High School Exit Examination

MJUSD
DIVISION 6000
INSTRUCTION
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION

HIGH SCHOOL EXIT EXAMINATION

District and Test Site Coordinators

On or before July 1 of each school year, the Superintendent shall designate a high school exit examination coordinator from among district employees and shall notify the test publisher of the identity and contact information of the coordinator. The district coordinator or Superintendent or designee shall be available throughout the year, shall serve as the liaison between the district and the test publisher and the district and the California Department of Education for all matters related to the exit exam, and shall perform additional duties specified in 5 CCR 1209. (5 CCR 1209)

Annually, the district coordinator or Superintendent or designee shall designate a test site coordinator for each test site to fulfill the responsibilities specified in 5 CCR 1210. (5 CCR 1210)

All district and test site coordinators shall sign a test security affidavit pursuant to 5 CCR 1211.5.

Access to exam materials shall be limited to students taking the exam and employees of the district directly responsible for test administration who sign a test security affidavit. All district and test site coordinators shall be responsible for inventory control. (5 CCR 1211)

Administration
The high school exit exam shall be administered as follows: (Education Code 60851; 5 CCR 1204, 1204.5)

  1. Students shall take the exam once per school year while in grade 10.

  2. Students in grades 11-12 who have not yet passed one or both sections of the exam shall have up to two opportunities per year to take the section(s) of the exam not yet passed, but shall not be tested in successive administrations within a school year. Students in grades 11-12 shall be offered appropriate remediation or supplemental instruction before being retested.

  3. Students shall be provided one additional opportunity to pass the exit exam after completion of other grade 12 requirements.

The Superintendent or designee shall administer the exit exam in each district high school on the dates designated by the Superintendent of Public Instruction as exam days or make-up days. (Education Code 60851)

If a student does not possess sufficient English language skills to be assessed on the exit exam, the Superintendent or designee may defer the exam requirement for a period of up to 24 calendar months of enrollment in the California public school system until the student has completed six months of instruction in reading, writing and comprehension in the English language. (Education Code 60852)

Test administrators at the test site shall be responsible for the accurate identification of eligible students to whom the exit exam is to be administered. This identification shall be made through the use of photo identification or positive recognition by an employee of the district. (5 CCR 1203)

Any student found to have cheated, assisted others in cheating, or compromised the security of the exam shall have the test marked as “invalid” and shall not receive a score from that test administration. (5 CCR 1220)

Testing Variations for All Students

Variations are a change in the manner in which the exit exam is presented or administered to any student, or in how a student is allowed to respond, and include, but are not limited to, accommodations and modifications as defined in Education Code 60850. (5 CCR 1200)

The Superintendent or designee may provide any student with extra time within a testing day and/or simplified or clarified test directions. (5 CCR 1215)

A student may also be provided the following testing variations if they are regularly used in the classroom: (5 CCR 1215)

  1. Special or adaptive furniture

  2. Special lighting or acoustics

  3. An individual carrel or study enclosure

  4. Individual testing in a separate room provided the student is directly supervised by an employee who has signed the test security affidavit

  5. Markers, masks or other means to maintain visual attention to the exam or test items

At least thirty (30) working days before the proposed administration of the exam, the Superintendent or designee may submit a request to the California Department of Education for a case-by-case review of a proposed variation that is not specified in law. (5 CCR 1218)

Testing Variations for English Language Learners

In addition to testing variations allowed for all students, English language learners may be allowed the following testing variations if regularly used for assessment in the classroom: (5 CCR 1217)

  1. Testing in a separate room with other English language learners provided the students are directly supervised by an employee who has signed the test security affidavit and the students have been provided such a flexible setting as part of their regular instruction or assessment

  2. Additional supervised breaks within a testing day

  3. Extra time on the exam within a testing day

  4. Translated directions and the opportunity to ask clarifying questions about the test directions in their primary language

  5. Access to translation glossaries (English to primary language or primary language to English)

Accommodations/Modifications for Students with Disabilities

A student with a disability shall be permitted to take the exit exam with accommodations or modifications when his/her individualized education program (IEP) adopted pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or Section 504 plan specifies their use on the exam, standardized testing or classroom instruction and assessments. (Education Code 60850; 5 CCR 1215.5, 1216)

Accommodations are variations in the assessment environment or process that do not fundamentally alter what the test measures or affect the comparability of scores. Modifications are variations that do fundamentally alter what the test measures or affect the comparability of scores. (Education Code 60850; 5 CCR 1200)

Accommodations may include: (5 CCR 1215.5)

  1. Presentation accommodations, including large-print versions, test items enlarged through electronic means, Braille transcriptions provided by the test publisher or designee, use of Manually Coded English or American Sign Language to present test directions or to present test questions on the mathematics section of the exam, and audio or oral presentation of the mathematics section of the exam

  2. Response accommodations, including responses marked in the test booklet and transferred by an employee who has signed the test security affidavit, or responses made using a scribe, audio recorder, speech-to-text converter, word processing software or assistive device, within the limitations described in 5 CCR 1215.5

  3. Scheduling/timing accommodations, including testing over more than one day after consultation with the test publisher, supervised breaks within a section of the exam, and administration of the exam at the most beneficial time of day to the student after consultation with the test publisher

  4. Setting accommodations, including tests administered by certificated teacher to a student at home or in the hospital

Modifications may include: (5 CCR 1216)

  1. Calculators on the mathematics section of the exam

  2. Audio or oral presentation of the English/language arts section of the exam

  3. Use of Manually Coded or American Sign Language to present test questions on the English/language arts section of the exam

  4. Spellcheckers, grammar checkers or word processing software programs that check or correct spelling and/or grammar on the writing portion of the exam

  5. Mechanical or electronic devices or other assistive devices that are not used solely to record the student's responses, including but not limited to transcribers, scribes, voice recognition or voice-to-text software, and that identify a potential error in the student's response or that correct spelling, grammar or conventions on the writing portion of the exam

  6. Use of American Sign Language to provide a response to the written portion of the exam

  7. English dictionary on the English/language arts section of the exam

  8. Mathematics dictionary on the mathematics section of the exam

The parent/guardian of a student who has taken any section of the exam with a modification and has received the equivalent of a passing score may request that his/her child receive a waiver of the requirement to successfully pass the exam. Upon receipt of such request, the principal shall submit to the Governing Board a request for a waiver. The Board may waive the requirement if the principal certifies that the student has all of the following: (Education Code 60851; 5 CCR 1216)

  1. An IEP or Section 504 plan in place that requires the accommodations or modifications to be provided to the student when taking the exit exam

  2. Sufficient high school level coursework either satisfactorily completed or in progress in the high school level curriculum sufficient to have attained the skills and knowledge otherwise needed to pass the exit exam

  3. An individual score report showing that the student has received the equivalent of a passing score on the exam while using a modification that fundamentally alters what the exit exam measures as determined by the State Board of Education

In order to protect the student's privacy rights, the waiver shall be considered in closed session. Final Board action on the waiver shall be taken in open session and shall be a matter of public record. The student's name shall not be disclosed in open session.

Records

The Superintendent or designee shall maintain a summary data file of all students who participate in each test administration. This summary data file shall include the following information for the English/language arts section and the mathematics section for each test administration: (5 CCR 1205)

  1. The date on which each section of the exam was taken

  2. The full name of each student who took each section of the exam

  3. The grade level of each student at the time each section of the exam was taken

  4. Whether each student has satisfied the requirement to successfully pass each section of the exam

The above information, as well as demographic information for students enrolled in grade 10 at the time of the grade 10 administration, shall be provided to the test publisher. (5 CCR 1207)

Within sixty (60) days of receiving electronic data files from the test publisher, the Superintendent or designee shall enter the following information in each student's permanent record: (5 CCR 1206)

  1. The date on which the student took each section of the exam

  2. Whether the student has satisfied the requirement to successfully pass each section of the exam

Notifications
At the beginning of each school year, the Superintendent or designee shall provide written notification of the exit exam requirement to all students in grades 9-12 and to their parents/guardians. Such notification shall also be provided to any student who transfers into the district after the beginning of the school year at the time of the student's transfer. The notification shall include, at a minimum, the date of the exam, the requirements for passing the exam, and the consequences of not passing the exam. The Superintendent or designee shall maintain documentation that the parent/guardian of each student has been sent this written notification. (Education Code 48980, 60850; 5 CCR 1208)

Prior to each administration of the exam, the Superintendent or designee shall notify students of the provisions of 5 CCR 1220 related to the consequences of cheating. (5 CCR 1220)

The principal or designee shall notify parents/guardians of students with disabilities about the criteria and process for applying for a waiver of the requirement to successfully pass the exit exam.

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