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I had a chance today to read a new study by the esteemed folks at the Center for Education Policy (CEP), the tenth installment of CEP’s annual report on high school exit exams. 

Exit exams are essentially any assessment a student must pass in order to receive his or her high school diploma.  Exit exams measure the degree to which a student has mastered the state’s content standards; consequently, these exams are general in content.  One criticism of the exit exam design, as compared to end-of-course (EOC) assessments, is that students are likely to be tested on content they may have learned years ago.  So …what did the CEP report this year?  Here are the findings I found most compelling:

CHANGES IN STATE HIGH SCHOOL EXIT EXAM POLICIES

• Twenty-five states have current or planned polices that require students to pass an exit exam in order to receive a high school diploma.  The vast majority of state exit exams measure students’ mastery of state curriculum.
• Due to policy changes in some states, fewer students were required to pass high school exit exams in order to receive a high school diploma in the 2010-11 school year than in the 2009-10 school year (65% of all public school students nationwide in 2010-11 compared to 74% in 2009-10).

State High School Assessment Policies and College and Career Readiness

• Twenty-seven of the 31 states with current or planned exit exams are participating in one or both of the state consortia to develop common assessments that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards intended to measure college and career readiness.
• Eleven states require or plan to require students to take a college entrance exam (the ACT or SAT) in high school; however, none of these states require their students to meet a specific passing standard on the exam.

Taken individually and as a group, the findings reveal a very clear trend:  College and career readiness will remain a prominent theme in assessments and education policy circles for years to come.  Also apparent - the success of the Common Core consortia is sure to play a significant role in the continued migration away from exit exams. 

However, that is a conversation for another day.