PROS AND CONS OF HIGH SCHOOL EXIT EXAMS

Pros and Cons of High School Exit Exams

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Pros and Cons of High School Exit Exams

Introduction

Graduating from high school is a strenuous challenge for any high school student. Add to that the vigour's of preparing for college aptitude test such as the ACT and the SAT; a student faces an even higher degree of difficulty. As if the aptitude tests are not already enough, include the high stakes, do or die high school exit exam and the student faces a crisis instead of graduation. (Heubert, 2002) Requiring students to take an exit exam is as unfair as James Baldwin not receiving service and then told we don't serve Negroes here because of his race. Due to its multiple reasons of unfairness, exit exams should not be a requirement for graduation from high school and school board officials around the nation should do away with the test.

An Overview of Exit Exams

The national education initiative “No Child Left Behind” is considered to be one of the main causes and catalysts for the rise in exit-exams. No Child Left Behind essentially requires all schools to submit formal standardized test scores, which will be utilized to assess and review each school's performance. To better prepare students for the standardized tests, many schools have implemented EOCs and graduation tests in order to provide students with added and consistent testing practice.

A graduation exit exam is often a project or test that assesses a student's overall understanding of their high school educational experience; an EOC, on the other hand, is designed to more specifically assess a student's understanding of a particular class/course content and information. In addition to providing students with beneficial testing practice, many school and state leaders assert that exit exams are being instated in order to hold all students equally accountable for the information that they were required to learn throughout their course and/or high school career. (Heubert, 2002)

As Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times explains, “'States say they are moving toward end-of-course exams because the tests make more sense in terms of alignment with existing high school curriculum,' said Jack Jennings, CEP president and chief executive. 'However, to understand the full impact of end-of-course exams, we need more detailed studies about implementation issues and how the exams affect student outcomes, curriculum, teaching, and performance by specific student groups.'”

The Current Exit Exam Policies

Currently, the only state with a state-mandated graduation exit exam is Washington; however, as the testing requirements are becoming increasingly popular, the Los Angeles Times reports that 14 more states “will use end-of-course exams by 2015: Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.” Adding to this, a number of states are also investigating new ways to incorporate graduation exams and/or graduation projects into their curriculum.

Pros and Cons of Exit Exams

With the rising trend of graduation and EOC exit exams, the Centre of Education Policy ...