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Governor Gray Davis
300 South Spring Street
South Tower, Suite 16701
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Dear Governor Davis,

Hello, my name is Zoe Blake and I am a 14-year-old high school student. I am currently attending Santa Monica High School and I am in the ninth grade. As a member of the first class to take the High School Exit Exam, I would greatly appreciate it if you took my thoughts and opinions on this matter into consideration. I believe that this is a poor assessment of what students have learned and are capable of, and should not be a requirement for graduation.

Seeing as everyone has to be able to pass the same test, it brings up several problems. When researching for this, I came upon the fact that everyone including the special education and English as a Second Language students have to pass it in order to graduate. This is extremely unfair to them. Not to say that they are not as smart as the rest of us, but rather that their learning process is slower. They could be trying really hard throughout the whole year but at the same time not be getting good grades. So when it come time for them to take the exit exam, they don’t pass and end up having to stay behind. This isn’t always the best thing to do to a kid. As for the kids whose English is not their first language, how can you expect them to do well? If this test is supposed to be challenging for students who have been dealing with English for their whole lives, there is no way that students who are just learning English are able to understand how to do everything.

Another huge problem is the matter of money. The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District already has a lack of money. These tests are extremely costly and might possibly be a waste. We should be spending our money on things such as books, computers, supplies (so that teachers don’t have to buy their own), and teachers so that classes can be smaller and they can have better contact with their students. We also already have so many tests that we have to take such as Stanford 9 and the SATs. Those are crucial tests that we have to worry about and study for. Trying to get into college is hard enough, but also needing to worry about just graduating is extremely stressful.

On the other side of things, some would say that passing the test would prove that you are worthy of going to college. But this test doesn’t evaluate everyone’s knowledge. Different people learn in different ways. Just writing an essay, answering multiple choice questions, or solving math problems doesn’t test other types of learning methods. A person might be stronger in one subject compared to another and the test isn’t broad enough to assess everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

Some people would say that this test shows if teachers are doing their job or not. The truth is that some of the curriculum on the test was not taught to students in the first place. Students at SAMO are at many different levels of learning. One might be taking honors English and Geometry, and others might be taking ESL and Algebra. Only the Geometry students would understand the math section. So how can you give a test on something that half of the students haven’t even learned yet? We haven’t even completed our first year of high school and you are already giving us a test on material we should have learned in all of our years here.

As a student I find this test meaningless and unfair; especially to evaluate us on information that most of us haven’t even learned yet. All I ask of you is that you take this letter into consideration and think of all of the pros and cons of the test. I appreciate that you are taking time out of your busy schedule to read this. Thank you very much. It is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Zoe Blake

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