High School Exit Exams

High school exit exams are part of a broader educational agenda that seeks to increase standards in public education. Requiring graduating students to take an exam to demonstrate mastery of content upon finishing high school reflects the academic achievement of the individual and provides an accountability measure for schools by indicating the proportion of their students that meet graduation standards. Some argue that requiring students to take exit exams to graduate improves equality in education by setting the same high bar for all students; others argue that there may be negative consequences of exit exams, and that the most at-risk student populations may be affected the most. There is no consensus in the research on the effectiveness of exit exams policies to improve the quality ...