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Dominican University of California

The California High School Exit Exam: English Language Students' Perspectives

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>The purpose of this study is to explore English language (EL) learners’ perspective regarding the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). California’s policy makers created the CAHSEE to ensure subject matter competency in English Language Arts and Mathematics, upon graduating. However, EL learners may be struggling with the math portion of the CAHSEE because of the high language demand. It is important to examine the connection between English language skills and success on the math portion of the CAHSEE in order to evaluate the CAHSEE’s effectiveness. This study surveyed 45 native Spanish speakers in then- primary language regarding the CAHSEE’s math portion, at one Northern California high school. The results show EL learners believe English language proficiency is a factor that negatively impacts their performance on the CAHSEE’s math portion. This study calls into question previous evaluations of the CAHSEE which neglect to consider language barriers for EL learners while measuring math competency.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
Master's Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Education
Year
2009

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Ramirez, Sezgin Llaely

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholar.dominican.edu:education-print-theses-1356

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Dominican University of California
Base URL
scholar.dominican.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Ramirez, Sezgin Llaely. The California High School Exit Exam: English Language Students' Perspectives. Master's Thesis thesis, 2009. https://scholar.dominican.edu/education-print-theses/357