Are high school exit exams a violation of the U.S. Constitution?

Do I understand this right? California wants a student to know 8th grade math and 10th grade English to graduate from 12th grade? And some students are complaining?

Let the complainers flip burgers.

We already have a test in 47 of the 50 states that the student has to pass to earn their diploma. Why does there need to be another test with English and Math when that's what the (State) Graduation Test already has? It's not that life's not fair, life is fair, but there doesn't need to be 2 tests that basically test the same thing. In Ohio, there is simply the Ohio Graduation test and nothing else. This test alone, at least in Ohio seems to be enough. There are people who fail it the first time, but those people at least have chances to retake it. It doesn't make anybody a failure. I've been in a school where the teachers don't care worth crap about their job and the students probably fail due to the teachers. That's how it is in all the schools I've been to.

I live in Oregon and had never heard of such a thing. I graduated in 2006 and we have a certificate called a CIM (Certificate of Initial Mastery) and they have recently made it a requirement of graduates. It includes tests from Science, Math, English, Writing, and Speeches. You have to pass them all to get your CIM, which I don't think is fair because there are people out there who do not hail from the US that might not understand English too well or people who have social anxiety and cannot for the life of them deal with public speaking. I think it should all be taken by a case by case basis but that is unrealistic. Young children and young adults slip through the cracks of the United States Schooling system everyday and its because our teachers do not get paid enough to deal with the bullshit that goes on inside and outside the classrooms. On top of that you have bogus excuse for parents who couldn't raise a wild boar if their life depended on it and they are corrupting the system and creating chaos by selling drugs in school, starting gangs, etc. So back to the question...I don't think it is a violation of the US Constitution. It is similar to the Equal Pay Act when it comes to the work force, how well can you evaluate a persons ability to succeed? How well can you evaluate how hard a person is trying? You can't and so those people who do not get their diplomas are never going to be able to find a decent job and so we are creating a bigger number of unemployed people thus making ourselves go bigger in debt because they will have children and be on welfare. Its a vicious cycle. Hope this helps...my random babbling that is.

It really confuses me as to what their argument was. Did taking the test deny them the right to be seen as legal adults, American citizens, etc.? Those are the protections to which they were referring, right? Maybe I'm wrong. Can you elaborate?

In this terrifying world, the worst thing we could possibly do is lower our standards. Of COURSE they should have to pass tests to be considered graduates!

As for blaming the teachers, I think the base of this problem is unfunded mandates such as "no child left behind" which increase demands on teachers and administrations without increasing funds to help students in trouble, increase one-on-one attention time, and offer alternatives to students with learning differences.

We should have high standards for our students, but we have to back it up with funding and stop spending their inheritance on other things.

Something else I thought of - why aren't these students being flunked? I think it's one or all of these reasons: teachers pass them because they can't deal with them anymore or don't want to; administrators force teachers to pass them because a) parents have a hissy fit and threaten a lawsuit; b) they need to make their numbers look better in order to secure more badly needed funding; c) they are afraid of being accused as racists because it is often minorities who are overlooked in education; d) we need that particular kid over there on our football team and our district has a no pass-no play rule.

It seems to me that high school exit exams should have been required a long time ago. Most civilized countries require some sort of examination / series of examinations in order to graduate.