Is the basis for exit exams political or educational?
Exit Exams Sounded Good
No Child Left Behind is demanding accountability. Who would be against students being accountable for the diploma they receive on graduation day? Who would be against schools being accountable for teaching students what they need to know? Well, not many until you study how things really work in schools.
Taking a tough stand while pounding on a podium in the presence of other legislators does not make learning disabilities and learning styles disappear. Mandating accountability does not find homeless children a home, does not make drive by shootings disappear, does not make dads appear in a single parent home and it doesn’t improve language skills for ESL students (English as a Second Language).
Terri Sessoms from the International Center for Leadership in Education states that past generations were mostly auditory learners. Teachers lectured, students took notes, they memorized the information, gave it back, and learning occurred. Sessoms notes that the military has recently tested recruits on how they learn best. Lecture is no longer the effective way to teach. Students in our schools today are not auditory learners—they are visual learners.
One can discuss why the shift occurred until pigs fly and blame can be assigned in many directions. It could be that more television or more technology has caused the change, but the facts are that the shift has occurred and goal is to teach children.
Three Basic Modalities
While there are multiple intelligences, learning styles are condensed into three areas.
Auditory Learners -- learn by hearing.
Visual Learners -- learn by seeing.
Kinesthetic Learners -- learn by doing.
Teachers take these learning styles into account when teaching new concepts. Students may watch a presentation (visual), take notes as teacher instructs (auditory) and complete a project based on the same information (kinesthetic).
Multiple Assessments
Schools test for knowledge using multiple assessments. For example, a Science Fair Project shows the teacher more than a standardized test. A Science Fair Project requires
In the real world, which skill is more important? Being able to organize and complete a project or take a fill-in-the-dot test?
State Exams
Exit exams are now required in 22 states. Washington state is delaying the requirement. Utah has dropped it. The ACLU has spoken up against the tests. [Liz Bowie, baltimoresun.com, October 8, 2007] The standardized exit exams that many states are adopting favor the left-brained students. These students tend to learn by lecture, memorize easier, and don’t become confused with the answer choices. Right-brained students don't do as well on these tests in spite of knowing the topic. They see every answer as a possibility under the right conditions. In spite of knowing the information, they are likely to select an incorrect answer.
While demanding exit exams may sound good initially, these exams do not truly reflect the knowledge students hold. The exams don’t prepare the students for the real world where they are allowed to use manuals, ask questions, and are not allowed to perform at the 50% percentile.
Copyright article 2008 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.
The copyright of the article State Graduation Exam Debate in Educational Issues is owned by Barbara Pytel. Permission to republish State Graduation Exam Debate in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Since exit exams are required to be completed to graduate, all it is going
to do is add more stress to the students, cause the dropout rate to
increase, and cause less to graduate. Its an unneeded project that really
doesn't benefit anything. The exit exam wasn't required when I attended
high school, but something similar was. It was called the Capstone project
and pretty much if you took a 2nd part course elective, you had to do one.
There was way less work than the exit exam but it was very similar in that
you had to pick a career and do all of this stuff for it. Point being, it
did nothing to help me after graduation because most aren't even going to
pick a career they truly want to do, especially with the exit exam, as some
you are required to meet someone within that field and if you can't find
anyone then you have to settle, and the topic has to be approved. I know
this project will cause dropouts because my brother did this year because
of it. He told me it was too stressful and a lot of work to do on one
subject. He has ADHD so it is hard for him to focus on one subject like
that for 4 years and it causes stress and frustration, so he gave up and
started failing all of his classes because he knew he couldn't graduate if
he didn't do the project and eventually dropped out. This project is
frankly not doing much to help anybody, if someone wants to research a
career they're interested in, they can read about it all they want to in
books and on the internet. What will it take for them to realize it doesn't
help, it hurts.
Oct 17, 2008 7:44 AM
Guest :
Any exam is an indicator of what the student has learned and how well the
teacher has taught the subject. If we are going to require students to
pass an exit exam to graduate, then teachers must be held accountable for
trends in student's test scores. If the student does not do well, he/she
should graduate and analysis should be conducted to find the root cause of
trends (usually they will fall to school problems or teachers) and schools
should then be given the resources to fix them. Do not place four or more
years of bad instruction on the sholders of students without a plan to
properly educate the student after his/her failure and a plan to correct
institutional problems that aided in his/her failure. We should not have
to create new tests for each state when the ACT and SAT have been used for
years to admit students to college. Use these tests and draw conclusions
based on those test results.
May 4, 2009 11:51 AM
Guest :
I am currently a high shcool student in the state of Georgia,to me i dont
see why we have to to take the exam because the state already demands that
we earn 23.5 credits but if we dont pass the exam the credits are
pointless.I feel that the state dosent know what goes on in each classroom
and what the teachers are like and the teachers way of way teaching.
Another thing that bothers me is a child can attend Faith Academy by taking
the easy way out and not having to do hard work by just getting packets and
turning them in at the end of the week and not thake the exam and still get
accepted into a University but will still have to take a placement test,
but a child who cant pass a section of the exam will still be stuck in high
school.. im sorry i didnt use correct puncuation in this comment I was
in the middle of class and decided to implement my thoughts. The exam
is proves nothing sombebody remove it frome the state of Georgia.....IF 22
STATES SHOULD TAKE IT THEN ALL 50 SHOULD TAKE IT
May 28, 2009 11:06 AM
Guest :
Where did you go to school? Who are your parents and how involved in your
education are they? That's what decides how successful you are in school -
not the teachers. Students do not learn unless they WANT to. Teachers who
are held accountable for their students' scores are being penalized for
where their students live, how their parents treat education, how their
students view school, and what kind of lifestyle - drug, alcohol, gang, or
physical/mental abusive- their home/parents are subjecting them to and
forcing them to suffer through. A test does not change any of that. Some
students score the best they can but others don't really try because they
have a self-defeating attitude. Counseling is the best cure - or prevention
- for this - Not testing.
Aug 23, 2009 6:57 AM
Guest :
does anyone know the drop out rate in public high schools due to exit
exams?
