Judge refuses request to bar AIMS mandate
by Paul Davenport
Associated Press

PHOENIX – A judge on Monday turned down a request to temporarily prohibit the state from enforcing a requirement that high school students pass the state AIMS test to graduate.

Although Judge Kenneth Fields of Maricopa County Superior Court denied a lawsuit’s request for a temporary restraining order, he did schedule a two‑day hearing starting July 5 on a request for a preliminary injunction.

The class‑action lawsuit, filed on behalf of high school students statewide, argued that Arizona’s public school financing system is arbitrary and does not provide students with the means to meet the educational standards measured by the AIMS test.

Students who are particularly affected include those from poor families, racial and ethnic minorities, and those learning the English language, the suit said.

AIMS, short for Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, measures students’ mastery of state curriculum standards in math, reading and writing. The graduation requirement was originally scheduled to take effect in 2001 but was postponed to start instead with this year’s graduating class.

Fields said the lawsuit represented a “credible challenge” to the adequacy of Arizona’s public school finance system but that he denied the request for a temporary restraining order partly because state officials are entitled to argue their position in court.

Also, it would be easier to undo the AIMS graduation requirement retroactively than to try to reverse an initial decision to put it on hold, Fields said.

“Specifically, if the court allows the plaintiffs to graduate without passing the AIMS exam and later determines the plaintiffs’ legal position was not well taken, the likelihood of having the class members/students return their diplomas to the issuing school is not high,” the Court wrote.

On the other hand, if the challenge is ultimately successful, “it is far easier to allow diplomas to be issued later,” Fields added.

Attorney Ellen Katz of the William J. Morris Institute for Justice said she was encouraged by Fields’ comments and said any eventual court order overturning the graduation requirement would be retroactive. “If we win in July, those students will get their diplomas,” she said.

State officials have fought to maintain the graduation requirement, arguing that it

helps to motivate students and provides accountability that will improve schools.

Fields ruling came three days after a California judge ruled the other way on a similar challenge to that state’s high school exit exam.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman on Friday granted a preliminary injunction suspending California’s high school exit exam for the class of 2006, potentially allowing thousands of students who have failed the test to graduate.

In the Arizona case, Katz has said figures current through last winter indicated that an estimated 10,000 students could be denied diplomas because of the AIMS requirement, though some of those students might have passed the test in the spring administration of the test.

AIMS also has been the subject of a separate lawsuit challenging the adequacy of Arizona’s programs for English‑learning students. In that case a federal judge ordered the graduation requirement put on hold for English‑learning students. However, a federal appellate court later issued a stay blocking the order.

In the English language learners case, attorneys for the plaintiffs say that 2,000 to 3,000 ELL students would be denied diplomas this year because of the AIMS requirement.