Exit exam proponents should answer questions

Here is a question for all adults who have a job: What is molarity? (Hint: It doesn’t have to do with teeth.)

If you can’t answer this question, would you consider yourself incompetent at the work you do? To put this question in context: If I pay you to do my taxes, I don’t care whether you know what molarity is or how to determine the molarity of a solution.

This question is one of the questions our state high school students had to answer as part of an exit exam administered to them in chemistry class. The exit exam — distinct from a final exam — is the latest in a new string of “reforms” pushed on our students by our Public Education Department.

This week, 22,000 high school students in Albuquerque Public Schools took an exit exam in one or more of these four content areas: chemistry, biology, writing and U.S. history. These high school exit exams were in addition to the District Benchmark Assessments administered to all students across the district.

Next week, our high school students will begin taking AP exams if they are taking Advanced Placement classes. And then next up are final exams for middle and high school students.

This exit exam is a new “tool” that is going to help determine whether our students are competent enough to earn a high school diploma. When we adults were in school, we took classes and marked them off our long list of requirements to obtain our high school diploma and/or college degrees.

In those days, I can tell you I didn’t have a full grasp of chemistry or calculus. I still don’t. If I had to take an exit exam today, I would fail the chemistry exam. I might pass the biology exam by a thread. And I hope I would be able to pass the U.S. history exam since I love to read history books. Despite my test results, am I capable of doing the elections work that I do? You bet I am.

Would our lawmakers be able to answer the questions posed to our high school students in their chemistry, biology and U.S. history exit exams? If they failed these exit exams, could they be removed from office for incompetency?

Would those in the media be able to pass the exit exams? If not, should they continue to report the news if they don’t have a full grasp of these subject areas and therefore are incompetent in these areas?

And finally, would education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera pass the four exit exams? What about anyone in her Public Education Department?

Here are questions in an exit exam I would like to administer to our state lawmakers, media and Public Education Department:

1. Are you asking tough questions about the usefulness of exit exams and the myriad other mandates being forced upon our students?

2. Is it cost-effective to spend $140,000 to grade these exit exams, as APS is estimating it will cost?

3. Can our taxpayer money be better spent in our beleaguered schools?

4. Is our Public Education Department matching all its regulations by rule with adequate resources to carry them out?

If I could give my exit exam to our lawmakers, the media and our secretary-designate, then I would give them all a failing grade.

That’s because these questions are not being asked nor are they being answered fully. And most damaging of all: None of these adults are walking with high school students as they traverse this new road littered with tests and stress.

Shame on all of you.