Updating our Feb. 22 report: “A judge Friday suspended California’s high school exit exam, finding it discriminatory in a ruling that could allow thousands of students who failed the test to get their diplomas anyway.” Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman “agreed with the plaintiffs that the exam discriminates against poor students and those who are learning English. ‘There is evidence in the record that shows that students in economically challenged communities have not had an equal opportunity to learn the materials tested,’ Freedman wrote.” It would appear that from now on a high school diploma is meant to signify not a student’s actual mastery of a certain body of material, but rather the mastery he or she would have attained had the breaks of life been fairer. Employers, and all others who rely on California high school diplomas in evaluating talent, would be well advised to adjust their expectations accordingly.
“Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said the state would immediately appeal the ruling, which he said creates ‘chaos’ for more than 1,100 high schools that are completing graduation preparations.” However, plaintiff Mayra Ibanez was gratified:
“It is hard to be poor. It is hard to grow up in a place where there is a lot of crime,” said the 18-year-old, a Mexican immigrant who attends school in the working-class San Francisco Bay area city of Richmond. “No one will be hurt if we get our diploma.”
(Juliet Williams, “Ruling Blocks Calif. High School Exit Exam”, AP/Forbes, May 12).
8 Comments
When does the California Bar Exam come up for review for the same reasons?
And while Judge Freedman is at it, how about all other life emoluments? Surely we’d all be richer were it not for certain tough breaks.
“No one will be hurt if we get our diploma.”
Wrong Mayra. YOU will be hurt.
Why not let drug stores sell high school diplomas? If that happens, then Medicaid can hand them out for free.
There’s good discriminatory and bad discriminatory.
Bad discrimination occurs when someone is unfairly held back for 1) conditions outside their control, and 2) the irrelevance of those conditions to the benefit denied. Thus, color of skin is outside the control of the individual, and has no bearing on valid awarding of a high school diploma.
Good discrimination occurs when the discriminant factor is relevant to the outcome afforded. This is the basis of a meritocracy, where performance is rewarded. We grant good grades to people who meet the standards set for those grades. We give diplomas to people who meet the standards for graduation. We are discriminant, in a good way, when we seek a doctor who graduated higher than last in his class. When looking for a Rabbi we don’t look for people wearing Roman collars.
Discriminant and discrimination are not ugly dirty terms. It is how people behave as part of enlightened self interest everyday. We should seek and eliminate unfair discrimination that harms people for irrelevant issues. Asking prospective high school graduates to pass a minimal exam of proficiency is not discriminatory.
Yes, Mayra, someone will be hurt. Namely, every graduate who actually learned the required material. Ok, so it’s not “screwdriver in the forehead” harm, but it is real.
the exam discriminates against poor students
Can’t have that. Intolerable.
I’d vote for even more strict rules for getting diplomas.