Utah juniors make headway on test

Utah high school juniors have made some headway on the high school graduation test, but one-fourth still are failing the math portion, second-round test data show.

The numbers, reported Wednesday to the State Board of Education, underscore the board's professed need for more money to help strugglers pass the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test (UBSCT), board chairman Kim Burningham said. The board once sought $10.1 million from the Legislature, but will adjust numbers based on the latest pass rates.

Meanwhile, Utah students scored above national averages on their premiere foray into the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Iowa Tests of Educational Development.

First, the UBSCT:

• All students, beginning with the class of 2006, must pass the three-part exam to receive a regular high school diploma. Alternative diplomas are available.

Students first take the UBSCT as sophomores, but can retake sections — reading, writing and math — up to five times until passed.

The test aims to give credibility to the high school diploma. But it's been criticized as having potential to increase dropout rates.

The numbers apply only to the class of 2006, which took the premiere test last February and retook failed sections last October. They show more than half the students who at first failed the reading and writing tests passed the second time around.

In February, 17 percent of students failed the UBSCT reading exam; in October, 56 percent of those students passed, state associate superintendent Christine Kearl reported.

That brings the total pass rate from 83 percent to 90 percent, with three test rounds to go, Kearl said.

In writing, 27 percent of test-takers failed last February; 54 percent of them passed the second time around. The total pass rate rose from 73 percent to 83 percent.

But math is a different story. Two-thirds of the students who failed the first time also failed their second try, Kearl reported. The math pass rate has gone from 67 percent to 75 percent.

Math data are concerning, and could be attributed to struggles in algebra and geometry, Kearl said.

But Kearl focused on successes in reading and writing. "We're seeing some good numbers here and we're feeling good about the rigors of our schools"' and their remediation efforts.

Kearl lacked information on who is failing but said more information would be available when students get identification numbers in the fall.