I know I am a little late on this, but on Friday a liberal Superior Court judge unilaterally invalidated the California High School Exit Exam for the class of 2006.

This is unfortunate for everyone involved.  The 90% of students who have passed the 9th Grade English and basic Algebra exam will now hold greatly devalued diplomas.  The 10% who have not passed will not get the education they need, and will be in for the shock of their lives when they cannot land a decent job because they lack the basic skills needed for life.  And this is perhaps worst for California’s school accountability.  If the exit exam is ultimately abandoned, teachers will have no reason to actually teach students the standards.  They can revert back to the practice of social promotion, giving out A’s like candy.

But anyway, I have talked about this plenty already.  If you want to see more of my comments on the Exit Exam, see this and this.  You can also see my analysis of the legal case brought against the exam that ultimately lead to this ruling.

But this is what has really got me fired up about this ruling: If the CAHSEE is invalid because not all students receive the same quality education, then why aren’t all exams invalid?

Take for example the Advanced Placement Exams that many high school students take.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, AP exams are given to students by the College Board in specific subject areas, such as Physics, Calculus, Government, English, History, etc.  If the students pass, they can earn college credit while in High School.  This year, I took the Chemistry test.

The fact is, though, that not everyone receives the same quality of preparation for the AP tests.  Our chemistry teacher admitted to us that we do not have the equipment to perform many of the reactions that occasionally appear on the AP Test.

So why, then, is the AP test not invalidated?  Why should we not all receive the college credit, so long as we pass the class?

Any way you look at this, the ruling is absurd.