State High School Exit Exams: A Move toward End-of-Course Exams

Since 2002, the Center on Education Policy (CEP), an independent nonprofit organization, has been studying state high school exit examinations--tests students must pass to receive a high school diploma. This is CEP's seventh annual report on exit exams. The information in this report comes from several sources: our survey of states that have mandatory exit exams, media reports, state Web sites, and interviews with state and district officials. This report focuses on new developments in high school exit exam policies that have occurred over the past year. It specifically focuses on the states' move away from minimum-competency exams and comprehensive exams that are aligned to state standards in several subjects, and toward end-of-course (EOC) exams that assess mastery of the content of a specific high school course. The report presents CEP's major findings from this year's study and its recommendations for improving the implementation of state high school exit exams. (Contains 5 tables, 2 figures, 2 footnotes, and 1 box.)