Exit Exams

I think my high school brought in an exit exam instead of doing MAP tests...I am not sure as when I graduated in 2008, I didn't have to do any of that. But at that time they started bringing in tests for freshman to prepare for the ACT and other stuff, so who knows.

There has been issues around the country about such exams as being biased against minorities. Personally I prefer an exit exam over a state mandated MAP test which is biased in an even more uncontrollable way. At least you can prepare a minority for a test, but you can't control how a teacher teaches you.

My problem with standardized testing is that it doesn't fix the gap (I don't like No Child Left Behind), schools lose accredidation and the cycle never ends because they no longer have the funding to improve the bad conditions that keep it bad. On top of that, different schools have different results when it comes to teaching.

In my history classes we never got past the World Wars...but in some schools they have managed to get up to Vietnam, heck its like that in some classes within in one school itself.

With exit exams, one can focus more directly on the needs of the school alone and not focus in as a state. That is if the exit exams are made by the school, in some cases they may not be, which then defeats the point.

But, when it comes to the gaps and level of complexity in these types of exams when it comes to minorities should alarm parents, schools, and the student themselves that something has to change.

Should we get rid of the tests? Should they be made easier? No and no. Making them easier defeats the whole point...getting rid of them won't solve anything.

I think schools should offer programs to help students, it should be required and funded by the state so that every school can have one. Parents need to be trying to find a way to help their kids.

In a rare moment, I actually have to agree with the republicants for once. If we keep making things too easy, then how will it ever instill in anyone to actually study?

Yes, I know how it feels to study for hours on a test, and do worse than you did on the test you studied less for. I know how it feels to get an F, but I also know how it feels to get an A, and in some cases an A+.

I hate studying, and I hate working hard. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't. I don't put in nearly as much of an effort as I could but I still put in an effort.

The problem with the black community is that its got its prioritys out of alignment. Yes, living conditions are bad, but instead of letting gangs, rap, and sex and other bad things have such a strong influence on blacks, why not instill libraries, boy scouts, reading and writing and studying hard?

I don't consider myself smart but I don't consider myself stupid either. I graduated high school with lots of honors and a 3.7 cumulative GPA because I worked hard in my classes (or most of them anyways), I was the overachiever that people hated because I got upset over having less than the best grade based on the complexity or simplicity of the class.

Sure, even though I grew up poor and in a single parent household, I still had it better than some out there. But I do think that the fact that the gap is so wide or that minorities can't pass a test should make parents want to do something about that, as in helping their kids.

We aren't helping our race by wanting to get rid of the test rather than fix the problem that makes us feel we would need to get rid of that test.

Its like with anti-abortion people. They want to get rid of abortion, yet they don't want to support healthcare or work on poverty which are the main reasons abortion is so high in the first place.