High school exit exams lack clear purpose
New annual report raises concerns about rigor, focus of state testing 

Almost two-thirds of all public school students are in states that have high school exit examinations, yet many of the states do not have a clear purpose for their exam programs, according to a new study by the Center on Education Policy.

The CEP, an independent, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., has issued an annual report on high school exit exams since 2002. Currently, 22 states have such exams, but the demographics are such that those states include 65 percent of the nation's students-and 76 percent of the total minority student population. By 2012, when four more states phase in exams, more than 75 percent of all U.S. students will be affected.

One concern the study raises is the rigor of the exams. For the most part, it finds, exit exams are aligned with 10th-grade curriculum. Most of the states use their exams to fulfill the testing requirement of No Child Left Behind, but the report found that 10 states have lower cut-off scores for their high school gradua-tion requirements than for NCLB.

Most of the states report that their tests are intended primarily to determine whether students have mastered the state curriculum. Only nine states say the purpose is to assess readiness for entry-level employment, and six say they are intended to measure readiness for college.

"States have poured valuable resources into exit exams without seemingly having a clear purpose for their use," says Jack Jennings, CEP's president and CEO. "And regardless of the aim of the tests, they are having a major impact on classroom teaching and learning, which leads to serious questions about the rigor of state standards and tests."

A growing, but much less common, trend is for states to require end-of-course exams. In 2002, only two states had end-of-course exams; that number is on track to increase to 12 by 2015, the report says.

The center also looked at achievement rates on the state exams, and all of them reported gaps in passing rates between white students and other groups of students, including African- Americans, Latinos, English language learners and students with disabilities. To help close these achievement gaps, more than half the states report that they provide funding or technical assistance specifically in math (14 states) and reading-language arts (15 states).

Common forms of assistance include help administering exams, preparing students for the exams, and help for teachers to become more proficient in their content areas. On the downside, the report found that one of the least common forms of assistance was support for districts to improve professional development for teachers.

The report, which also includes some more-detailed case studies as well as individual state profiles, includes two recommendations for states. The first deals with better evaluation of the exams and remediation strategies. "States and school districts are putting a lot of time, effort and resources toward increasing passing rates on these exams," it says. "States should also develop methods to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of the various strategies they use."

Second, and somewhat related, the report says more attention needs to be given to the impact that high school exit exams are having on curriculum and instruction. "Research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of high school exit exam policy as a tool for shaping and improving instruction and student performance, especially for disadvantaged students, should be undertaken."

The complete report is available online at www.cep-dc.org.

Number of states that have exit exams for high school students: 22
Percentage of the nation's students enrolled in those states: 65%
States planning to introduce exit exams in the next five years: 4

Source: Center on Education Policy