California lawmakers have voted to prohibit a controversial practice by Kennedy and Cypress High Schools that required students to carry color-coded ID cards [1] and notebooks based on their standardized test scores, the LA Times reports. The state Senate voted 34-2 to pass AB 1166, a bill [2] proposed by Democratic state Sen. Jose Solorio that prohibits schools from tethering information about student test scores to “any object a pupil may be required to carry while at school.”
The bill must now be re-approved in the assembly [3] due to amendments made while in the Senate.
Democratic state Sen. Lou Correa said the color-coding can be “embarrassing and demoralizing” to students who did not perform as well as others. The controversy began last October when Orange County’s Kennedy High School mandated that black identification cards be issued [4] to the top performers on the previous year’s standardized tests, gold cards be issued to students who scored proficient, and white cards be issued to students who scored below proficient…