Those Who Pass Classes But Fail Tests Cry Foul

Because the exams can have such high stakes for students and for schools, many seemingly solid achievers who have failed the state tests are forced into remediation courses to help them pass on the next try.

And some students worry: Am I not as smart as I thought?

Brittanie Morris, 14, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School in Montgomery County, is taking a catch-up math class after school because she did not pass her Maryland exam last year.

"I got a B for the total year in algebra last year, but this makes me feel uncomfortable . . . and you feel kinda slow," Brittanie said. "It feels weird to be in the class because it makes you feel like you didn't pass, when you did."

Brittanie's mother, Kay Morton, was befuddled when she opened the mail and saw the results of her daughter's standardized math exam.

"It's hard to understand a situation where you can have an Honor Roll student who doesn't pass the test. She's been an Honor Roll student since the sixth grade," she said. "I can't say I really hold her teacher accountable. . . . I just accepted the fact that Brittanie may not be a child that tests well."

The data available on these "pass/fail" students -- most of whom apparently are getting C's or better in their courses-- vary across the region. But a glance at local schools shows that the number of such students is sizable.

At Kennedy High in Silver Spring, 25 percent of the 147 students who took first-year algebra in 2005-06 passed the course but failed the Maryland High School Assessment in that subject, said Reginald Wright, the school's math department chairman. In all of Montgomery, about 12 percent of the 10,720 students who took first-year algebra last year passed the course but failed the exam, according to county schools spokesman Brian Edwards.

In the District, about one-fifth of the 70 students in fourth through sixth grades at Tyler Elementary School passed their classes but failed the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System exam, according to principal Michelle Pierre-Farid.

In Fairfax County, a survey of a remediation class at Herndon High School was revealing. Seven of the 11 students had earned a C or better in English or math but failed at least one of the corresponding state Standards of Learning exams, according to the school's assessment coach, Sharon Bowen.

Defenders of standardized testing say the exams function like audits, revealing gaps in the curriculum that must be filled if the students are to reach high academic standards. Critics say that the differences between scores and grades show the fallibility of the exams, which provide only a snapshot of what a student knows.

Some students who sail through courses crash on standardized exams because they are not native English speakers.