Time's up! Class of 2006 faces exit exam

Dear Class of 2006:

You're the first to be held to the state's new high school exit exam. And you look like lab rats.

School districts are experimenting on you to learn how to best help students struggling on the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test. Answers will come too late to help you much.

With no universal student ID to track your scores over time, the state can't with certainty tell legislators — who control the money to give you extra help — how many of you are failing.

Lawmakers may provide money to help those who come after you — based on your test scores.

No one really knows what your "basic diploma," "alternative completion diploma" or "certificate of completion" will mean in the real world. They're just waiting to see what happens to you next year.

Some school bosses want to change the law because they worry a few of you who don't deserve it will be hurt. Could come too late for you, though.

What happens to students after the final test will likely raise questions that have not yet come up, says Steven Hirase, assistant superintendent overseeing curriculum in Murray School District.

"I'm sure what happens with this first graduating class will shape what happens for future classes."

But a godfather of Utah school accountability says you're no experiment. He says UBSCT trials went on when you were in elementary and junior high school, with development, practice runs and even a delay for fine-tuning. He says high schools should teach basic skills. And testing to see if you're getting them is a good thing.

"I think the Class of 2006 has actually been well served by UBSCT and U-PASS in general. As they march down the aisle in graduation, they can be more proud of that diploma than any class in the last 50 years in Utah because we are assuring that diploma actually means something significant," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper and sponsor of U-PASS, Utah's school accountability system that includes the UBSCT.

"This is tough love, and it's a bitter pill to swallow for a lot of people used to a system that can be gamed."

But there's a new twist to this traditional back and forth between schools and the Legislature.

They're not going to be caught holding the bag, if there is one.

You are.

The basic skills test was created in 1999 and folded a year later into the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students, a series of tests, accountability and reporting requirements to hold schools responsible for student achievement.

UBSCT has three parts — reading, writing and math — and you have to pass them all to get a basic diploma. If you don't pass but tried three times, you can get an alternative diploma. Do neither and you'll probably get a certificate of completion.