flounder in an inadequate system of public education.

It is incumbent upon the parents to place a high value upon excellence in education within the culture of the home, and act accordingly. Many parents--on both sides of town--have demonstrated that education is simply not their highest priority by off-loading their parental responsibilities onto the school districts.

If either fails, the student will suffer; as will the society which must carry them like so much dead weight.

Yet, both groups regularly fail in this respect. Both groups blame the other exclusively. Unfortunately, given the supposedly learned composition of the local school district personnel, it is their collective offense which is the greater injury to our society.

Socially promoting students has bought us to this sorry state of affairs in the American Educational system. Furthering social promotion of the student by disposing of even as trivial a standard, as is embodied by the CAHSEE, will only drag our nation deeper into the quagmire of ignorance and oppression.
--

Allan Gabston-Howell,
Long Beach, California
http://www.Gabston-Howell.org/

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives." - Leo Tolstoy ( Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy )

Predictably, the Press Telegram gave the above no ink. To see others who have been similarly ignored by the LBUSD propaganda publication department...uh...er...the Press Telegram...please have a look here. I think you'll find the opinions expressed, as well as the refusal of the Long Beach Press Telegram to publish same, somewhat illuminating. (The most polite phrasing I could come-up with at the moment.)