Your editorial, "School district makes best of test," (Review, March 8) was very nice - but missed the bigger picture.
This is not a high threshold test. The California Department of Education, describes the California High School Exit Exam as "addresses state content standards through grade 10. The passing score for the mathematics part of the exam is approximately 55 percent of the test questions correct, passing score for the English-language arts part of the exam is approximately 60 percent." In fact, a significant percentage of the students pass while in the 10th grade.
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Of the 38 students who "disappeared," we can only guess how many would have passed the exit exam. Of the 37 who didn't drop out, just how many years should it take to get 60 percent correct on a test geared to 10th grade material? Of English speaking students, we expect them to make that standard on a foreign language test, within three years of instruction, one class period a day. Why not the same of English learning students, taught for a full day, for three years?
How is it that CUSD, with more money, is teaching English half as effectively as similar districts? The most recent year's data shows only 83 percent of CUSD seniors received a high school diploma - before the exit exam requirement.
Sadly, we are on target to seeing the continuation of a dismal record: 25 to 30 percent of CUSD entering freshman never graduate!
I agree with you - it is not the student's fault!
Ken Johnson
Half Moon Bay
Editor's note: CUSD Superintendent John Bayless takes issue with the dropout rate listed in the letter. He notes that some students leave the school over the course of their academic careers - some returning to Mexico - and that explains why some incoming freshmen do not graduate at Half Moon Bay High School. He points to state figures showing fewer than 1 percent of students dropped out in the 2003-04 school year, the last for which figures are available.
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