When Massachusetts administered its exit tests the year before last, initially to 10th graders, close to 80percentt of black and Hispanic students failed the math portion.
The vehicle, which is aiming to first launch with a crew aboard the Space Launch System SLSS) heavy lift rocket sometime between 2021 and 2023, underwent water exit testing (via Space) in the Gulf of Mexico, to see how it would fare if astronauts ever have to let themselves out and boat to safety after a Pacific Ocean splashdown.
For higher education, there are exit tests for various English programs: Practical English Test for Colleges (PRETCO) for vocational school students, College English Test (CET) Band 4 and Band 6 for non-English majors, and Test for English Majors (TEM) Band 4 and Band 8 for English majors.
The Regents would thus become an "exit test" for high-school graduation.
Most states have postponed exit tests rather than face the music.
"For the class of 2004, 20 states will require graduates to pass an exit test, and four more are adding them," said Keith Gayler, associate director of the Center on Education Policy.
The bill would severely cut back exit tests, and lower the number of courses students must take in math and science.
The state is now shooting for 2006 and has agreed that students who fail the tests will have "an equivalent demonstration opportunity," which sounds suspiciously like the kind of two-track system that exit tests are meant to abolish.
The study, by Achieve Inc., a nonprofit organization created by state governors and business leaders, analyzed high school exit tests in mathematics and language arts from six states, and writing tests from four of the states.
When Arizona, to take perhaps the most extreme example, first administered its exit tests to 10th graders in 1999, 88percentt failed math, 72percentt failed writing and 38percentt failed reading.
