Students score highly on exit exam Students score highly on exit exam (August 27, 2004)

Girls performed better than boys

By Julie O'Shea

Mountain View-Los Altos high school district officials said they hope there will be no more false starts to the state's high school exit exam, a test students must pass to receive their diplomas.

California administrators put the controversial test on ice in 2003 because the statewide passage rate was at a depressing low. State Superintendent Jack O'Connell said he wanted to give students more time to study. The test was reinstated earlier this year.

But Mountain View-Los Altos Associate Superintendent Brigitte Sarraf said if the test is yanked again, "It would be dead.

"Students won't take it seriously," she said. "This is definitely a go for 2006."

The results, released to the public last week, show that nearly 90 percent of the district's Class of 2006, the first group of students required to take the test, passed both the language arts and math portions. This puts the Mountain View-Los Altos Union district slightly above the Santa Clara County average, which is around 80 percent, and further above the state average at 75 percent.

Overall, 88 percent of Mountain View-Los Altos 10th-graders who took the test last spring passed the math portion, and 86 percent passed the English language arts section.

"I think we continue to do well. Our scores are strong," Superintendent Rich Fischer said, adding that he is confident each member of the Class of 2006 will receive their diploma in two years.

By school, 85 percent of sophomores at Mountain View High passed the language arts portion, while 87 percent passed the math section. At Los Altos High, 89 percent passed language and 91 percent passed math.

Interestingly, girls outperformed boys in both categories at both schools by as much as eight percentage points. District administrators took notice of the statistic; however, no one seems to understand why girls are doing better on the test.

"The scores are often surprising," Fischer said, speculating that perhaps girls are taking the test more seriously then boys, but that boys will start taking it seriously when their chances of passing the high-stakes exam begin to dwindle.

Sarraf said that the Mountain View-Los Altos community has high expectations, and girls often enter high school with "a healthy dose of self-esteem and self-confidence."

But even with these high marks, Sarraf and Fischer acknowledged that there are some trouble spots.

"That's something we are studying," Sarraf said, noting that she has met extensively with the high school principals to set benchmark goals and to zero in on areas presenting the greatest challenge to their students.

"We are very well set up to help these kids pass," Fisher said.

Indeed, the district has a tutorial center that gives students extra help with math and language skills.

And those students who are English language learners receive an extra year to study for the test before they are required to take it, Sarraf said. In addition, these teens are put into two-hour daily English classes and are encouraged to go to summer school. They can also choose to take a third hour of English instead of an elective course, Sarraf said.

The state mandates that all students -- regardless of whether they are English language learners or in special education -- must pass before they graduate. However, Sarraf said this is not possible for some of the district's severely academically challenged students. She said she plans to ask the school board to pass a resolution enabling these students to receive a certificate of attendance.

The high school exit exam will be given to 10th-graders in February 2005. Juniors who failed to pass it last year can take a makeup test in November and again in March.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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