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Thursday, April 10, 2003
Disabled Students Flunking Exit Exam
Advocates for Special Education students say test’s unfair

Excerpted:
Locally, Wayland Wong of the Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL) on “A” Street in Hayward is campaigning hard against the current exit exam. CRIL is an advocacy organization for the disabled.
“What the legislature wanted to do is give no accommodations, zip, nothing,” says Wong. “But in the real world, guess what, Those accommodations are there. They are our civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our philosophy at CRIL is that people should have pride in themselves, despite their disability, and should use whatever resources are available.”
Wong was injured in a car accident 10 years ago. Before that, he says, “I felt sorry for those kids in Special Ed. After my injury I got involved with the disability community. We tell people to not sell themselves short because of a disability.
“I think the exit exam will rob many students of future job opportunities. Where are they going to end up? They can’t go on to college. They might be allowed to get labor work. But it limits their choices. And it’s immoral to rip someone’s choices away.”

By Linda Sandsmark

When California mandated a high school exit exam in 1999, it sounded like a reasonable requirement.
Despite its name, it does not test material learned in all four years of high school – rather it addresses English content standards through grade 10, plus math through Algebra 1.
Students are given multiple opportunities each year to take and retake the test. Nineteen other states already have similar graduation requirements in place.
But passage rates are low enough to worry parents and students, especially disabled students. Statewide, 54 percent of those tested passed the English portion, and less than 40 percent passed the math. According go Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a legal advocacy organization in Oakland, over 90 percent of special education students failed the exam when it was given last year.
“A lot of districts don’t know what to do,” says Stephen Tollafield of DRA.
The California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) affects students beginning with the 2003-04 school year. It is being met in advance with a series of legal challenges.
A controversial Assembly bill (AB 356, Hancock) would eliminate CAHSEE as a graduation requirement, unless school districts decide to retain it. It has already passed the Assembly Education Committee review and is winding its way through the legislative process.
Senator John Burton is sponsoring a different bill, SB 964, which forces the state to defer the high-stakes consequences of the exam until 2007. According to Tollafield, the bill requires the state to prove students are actually taught the material tested. It also requires a reasonable accommodation policy for disabled students.
“Reasonable accommodation” means allowing disabled students use of the same methods permitted in the classroom as described in the Individual Education Plan (IEP).
Tollafield says some prohibited accommodations, including use of a dictionary or calculator to solve “story problems” can render the test invalid.
“If they take the test and it’s invalidated, the students are shunted into a waiver process which no one seems to understand because it keeps changing. Parents, not the schools, have the responsibility to pursue the waiver, but parents don’t even know it,” says Tollafield.
Information available on-line from the California Department of Education confirms that if a student’s current accommodation includes a calculator, it may be used, but that such use renders the score “not valid.” Then “at the request of a parent or guardian, a school principal shall submit a request for a waiver.”
Another gray area is between “accommodations” versus “modifications.” Accommodations, such as providing more test-taking time, are still allowed. Modifications change what is being tested and can render the test invalid.
For example, if a section is read to the student, it essentially tests listening skills as opposed to reading skill. If a calculator is used, it does not verify that the student can independently do the math.
Cathy Von Ibsch of San Lorenzo School District’s Special Services says all the district’s high school students are taking the exam. Students will use accommodations specified in their 504 (disability) plan and IEP.
“We’re in the process of writing the waiver, but it’s not completed because not all the mandates have come down from the state,” she says.
In San Leandro, the situation is much the same.
“We have 120 to 130 kids with IEP’s right now at the high school who are going to be affected. The graduating class this year is not affected. Our juniors just took the test and we don’t yet know how they did,” says Dierdre Lasher, Director of Special Services.
“We will apply for a waiver, and the key word is ‘apply.’” “It’s not a given that we receive it,” she added.
According to Lasher, each student’s waiver is requested individually.
Locally, Wayland Wong of the Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL) on “A” Street in Hayward is campaigning hard against the current exit exam. CRIL is an advocacy organization for the disabled.
“What the legislature wanted to do is give no accommodations, zip, nothing,” says Wong. “But in the real world, guess what, Those accommodations are there. They are our civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our philosophy at CRIL is that people should have pride in themselves, despite their disability, and should use whatever resources are available.”
Wong was injured in a car accident 10 years ago. Before that, he says, “I felt sorry for those kids in Special Ed. After my injury I got involved with the disability community. We tell people to not sell themselves short because of a disability.
“I think the exit exam will rob many students of future job opportunities. Where are they going to end up? They can’t go on to college. They might be allowed to get labor work. But it limits their choices. And it’s immoral to rip someone’s choices away.”
Additional details about the waiver process are available on-line at www.cde.ca.gov/waiver. For information on Disability Rights Advocates call 451-8644 or see www.dralegal.org.

Article reprinted through permission of Maggie Sharpe: Managing Editor.