A single, more difficult proficiency test should replace the 377 different district-developed tests that now determine who graduates and who doesn’t from California’s high schools.
This recommendation is one of six presented to the California state board of education earlier this month by the Students Advisory Board on Education, a group sponsored by the California Association of Student Councils.
The tests, established separately by each school district, are too easy, the student board said. Its members noted that only 4 percent of the state’s high-school seniors failed to pass the exam when the new com-petency program went into effect last year.
“Since the tests differ among districts,” the students said, “there is no assurance of uniformity in the level of achievement and knowledge among high-school graduates.”
The students also charged that the tests are not directly related to the instructional program as required by state law.
In another recommendation, the students asked the state board of education “to seek legislation to provide a 2-percent sales tax on all of California’s professional sports teams’ gross ticket sales...”
The income from this tax, the students said, should be distributed for interscholastic athletics in all the state’s public high schools. Since the enactment of California’s property-tax-cutting measure, Proposition 13, high-school sports programs have suffered from a severe shortage of funds, the students pointed out. As a result, a member of the student board said, “California high schools are being forced to eliminate sports or make team members pay to participate.”
In a third recommendation, the students asked the state to require that all teachers who are reassigned to new teaching fields demonstrate proficiency by passing the National Teacher Examination in the new subject if it is outside their major field of study.
