As of this year, the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) is no longer a requirement for graduation. The CAHSEE is a test taken by sophomores in California to qualify for a high school diploma. Starting Jan. 1, 2016, students do not have to pass the exam in order to graduate from high school. The test has been suspended for a few years after Governor Jerry Brown signed the Senate Bill 172, on Oct. 7, which was introduced in Feb. 2015 by the chair of the Senate Education Committee. This bill was introduced to bring attention to the irrelevancy of the CAHSEE with the state’s adoption of the
California Standards. The CAHSEE does not test what is being taught in the Common Core curriculum, so the bill suggests revising it to fit within the state standards and to more accurately test students’ knowledge of what they are learning at
school. A new exit exam may be created to replace the CAHSEE that is adjusted to the California State Standards sometime in the future in order to permanently cease administration of the old test.

“The CAHSEE test is not aligned with the California State Standards. The California Teachers Association and the Association of California School Administrators urged the creation of the bill because they thought that it was unfair to have a high school exit exam that was not aligned with the state standards. I think they should suspend the test, but I also
think they should come up with a new test that corresponds with the state standards in order for a student to graduate,” Dr. O’Connor said.

The CAHSEE measures students’ basic proficiency in math and English. Passing the exam has been a requirement for all seniors in California since 2006. However, this past July, students could not retake the exam if they did not pass due to a
brief suspension of the test, which was authorized by Senate Bill 725. Since high schools did not administer make-up tests for students who did not pass the exit exam, seniors who have not passed the CAHSEE were able to return and receive their
high school diplomas. Now that the CAHSEE has been suspended until a new exit exam is created, school districts must be prepared to issue diplomas to students from 2003-2015 who did not meet the CAHSEE graduation requirement.

“The CAHSEE wasn’t a very challenging test, but I felt that it was not an accurate measure of how good you were at math and English,” senior Harlan Maass said. “Even though I had to take the test and sophomores this year don’t have to, I think
that it is a good idea that they are revising the test to make it better for future students.”

The CAHSEE will be on suspension until 2019. On Oct. 7, Governor Jerry Brown came to the final decision that suspended the CAHSEE from being administered in high schools in California. If the CAHSEE is removed from the list of graduation requirements of high school students in California, a new test will be created that will hopefully improve how well schools are serving students and allow more students to be fairly evaluated