ANGST OVER EXIT EXAMS IT'S CRUNCHTIME FOR 7,500 SENIORS.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

Elizabeth Padilla has lost count of how many times she's taken the high school exit exam, but she knows well the number of chances she has left to be able to graduate in June alongside her friends: One.

Two points shy of passing the last time, the B-student is nervous about the test coming up on Feb. 7. If she doesn't pass the math portion, she'll have to attend summer school before taking another crack at the state-mandated test that all students must pass - beginning with the Class of 2006 - in order to receive a diploma.

Her senior year hasn't exactly turned out the way she had envisioned it.

She's taking test preparation courses during and after school, as well as Saturday classes to brush up on her math skills. If she didn't attend the test prep classes, she wouldn't be allowed to attend senior events.

``It's not fair. Last year they didn't have to pass it to graduate and now we have to,'' said Padilla, 18, who attends Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley.

``When I started high school, they never said anything about having to pass it. Then senior year they said you have to pass in order to graduate.''

Padilla is among 7,500 Los Angeles Unified seniors - out of about 30,000 students who compose the Class of 2006 - who have yet to pass the two-day California High School Exit Exam. The results of the test administered in November are expected to be released by LAUSD in a couple of weeks - which means that Padilla actually may already have passed the exam. In the meantime, Padilla keeps on cramming.

District officials say this is exactly the crunch they want to avoid in coming years.

While pouring resources into classes to help all this year's seniors, the district also is preparing younger students to pass the test earlier in their high school careers. Sophomores, for example, will take test preparation classes before the February and March tests.

The district is also in discussions with local community colleges and adult schools to allow students who haven't yet passed the test to begin a post-secondary education with the opportunity to receive a high school diploma, said Bob Collins, chief instructional officer of secondary instruction at LAUSD.

Padilla said the test prep classes definitely helped her performance on the test, and she doesn't believe she'd be in the same situation had they offered the classes earlier on in high school.

Students are required to pass both sections of the exam, which consists of 92 math and 79 English-language arts questions and one essay. Students need to correctly answer 55 percent of the math questions - which tests up to Algebra 1 - and 60 percent of the English - which tests concepts through the 10th grade.

``The vast majority of kids are passing it, can pass it and will pass it in this first year,'' school board member David Tokofsky said. ``But there are clearly bubbles of nonpassing in areas where kids are in greater concentrations of poverty, they're learning English or overcrowded schools.

``I'm really glad everyone's working diligently for the students to help them pass what they call the high school exit exam. But it appears to me that is either a junior high exit exam or a high school entrance exam, except for those kids with special needs.''

LAUSD's last-minute push has been costly.

The district spent about $7.7 million this year to help those seniors who had not passed the test, spokeswoman Stephanie Brady said. A portion of that was reimbursed by the state, which distributed $20 million - $600 per eligible student and about $1.3 million to LAUSD - to its school districts to provide intensive instruction and services for students in the class of 2006.

Tokofsky said he's been pushing for two years to better prepare students for the exit exam.

``Now, like many things in government bureaucracies, it's staring everybody right in the face,'' he said. ``We have to all start pushing up the hill and make sure there's a safety net for Jack and Jill if they fall down.''

The test has been mired in controversy ever since its inception. While most educators agreed that students should have mastered by the end of high school the skills tested, opponents said it's unfair to base graduation on the outcome of one test.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell came out last week in support of the exam as an indicator of basic high school proficiency, and did not propose alternatives to graduation.

But he is working with the Legislature to lift enrollment caps and increase funding for adult education programs; ensuring access to summer school; offering independent study programs; and funding a $2.5 million summer administration of the CAHSEE.

He also called for eligibility for Cal Grants to students who meet all other high school graduation and grade-point average requirements, but have not passed the CAHSEE.

The test is administered five times a year statewide and students can take the test one time their sophomore year, twice their junior year and up to three times their senior year.

About 78 percent of the state's Class of 2006 has already passed both parts of the exam. But about 100,000 students have yet to pass, excluding November's testing results.

At Polytechnic, 222 in a senior class of 865 have not passed the test. Last year, when the test didn't apply, about 52 students in a senior class of 835 did not graduate because they dropped out or didn't have enough credits. That number has been fairly consistent over the past few years, officials said.

Statewide, 343,484 students graduated in 2003-04, in a class with an enrollment of 395,194.

Now, the Polytechnic teaching community has rallied around the common goal of getting the last couple hundred students to pass, with electives teachers volunteering to teach to the test during their classes.

Polytechnic senior Monica Lozano moved to the U.S. from Mexico four years ago and spent two years in English-language learner classes. She finds herself having a tough time with the English and writing portion of the test, which she's taken three times.

``It's hard and I'm a little nervous because I don't know if I'm going to pass it,'' said Lozano, 19, who has a C-average. ``I really want to pass the test because I want to graduate on stage.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(color0 Polytechnic High School students, left to right, Heriberto Aguilar, 18, Monica Lozano, 19, and Elizabeth Padilla, 18, are among the 7,500 seniors still cramming for the LAUSD exit exam.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

Box:

Would you pass?

SOURCE: California Department of Education 

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist