High School Exit Examinations and High School Completion: Evidence From the Early 1990s

Abstract

For more than two decades, many states have required students to pass exit examinations to obtain high school diplomas. Despite these sweeping policy initiatives, we know relatively little about whether such policies are related to the chances that high school students will obtain diplomas. The authors estimate the association between high school exit examination requirements and students’ chances of obtaining diplomas, acquiring general educational development (GED), or leaving school with neither credential. They also assess whether these associations vary according to socioeconomic status (SES) or prior academic achievement. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, they found that high school exit examination requirements—at least as they existed in the early 1990s—are not associated with increased chances of obtaining a GED or of leaving school with neither a GED nor a diploma, even among low-SES and low-achieving students.