HIGH SCHOOL TEST NOT COMING ANYTIME SOON.

Byline: Alan Bonsteel

IN a few short days, California's 6.2 million public-school students will return to class. Among them will be the sophomores in the class of 2006 who are allegedly slated to be the first required to pass a high-school exit examination in order to graduate.

In fact, it won't happen. Without fundamental reform of California's public schools, we will never have a meaningful exit exam.

The class of 2004 was originally slated to be the first required to pass an exit exam. However, even though the exit exam is really set at about a 10th-grade level, early practice administrations made clear that more than one-third of that class wouldn't have graduated.

In June, state schools chief Jack O'Connell made an unsurprising proposal to postpone California's high school exit exam by at least two more years. In July, the State Board of Education took O'Connell's advice.

The most powerful force influencing California's public schools today is the California Teachers Association, which has contributed to the election campaigns of a majority of both houses of the Legislature, as well as to Mr. O'Connell. The CTA adamantly opposes both teacher testing and achievement tests of our students.

As a result of its influence, the only test applicants have to pass to become a teacher in California in is the CBEST, which is decidedly less difficult than the current high school exit exam. For example, the exit exam contains at least some rudimentary algebra, while the CBEST contains none. As boneheaded as it is, about 20 percent of teachers currently teaching in California have failed the CBEST at least once.

Why in the world would we expect our kids to be able to pass a high-school level examination when we don't demand the same of their teachers? Better still, shouldn't we expect our college-graduate teachers to be able to pass a college-level exam?

The lack of security on California's yearly STAR tests of academic performance has contributed mightily to complacence about our schools. The questions on the earlier STAR changed little from year to year and are now well known to teachers who can actually teach the test. This year, the STAR was largely revamped, and, although it was given statewide in its new form for the first time this year, the California Department of Education still alleged ``improvements'' in test scores, despite a lack of any meaningful comparison. Thus, test scores have climbed every year since the STAR's inception.

By contrast, scores on more secure tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the SAT have largely been flat, and discouragingly low, in California. Therefore, the current exit exam debacle is no surprise to informed observers.

Further, even if the STAR weren't a flawed examination, it still couldn't tell us what we need to know to get the best teachers in the classroom. As a sop to the CTA, the STAR test scores aren't broken down to the classroom level. Thus, principals have no way to know who is and who isn't an effective teacher.

And, even if principals had that data, they wouldn't be able to put it to use. One of the main reasons for the existence of the CTA is to make sure that California never abolishes its teacher tenure system, which makes teaching a government job guaranteed for life.

The miserable performance of our high-school students on standardized examinations is more disheartening still in light of our deplorable 33 percent dropout rate. The kids dropping out are the lowest performers academically. If there were some way to round up the dropouts and test them as well, the meltdown of our public schools would be that much more obvious.

Let's get real. The class of 2006 can relax. California isn't going to have a meaningful exit exam any time soon.