69ý

Law & Courts

Latest Decision Keeps Calif. Exit-Exam Law as Graduations Near

By Linda Jacobson — June 06, 2006 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

The legal roller-coaster ride is over, at least for now, for California high school seniors who have not passed the state’s exit exam.

The First District Court of Appeal, in San Francisco, turned down a request late last month for an expedited hearing from the lawyers representing the five students named in the case, Valenzuela v. ※DzԲԱ.

That means the lawsuit won’t be settled before this year’s high school graduation ceremonies are held, and students who have not passed both the mathematics and language arts sections of the exam won’t be receiving diplomas this month.

State schools Superintendent Jack ※DzԲԱ, who has stood firm on the exit-exam requirement, praised the court’s decision, saying it gives school districts the certainty they need to proceed with graduation exercises as they were planned before the exit exam was challenged in court earlier this year.

Mr. ※DzԲԱ also announced that an additional 4,542 students had passed both sections of the exam after taking the test in March, bringing the percentage of high school seniors who have met the exit-exam requirement to 90.4 percent. That leaves roughly 41,700 seniors across California who have not passed the test in time to receive diplomas this month.

“These students are still welcome and part of the public school family; … each student will continue to have opportunities to receive their high school diploma,” Mr. ※DzԲԱ said during a June 1 news conference at John Burroughs High School in Burbank. Arturo J. Gonzalez, the lawyer with the San Francisco-based firm Morrison & Forrester who brought the lawsuit against the state, had asked the appellate court to hold a hearing last week. But for now, written briefs from the plaintiffs won’t be due until June 13, and oral arguments won’t be heard until July 25. High school commencement exercises for 2006 will be over by then.

Show of Defiance

While California educators and students were adjusting to the latest turn of events last week, the school board of the 48,000-student Oakland Unified School District voted May 31 to defy state law and the court and said it would issue diplomas to its 140 seniors who haven’t passed the exit exam.

Mr. ※DzԲԱ, the state schools chief—who appointed state Administrator Randolph Ward to run the bankrupt district and who has legal authority over the Oakland schools—said the board’s vote was meaningless. The school board was stripped of its decisionmaking powers when the state took control of the district in 2003.

“If there’s one district that is not going to do that, it’s Oakland,” Mr. ※DzԲԱ said at the news conference in Burbank. “I am running that school district.”

Elsewhere, districts were left to decide how to handle graduation ceremonies, which begin as early as next week, for students who haven’t pass the exam.

In the 742,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District, students who have not passed both sections of the exit test, but have met all other requirements for graduation, will be able to participate in their schools’ graduation ceremonies. But instead of a diploma, they’ll receive a “certificate of course credits and requirements.”

Mr. Gonzalez, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, also has encouraged parents statewide to ask their local school officials to allow students who have not passed the exit exam to take part in such ceremonies.

In a possible further twist, Mr. Gonzalez said in a May 26 statement that if the appellate court finds in favor of his clients and upholds a lower-court judge’s decision lifting the requirement, seniors who have not passed both portions of the exam might still be awarded diplomas later this summer.

Staff Writer Lesli A. Maxwell contributed to this report
A version of this article appeared in the June 07, 2006 edition of Education Week as Latest Decision Keeps Calif. Exit-Exam Law As Graduations Near

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Law & Courts Supreme Court Weighs High-Stakes Fraud Issue for E-Rate Program
The justices appear to lean toward a ruling that could help keep schools from being overcharged by telecommunications companies.
8 min read
Image of students working on a computer.
Carlos Barquero Perez/iStock/Getty
Law & Courts Court Battles and Presidential Election Have Big Implications for Title IX Regulation
A federal appeals court heard arguments about whether some provisions of the Title IX regulation should be allowed to go into wider effect.
4 min read
Image of a gavel
iStock/Getty
Law & Courts Top Affirmative Action Foe Has New Target: Scholarships for Aspiring Minority Teachers
The legal activist behind the U.S. Supreme Court college admissions decision has now sued over an Illinois minority scholarship program.
3 min read
A picture of a gavel on a target.
Bill Oxford/Getty
Law & Courts This State Requires 69ý to Teach the Bible. Parents and Teachers Are Suing
Opponents of an Oklahoma directive that compels schools to teach the Bible are suing the state’s superintendent of public instruction.
4 min read
Image of a young boy pulling the bible off of a bookshelf.
D-Keine/E+