Why go to high school all four years when you can pass the test in two?

by Dana Williams
cause and effect

A wise man once said, "The less you expect, the less you get." The California High School Proficiency Exam (C.H.S.P.E.) isn't expecting very much. This test, although it is supposed to be the equivalent of graduating in the upper class of high school, appears to contain no material stretching beyond the first semester of the sophomore year. Is the upper half of high school really that dumb? Or are tests like these an attempt to weed out bad students by giving them an easy out?

I was ahead when I decided to take the test. Although I was a junior, I was in a senior math class. I had taken two science classes in the same year, and I was a decent English student. I was ready to leave high school and figured I could pass the test. However, when the break came for the halfway point, I was already double-checking the last five problems of the test. Six or seven students finished before me. It was an easy test.

The test really only required math skills through algebra, with a minimal understanding of geometry. There was no science unless it was in a math context. All of the formulas were provided. The only history on the test was on a reading comprehension multiple choice section. The vocabulary section reminded me of the tests most students take to place them in their freshman year of high school. Actually, most of the exam reminded me of high school placement tests.

The whole point of graduating from high school is that you are supposed to know some things when you get out. And the whole point of going to high school four years is that you are supposed to learn something all four years. So why wasn't information representative of all four years on the test?

Some students thought the test was hard. However, they were also the students who didn't seem to care. The guy behind me kept muttering about wanting a cigarette, and had to ask someone else for a pencil. If students don't care enough to put any effort into graduating from high school, then they probably aren't ready for a job. The point is that graduating from high school should be something you earn.

This test is proof of one of the basic principles of life: what you don't ask for, you probably won't get. If your mother doesn't ask you to dust the living room, it will probably never get done. If you aren't expected to pick up litter, you most likely won't. The C.H.S.P.E. didn't expect students to learn all four years in high school. As a result, students who didn't know everything they should have to graduate, did anyway. What they weren't expected to know, they don't.

We should make the tests to graduate from high school harder. By doing so, we would be assured that graduates really knew all they should have learned. It would force students to work harder to graduate, preparing them for the life beyond high school. It would make a diploma more than a piece of paper or a measure of your age. It would be a measure of what you know.

Return to English 122 syllabus
Return to English 122 main page
Questions? Brian McKinney (bmckinne@home.com)