Center on Education PolicyAugust 2004
This is the third annual report on high-school exit exams from the Center on Education Policy, Jack Jennings's Washington-based policy shop. (For Gadfly coverage of the two earlier editions, click here and here.) This reform strategy is spreading; 25 states will soon have such tests and 70 percent of U.S. high-school students will be affected by them. This 257-page report is a solid source of factual information, including profiles of individual states. It covers most of the relevant policy concerns and seems fair-minded in drawing conclusions where they can be drawn from extant data and available research - and saying where they're not. (E.g., "The evidence on the effects of exit exams is mixed and tentative. . . . The academic community is still divided on the issue of whether exit exams cause more students to drop out of high school.") It sets off no obvious alarm bells, which is probably why it didn't attract much attention. You can find it online here.
