[Maths-Education] Fw: Exit exams need warnings for disabled students

[leone burton]

Dear All:  Don't you just love the idea of a Health Warning on exams (see
below).  Wouldn't it be great if we could get that going here?  Happy New
year all.  leone

Prof. Leone Burton
8 Grange Walk
London SE1 3DT
Tel:  44 (0)20 7394 2929
email:  leone.burton@virgin.net
----- Original Message -----

> ****************************
>  From the San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, January 4, 2003, p. A 13. See
>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/04
/BA53233.DTL
> ****************************
> School exit exams need warnings, attorneys say
>
> Suit on behalf of disabled students
>
> By Nanette Asimov
>
> Lawyers for thousands of disabled students who are suing the state
> over its high school exit exam now want warning labels like those for
cigarettes placed on each test, advising that it has "not been shown > to
have instructional validity."
>
> The state's requirement that high school students pass the exit exam > is
scheduled to begin with the class of 2004. Those who fail will not > get a
diploma. Students began trying to pass the test in 2001, and
> failure rates among students with learning disabilities and other
> physical impairments have topped 90 percent.
>
> In Oakland, of about 330 disabled students in the class of '04, just
> five have passed the test so far, said attorney Sid Wolinsky of
> Disability Rights Advocates Inc., the law firm handling the suit.
>
> The lawyers amended their year-old lawsuit late last month, asking
> the state court to simply exempt disabled students from the exit exam
requirement.
>
> The same amendment asked that the warning be posted on each test. Test-
takers would be told that the exams may not be valid -- meaning that
students may not have been taught the material on the exam -- and would say
that the state is considering whether to delay the exam requirement for all
students, Wolinsky said.
>
> The California Teachers Association and the Oakland School Board filed
legal papers in San Francisco Superior Court the same day, Dec.24, in
support of the students' claims that next year's new test requirement will
unfairly deny many with disabilities a high school
> diploma.
>
> The state Board of Education has strongly backed the concept of the exit
exam as part of its multiyear effort to improve the academic
> know-how of all California's high school graduates, including
> disabled students.
>
> Rae Belisle, who was the board's lead attorney in the case, until
> stepping down last month, has acknowledged that some students have
impairments so severe "that they won't get a diploma. That's the
> reality of it."
>
> Nevertheless, the board will decide this spring whether to delay the
> exam because many students -- disabled or not -- may not have been taught
the material on the test. Requiring an exam with such high
> stakes under those circumstances could leave the state open to even more
lawsuits.
>
> Board members are waiting for the results of a multiyear study of the exam
due in the spring from independent evaluators.
>
> Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Association, said his
union decided to file legal papers supporting the lawsuit because "it
doesn't make any sense" to deny diplomas to disabled students whose special
classes may never have covered the material on the test.
>
> "Sometimes even with tremendous accommodations, they still can't
> compete on a level playing field," Johnson said.
>
> The 10-member Oakland School Board voted unanimously to joining the
teachers in support of the students' case.
>
> Other school districts have also criticized the exit exam in general,
> saying that diplomas should not hinge on a single exam.
>
> In San Francisco, a school board committee voted to recommend to the full
board that it "investigate all available legal means to prevent
> the state" from implementing the exit exam, said Jill Wynns, the
> board's president and committee member.
> ---------------------------------
> E-mail Nanette Asimov at  nasimov@sfchronicle.com
> **************************************************