Are Exit Exams Boosting Dropout rates?
Over 25 to 30 years, a dropout can end up costing a community as much as $500,000 in public assistance, health care and incarceration cost. Conversely, earning a high school diploma can add almost $500,000 in earning power over a worker’s career. Whether bored by test prep or overwhelmed by work they haven’t mastered, thousands of students leave school each year without a diploma, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Many settle for completing General Educational Development (GED) test instead of facing a series of “exit exams.” Over the past decade, more states have begun moving toward exit exams as a no-nonsense way to validate diplomas, and 18 states now require them, says the Center on Education Policy. But critics say the test drive out students and make the dropout problem worse. And now, many observers fear that President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” education reform law could mean even more dropouts.
