Well, I must say that I'm glad that crazy week is over. In my opinion the exit exams for high school are a huge joke. What a waste of money for a state that is near bankruptcy. The test was relatively easy. Some reading and questions to answer about what you read. Write a persuasive essay. Not too difficult, I could see that it might be hard if writing isn't something you enjoy, but really not too hard. The next day was the dreaded math portion. I really don't think Grace did too badly on it. May have been a couple questions she didn't understand, they were algebra questions and she had missed a huge part of the school both years she took algebra ( 8th & 9th grades), but other than those it was easy. There was actually a question that I'm sure most 3rd grade students would have laughed at. To top it all off you don't even have to score a 70% to pass? What's the point?
I just don't understand why they take an exam that is called an "exit exam" yet you take it 2 years before you plan to exit. You get several more tries just in case you need them, but I think 7 is a bit excessive. If you can meet the requirements to graduate you have far exceeded what is covered on the exam.
Just a huge waste of tax payer money, someone had to write those tests, print them, distribute them, probably training on how to give the tests, they have to be sent somewhere to score them, then mail results to homes and schools. Not to mention the waste of time, and not only the class time of those testing, but also those others in classes that have more sophomores than other grade levels. Doesn't make much sense to teach on test day when you're going to have to re-teach when testing is over. I just think that in the days of huge teacher lay-offs our $$ should be going toward something more important than useless tests. I'll climb off my soapbox now.
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