Students with learning disabilities campaign against high school exit exam

Special day class students at San Mateo High School wrote to the governor to complain that they were making good grades, but were fearful that they could not pass the high school exit exam without accommodations and modifications.

"We need your help to stop this unfair testing," they wrote. "We have no hope for the future". If you were in our position, you probably would feel that you could not pass it either. Why don't you come and take it with us this spring? You will see what we go through."

The governor did not respond to the students' suggestion, says special education teacher Linda Farnell, a member of the San Mateo Union High School District Teachers Association. But he did send form letters back to the students about testing, which completely ignored the issue of testing students with disabilities.

The letter to Davis was written after nearly 200 of the school's special education students met with a member of Assembly Member Lou Pappan's staff to discuss the proliferation in testing and reduction of meaningful vocational programs.

"To improve our students' understanding of how governmental agencies work, we used the high school exit exam as our canoe to navigate the waters of government," says Farnell, who co-chairs the school's special education department with Diane Termini, also a CTA member.

As part of the project, special day class and resource students began a letter writing and e-mail campaign, created a website on the issue and organized the trip to Sacramento to lobby legislators. "Along with making a point, we think we have found a way to teach letter-writing skills and some of the pertinent state standards," says Farnell.

Dear Governor Davis,

We are 9th and 10th grade students at San Mateo High School. We have a concern with the High School Exit Exam. We cannot pass it because we have difficulties in reading, math and/or spelling. It is unfair because we are in a special day class and need our accommodations and modifications. Special ed is made up of students with learning disabilities. We have good grades, but if we fail the exit exam, we do not graduate. It is making us feel unintelligent. How is that fair? There should be other ways to test our knowledge.

If we fail, the dropout rate is going to be higher. We will not even be able to get a good job or get into the Army. We need your help to stop this unfair testing. We have no hope for the future. It makes us worry all the time. If you were in our position, you probably would feel that you could not pass it either. Why don't you come and take it with us in the spring? You will see what we go through. We have not even covered everything that is on the test. So what is the point of special ed or even going to school if you cannot graduate?

Sincerely,
Special Day Class Students of Lorraine

Lewis, Room 44
San Mateo High School

Beginning with the class of 2004, students who do not pass the exit exam will not get a diploma. State officials are considering postponing the test because many students have not had an opportunity to learn the material on the test. Only 48 percent of the general education students in the class of 2004 have passed the English and math portions of the test.

Ironically, the special ed students' plea to be allowed a high school diploma in spite of the test comes at a time when politicians will soon reauthorize the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), which mandates that a "free and appropriate public education" be available for all disabled students. With 90 percent of disabled students flunking the exit exam in California, the situation is anything but appropriate, in the view of these San Mateo High School students.

"I feel like a second-class student," says Haley Sharpe, 16. "I've worked hard and tried to do my best. Now they are saying it's not enough. They [the politicians] are forgetting all about the students who won't have a future if they don't get a diploma."

Sharpe, who has dyslexia and a related problem with numbers, dyscalcula, passed the math portion of the exam with the help of a calculator. But using a calculator is a "modification" that makes the results of the test invalid, according to the California Department of Education.

Even if they answer every question correctly, students who take the test using calculators cannot officially pass the test. If enough questions are answered correctly, students may qualify for a waiver, which allows them to graduate. Last year, more than 30,000 disabled students did not pass the exit exam. Only 11 received waivers.

"In other states, there is an alternate assessment for special education students, but there is no plan for California to have one," says Sharpe, who is part of a class action lawsuit on behalf of disabled students.

The lawsuit against the state charges that the exit exam discriminates against students with disabilities. The students, represented by lawyers with Disability Advocates Rights Inc., are seeking to delay the test as a requirement until the state can ensure all students are being taught the standard curriculum, and until there are alternate tests for students with disabilities. Both CTA and the Oakland School Board have filed papers supporting the lawsuit.

The suit charges that students are unfairly tested on material they have not been taught, because such curriculum has not been included in their individual education plans (IEPs). According to one survey of high school principals in California, fewer than half of their school's disabled students had been taught the math portion of the test, and even fewer students had been taught the language arts portion.

Sid Wolinsky, the Oakland lawyer suing on behalf of the state's 173,470 disabled students, says that, under current conditions, mystery writer Agatha Christie and financier Charles Schwab would not be able to get diplomas in California because of learning disabilities.

The San Mateo students, who are mainstreamed in many of their classes, say they are frustrated and embarrassed to think they may not be able to graduate with their peers because of something over which they have no control. If they have failed the test, it has not been for lack of trying, they say.

Hector Mendoza, 16, spent last summer taking an HSEE preparation class in hopes of passing the test. But he failed anyway, and wonders whether he can ever achieve the goals he has set for himself.

"I want to make something of myself," he says. "If I ever have a family, I want to be able to take care of them."

Lauren Silver, 18, passed the English portion of the test, but has taken the math section five times. She has a problem processing numbers, but she knows this much: the odds are against her passing the test in her senior year.

"I should be able to use a scientific calculator, because I am able to use one in regular classes and I plan to use one in my regular life," she says. "I have gone through 12 years of school. If I don't get a diploma, what is the point? My choices will be limited for employment and college. And you can't even get into the military without a high school diploma."

For students with processing problems and attention deficit disorders, the length and intensity of the test can be draining and traumatizing. For example, Lauren Blackstock, 16, has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but was forced to sit still for so long that it seemed like torture. "I felt like I had to get up, but I was glued to a chair for four hours at a time for three days (two days for English; one day for math). It was very difficult for me to sit still that long. I needed to take breaks from the test environment but I couldn't, because it was not allowed."

While the governor is planning to take billions away from schools to balance the budget, he is not planning to take a dime away from testing, observes Farnell. The full cost of funding standardized tests and the high school exit exam is estimated at $120 million.

"To me, this whole thing seems very unfair," says Sharpe. "It's like there is a carrot dangling in front of our noses, but we can't ever get to it."

Sherry Posnick-Goodwin