Class of '06 fares well on exit exam Class of '06 fares well on exit exam (September 02, 2005)

By Katie Vaughn

The first graduating class to take the national high school exit exam generally fared well in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District. Nearly 90 percent of the students who will graduate in 2006 at the district's two main high schools passed the test, according to associate superintendent of educational services Brigitte Sarraf.

"We were pleased with our results," Sarraf said.

The exit exam, now a requirement for graduating high school, is administered to sophomores. If students don't pass, they are given retake opportunities as juniors and seniors. Additionally, schools hold "intervention" classes to help students in danger of not passing.

"This is of very high importance to everyone," Sarraf said. "It has very high consequences. If you don't pass, you don't get your diploma."

According to Sarraf, cumulative results for the Class of 2006 -- averaging together all the times students took the exam -- find that 89 percent of Mountain View High School and 87 percent of Los Altos High School students passed the math portion of the test, and that 89 and 90 percent, respectively, passed the language section (referred to by educators as "English-language arts").

The roughly 11 percent of students not accounted for in these statistics either did not pass the test or did not take it at all, Sarraf said. This group includes English language learners new to the country, as well as a significant number of special-education students, some of whom may ultimately be exempt from the exam requirement and will alter the district's test results.

At Alta Vista High School, the district's continuation high school for juniors and seniors at risk of not graduating, 32 percent did not take or pass the math component of the exit exam, while 25 percent fared the same in language, Sarraf said.

Class of 2007 students have already taken the exit exam as sophomores, but Sarraf said it is inappropriate to compare the scores with those of this year's seniors, who have had more opportunities to retake the exam. She added that data used in other recent media coverage of the exit exam was inaccurately reported.
E-mail Katie Vaughn at kvaughn@mv-voice.com

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