California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE)
Assistance for students and schools with the administration of the CAHSEE. Beginning with the Class of 2006, all public school students will be required to pass the exam to earn a high school diploma.

California Department of Education
www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/

Richmond High School
www.youthtogether.net/mcm/index.php?option=
com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=44

justicematters.org/jmi_live/jmi_sec/jmi_spol/policy.html

groups.yahoo.com/group/wccusdtalk/message/9345
Seeking solutions to dropout crisis
By Russell W. Rumberger -
Published in The Sacramento Bee Thursday, July 12, 2007
Excerpt: ... Figures released by the Department of Education last month show California's high school graduation rate in 2006 was the lowest in 10 years. The estimated 170,000 students who failed to graduate from the 2006 class will cost the state $46 billion in lost earnings and $2 billion in lost state taxes. Clearly the state must act to address its growing dropout crisis.

To do so, we first need to understand the causes of this crisis. The sharp decline in the graduation rate from 2005 to 2006, which produced an estimated 20,000 additional dropouts, was most likely due to the requirement that students had to pass the California High School Exit Exam in order to receive a diploma. While the merits of this exam continue to be debated, it nonetheless represents an additional hurdle for California's public high school students. ...

_______________________

Public comments from Jo Rupert Behm to CAHSEE Alternatives Public Meeting, submitted Dec. 7, 2005.

To develop another ‘test’ to serve as an alternative CAHSEE equivalent does not make sense as any test would require 2-3 years to field test and validate and a start-up development budget of $10-$12 million. Plus, misinformation, confusion, and conflicts between NCLB/AYP and IDEA and California’s restrictive test variation policy [accommodation v. modification] would still persist and continue to result in inconsistent or denied access to helpful test accommodations and modifications at the LEA level.

More importantly, seniors and parents need to know  immediately if they will be able to graduate from a California high school next June with a real diploma if students will obviously meet or exceed all other graduation requirements. Seniors and parents need time to relocate, enroll in private school, get an online diploma, or do whatever it takes to keep their life going in a positive direction if the CAHSEE requirement for the class of 2006 is not swiftly lifted....

www.cde.ca.gov/nr/re/ht/jbehm.asp

www.interversity.org/lists/ca-resisters/archives/Apr2006/msg00021.html