California's 'Practice' Test is for Real

By Jessica L. Sandham

Ninth graders in California who volunteered to take what many believed would be a practice run of the state's new high school exit exam received a surprise last week when they learned, just two days before exam day, that the test would count.

Faced with opposition from Senate Republicans, supporters of a plan to make last week's scheduled administration of the test a dry run fell three votes short of reaching the two-thirds majority needed to pass the emergency state legislation.

Ninth grade students who pass the reading, writing, and mathematics portions of the exam will not have to sit for the test again. Those who do not pass the test, which is required for graduation beginning in 2004, will have other...