Exit Exam Statistics

Chen, Grace. "Pros and Cons of Public School Exit Exams." Public School Review.
     N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2008.

Document URL: http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/53

This article explained what exit exams are, what "end of course" exams are, and how they are similar/different. It also stated that only one state, Washington was using exit exams at the time the article was written. This was October 21, 2008, so I imagine many more states are already using exit exams by now. The article stated that 15 states planned to implement exit exams by 2015, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. In addition, a number of states are also investigating new ways to incorporate graduation exams and/or graduation projects into their curriculum. More students will be required to take more difficult end-of-course exams in order to graduate, signaling that state leaders are not entirely satisfied with exit exams, which are minimum competency tests. But, many educators and school leaders are concerned about the potentially harmful impacts of such tests. The standardized tests often punish students who are dealing with personal and/or cognitive struggles, as they are designed to only assess students of “average” academic ability.

Ultimately, the testing policies were initiated in order to ensure that schools and students were performing successfully. Ideally, these tests are supposed to help school and state leaders figure out new ways to provide students with more beneficial lessons and learning opportunities. Despite these goals, however, as Pytel argues, “While demanding exit exams may sound good initially, these exams do not truly reflect the knowledge students hold. The exams don’t prepare the students for the real world where they are allowed to use manuals (and) ask questions.”