Like Paragraph Two Says: California’s Teachers and Students Are Succeeding — At Least as Measured By Test Results

 

2010–11 California High School Exit Examination Results Released

SACRAMENTO — Nearly 95 percent of students from the Class of 2011 passed the California High School Exit Examination and tests administered over the last school year also showed improvement among the state’s African American and Hispanic students, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced August 24.

“It’s heartening to see our students continue to learn and achieve despite the painful toll that budget cuts are taking on our schools,” Torlakson said. “The results of this year’s exit examination — and the progress schools are making to close the achievement gap — are yet another sign of the remarkable commitment that teachers, school employees, and administrators have to the students of California.”

The results are posted on the CDE Web site at http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov/.

The 2010–11 exam results show increasing passing rates among most demographic subgroups of students by the end of their senior year. Overall, approximately 94.6 percent or 422,558 students in the Class of 2011 successfully passed both the English-language arts and the mathematics portions of the exam by the end of their senior year.

(See Tables 1 and 3)

This year’s overall passing rate did not include students with disabilities as these students are currently exempt from meeting the exam requirement, except for taking the exam in Grade 10. Many of the students, however, continue to take the test.

For the Class of 2011, the passing rate for students with disabilities was 54.6 percent compared to 47.8 percent for students with disabilities from the Class of 2006.

African American members of the Class of 2011 had a 90.9 percent passage rate on the exam compared to last year’s 89.6 percent.

Of Hispanic students, 92.3 percent passed versus last year’s 91.4 percent.

Nearly 98 percent of Asian students passed, up .5 percent over last year.

And 98.4 percent of white students passed compared to 98.1 percent in the previous school year.

The percentage of students passing the exam in the 10th grade, which is the first time they can take the exam, has steadily increased.

Some 82.4 percent of the Class of 2013 has already passed the English Language Arts portion, compared to 80.6 percent of the Class of 2012. 

As for mathematics, the passage rate for first-time test takers in the Class of 2013 was 82.7 percent, compared to 80.7 percent of the Class of 2012.

(Tables 4 and 5)Current law says all public high school students must take the exam for the first time in 10^th grade. 

Students who don’t pass in 10^th grade have two tries in Grade 11 and at least thee and as many as five chances to pass in Grade 12.

 The results for the 2010–11 school year are provided at the school, district, county and statewide levels.

They cover the results of tests given in July, October, November and December 2010 as well as February, March and May 2011.

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