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Raising the bar

Beginning yesterday, high school sophomores all across Arizona sat down to take, and most likely fail, Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards. In the wake of last year's pilot AIMS test, 89 percent of the 45, 000 sophomores who took it failed the math portion. Seventy percent of those students flunked the writing section, and 39 percent flunked reading. The only students safe from this four-day slaughter are those in private schools. For some unknown, but undoubtedly absurd reason, private school students have been exempted from having to pass the AIMS test in order to receive a high school diploma. The exemption is not only unfair to public school students, but also hurtful to those in private schools.

Exactly why private school students are home-free when it comes to the exam is unknown. Cynics suspect that the political ambitions of Lisa Graham-Keegan, Arizona's superintendent of schools, are behind it. They maintain that Keegan and her conservative cronies deliberately set the bar too high for most students to pass, hoping that the astronomical failure rates would discredit public education and bring even more favorable attention to voucher programs and charter schools. These critics cite praise lavished on Keegan for her free-market approach to education by the Republican party and talk of a VP nomination or cabinet seat as proof. As fun and easy as it is to believe in the evil, conspiratorial nature of Republicans, this hypothesis is probably false. Probably.

More likely is the fallacious assumption that private school students do not need to be held up to state standards because they are accountable to higher, private school standards. Because private education is, of course, quality education, these students already meet, even exceed high educational standards. There are three arguments against this line of reasoning: private school accountability, private school students who slip through the cracks and poor private schools.

As for the first criticism, private schools are already accountable to minimum state education standards so there is little reason to exempt them from this standard. Just as in public schools, private students must take at least two years of high school math, usually algebra and algebra II, three years of English classes and three years of lab science. Most private schools require more than this, but not all.

The statement that most private schools require more than Arizona's minimum standards should be qualified with the phrase "college preparatory." Indeed, it is probably safe to say that all private, college preparatory schools set their graduation requirements higher than those of the state. The problem is that all private schools don't prepare students to attend small, private liberal arts colleges after graduation. These colleges' entrance requirements are the reason most private school graduation requirements are higher than the state's, but if students are not expected to attend these colleges, there is no reason to push the higher standards.

In the Tucson area, there are only about five schools that are college preparatory. The others, and there are plenty others, are religious or disciplinary academies. Some, such as Kino Learning Center, are exploratory schools where students are encouraged to be self-taught and learn independently through their own methods. So long as these students meet basic requirements by graduation time, then they can receive a diploma. These other private schools may have higher standards and provide a better quality education to students than public schools, but to assume so without testing harms students in these schools.

Students slipping through the cracks in private schools, getting by with less than required, seems impossible. It happens, though- especially at small, private schools. I graduated from Green Fields Country Day School here in Tucson, which, an extremely small, private college preparatory school. Given the personal education at schools like Green Fields, and the bonds that can form between teachers and students, a student can very easily be allowed to slide in a weak area of study. It is not far-fetched to assume that such permissiveness occurs at other, small private schools, especially charter schools where oversight is lax. The AIMS test, in forcing students who slip by to actually learn the material, can benefit private school students.

There are many bugs to be worked out of the administration of the AIMS test and of the test itself. The exam may end up being non-binding or scrapped entirely by the state legislature. Whatever its future, so long as it is being administered to Arizona High school students, those in private schools should have to take the test as well. It is common to hold private school students to higher standards than those in public schools, but to hold any students to lower standards is unfair and hurtful to all.