New law suspends CAHSEE and awards retrospective diplomas
Students who have not passed the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) since 2006 will now be able to receive their high school diplomas after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill No. 172 on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The exam will also be suspended until the 2017-2018 school year.
According to the California Department of Education, the current CAHSEE, introduced in 2006, tests English-language arts and mathematics content standards and is a requirement, in addition to other class credit graduation prerequisites, for earning a diploma. Students first take the test in tenth grade and have up to eight chances to take and pass the test before the end of senior year.
“Our pass rate here at Newbury Park High School is close to 99 percent,” said principal Joshua Eby, “So it has never really had a huge effect on our graduation numbers.”
On her website, Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) indicated that she authored SB 172 in February amid concerns that the CAHSEE no longer reflected California’s new Common Core standards. The law suspending the test will take effect in January and award diplomas to those who have met all other requirements besides passing the CAHSEE if they contact their school districts. While there will be no exit exam for the next three years, committees will be working to create a new test that reflects the new standards.
“It will be nice for us to go back to our students from the previous nine years and grant diplomas to, I would say, under 10 students that met all of the high school graduation requirements except for that test,” Eby said.
