Report Indicates Decline in High School Dropouts Since Inception of Exam

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today commented on the seventh annual independent evaluation of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). The evaluation for the school year 2005-06 was conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) and is the first independent evaluation released since the CAHSEE became a graduation requirement, starting with the Class of 2006.

"I am pleased that the findings of this evaluation indicate the Exit Exam is working as intended," said O'Connell.  "This study found that students are focused on meeting the challenge of higher expectations by working harder in school, taking more courses, and getting the help they need to master the essential math and English skills measured by the Exam. Evaluators also found that, contrary to the fears and dire predictions, fewer students in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades are dropping out of high school. I believe this is a direct result of the Exit Exam bringing attention and resources to those students struggling the most. I am also pleased to see that more high school students are reaching for the higher bar of college and Advanced Placement (AP) courses."

 Among the findings of the HumRRO evaluation are:

• Dropout rates from tenth through twelfth grades have declined in the years since the CAHSEE requirement was established.
• Most twelfth graders in the Class of 2006 who still needed to meet the CAHSEE requirement continued to work hard throughout their senior year.
• The percentage of eleventh and twelfth graders taking AP courses has risen from 13 percent to 21 percent between 2000 and 2005.
• Scores on college placement tests increased in 2005.
• High school principals indicated the CAHSEE has had a positive influence on instruction and that they are implementing new ways to identify students who need additional help.

For this report, HumRRO conducted additional analyses of Exit Exam results of English learners. The report shows that students who had been English learners but were reclassified as fluent in English passed both portions of the Exit Exam at higher rates than students overall. But, Exit Exam results have consistently shown that students still classified as English learners have had more difficulty than other subgroups in passing the Exam, even though more than half of those students have attended public school in the United States for 10 years or more.

"HumRRO's evaluation highlighted aspects of the achievement gap about which I remain very concerned," O'Connell said. "This deeply concerns me as one in four students in California is learning the English language, and the pass rate among English learners is among the lowest of all demographic subgroups. The evaluation found that many students are still classified as English learners after as many as 10 years in our public education system. Clearly this is unacceptable. These results indicate that we are not teaching our students English quickly enough. We need to redouble our efforts and develop new strategies to help these students. We cannot retreat from our rigorous standards in English or any other subject, but we must raise our expectations and improve our approach to assisting these students so they will be ready to succeed in the challenging global economy of the 21st century."

The HumRRO report included several recommendations for policymakers to consider regarding the CAHSEE.

"I fully embrace the policy recommendations included in this report, chiefly that we improve the preparation of students in middle school and that we continue to focus efforts on helping students who are struggling with the CAHSEE in their sophomore and junior years, as well as helping students in the Class of 2006 who did not graduate with their class continue with their education," O'Connell said. "I also agree strongly with the recommendation that the California Department of Education gather more lessons from schools that have been successful in helping students achieve proficiency in English, a process that we have already begun. We will also work to share these best practices with schools that have high populations of students who have not successfully met the CAHSEE requirement. Improving the collection and sharing of best practices so we can serve as a broker of expertise is one of my primary goals for the Department of Education."

The Year 7 Independent Evaluation of the CAHSEE can be found at Year 7 Evaluation - California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE).

This is the seventh year that HumRRO has conducted the independent evaluation of the CAHSEE that is required by California Education Code Section 60855. HumRRO will provide one more CAHSEE independent evaluation report in 2007 under the current contract with CDE.