SACRAMENTO – The legislature has passed AB 1531, a bill that would allow school districts to use squishy alternative performance assessments to award diplomas to students who do not pass the high school exit exam. This legislation lowers a bar that was already low.

Students are tested for knowledge of eighth grade math and tenth grade English. They only have to answer a little more than half of the questions right and those who have not satisfied this requirement by the tenth grade are given five chances to retake the test. The requirement has already been pushed back from 2004 to 2006.

The alternative assessments will vary from school to school and will allow students who have not mastered the basic skills to easily slip through instead of getting the additional help they need. Since these students will not have mastered the reading and math, their diplomas will not help their chances in the workforce or higher education.

Lowering the bar is also likely to increase the amount of remedial work at the college level where an alarmingly high percentage of students arrive unprepared. AB 1531 proponent Karen Bass is afraid that linking a diploma to the exit exam would lead to a higher dropout rate. But so far there has not been any evidence that this will happen. In fact, a recent report by the Virginia-based Human Resources Research Organization, which assesses the test annually, found that more students in the class of 2006 are progressing normally from the tenth to the eleventh grade.

Nearly 70,000 students who were unable to demonstrate the skills needed to graduate by the tenth grade were able to do so by the end of the eleventh grade. Without the exit exam, many students would not have received the extra help or been as motivated to make use of remedial programs. Latino and black students still lag behind whites and Asians, but their passing rates are improving as more schools, spurred on by both federal law and the need to boost graduation rates, are coming up with more effective remedial programs.

Unfortunately, while the Human Resources Research Organization report recommends keeping the exit exam, it also suggests that the state come up with additional options such as creating a portfolio or summer school in lieu of passing the test. State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, who should be applauded for asking the governor to veto Ms. Bass’s bill, seems to be wavering on his stance. He would consider “additional options,” he said, for the 90,000 seniors who have yet to pass the exit exam. While increasing remedial classes and tutoring is good, the goal should be to help students pass the exam, not avoid it. Irresponsible schools that give out passing grades to students who can barely read and calculate are the reason California needs an exit exam in the first place.

More students are taking the exit exam seriously because they have been told that they need to pass in order to graduate. More schools are aligning their instruction to the state standards because that’s what the exam measures. Squishy alternatives would only confuse students and slow progress. That is why Governor Schwarzenegger should veto AB 1531. Superintendent O’Connell should support that veto and stick with the exit exam.