required coursework and failure to meet the minimum standards set for either or both of the CAHSEE tests. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, Superintendent Roy Romer allowed those who did not pass the CAHSEE to participate in graduation activities if the student agreed to take the CAHSEE during the summer. Criticism The test has highlighted educational disparities by race, disability, income, and whether English is spoken in the home. This has been politically embarrassing for school districts, who were previously able to ignore their failures. Though O'Connell, by then the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, resisted the political pressure for a delay, the state legislature granted students with previously documented learning disabilities a one-year reprieve in 2006. In May 2006, an Alameda County Superior Court judge struck down the CAHSEE, ruling that students from disadvantaged schools, the majority of them with low income or recent immigrants, had not been appropriately prepared for the test. The California Department of Education appealed the ruling directly to the state Supreme Court, which reinstated the exam and upheld the CAHSEE. Alternative assessments, such as evaluating students based on a portfolio of class work, have been proposed and rejected. Alternative assessments consider a greater range of student work, but being non-standardized assessments, they are more susceptible to bias in grading. They are also much more expensive to grade, and concerns have been raised about cheating, since a student could present work created in a completely unsupervised setting. Supporters of the test say that since one in ten students fails the test, despite having passing grades, then receiving passing grades in California high schools does not indicate that the student has learned the material. School grades may instead represent rewards from teachers "for being friendly, prepared, compliant, a good school citizen, well organized and hard-working" rather than mastering the subject material. See also New York Regents Exam Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR Test) Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills California High School Proficiency Exam High school graduation examination in the United States Bartleby Project References External links California Department of Education CAHSEE at California DOE Worked out solutions to the CAHSEE mathsgotserved Study resources CAHSEE learning resources CAHSEE resources including PDFs, video, and worksheets Education in California Standardized tests in the United States