Updated: Dear Iowa Republicans,

I get what you’re trying to do. Really I do. Implementing statewide graduation standards backed by high school exit exams sounds like a great idea in theory, but it just doesn’t work that well in practice.

There’s ample evidence from other states that the tests try to have it both ways: they get (rightly) criticized for being too easy, but, when thousands of students fail them anyway, there’s a push to create alternate routes for kids to get their diploma. In the end, no one really benefits. Teachers and parents are skeptical that one test can measure all that’s supposed to have been imparted on students in four years. Some students lack confidence in themselves and would rather drop out than fail a test. And policymakers, your peers in the statehouse included, will not stand by and let thousands of kids fail to get a high school diploma every year. All of these groups will be working to undermine your well-developed end of high school exams.

The main problem with end-of-course exams is that no one is willing to deny a student a diploma. In 2004, when Virginia introduced its exit examinations, a Washington Post review found fewer than 100 students out of 20,300 high school seniors (less than one-half of one percent) in Northern Virginia were unable to graduate on time. Maryland just introduced its high school exit exam this year, and as of early June 97.4 percent of students had passed either the exam, an exam re-take, opt-out clauses, or alternate route requirements. More were expected to finish throughout the summer.

In other words, it’s really hard to keep the standards legitimate. There’s simply too much on the line for the individual students, and no one is willing to set the bar that effectively takes away thousands of diplomas.

If you’re a policymaker pursuing these exams, be prepared for local officials to undermine your plans at every opportunity. They do not want to stand watch over failing graduates, and they’ll do everything in their power to exploit every loophole. Virginia provides another lesson here. It allows local school districts to certify students in grades 3-8 as on grade level if they pass local “portfolio” tests. Pass rates for these alternatives, composed of student worksheets, quizzes, and activities, are higher than for traditional tests, even though they’re taken primarily by special education and English Language Learning students. In recent years, the number of alternative tests has skyrocketed.

States have been more than willing to allow all this gaming to occur (and Iowa is as guilty of this as anyone), but introducing yet another high stakes test will not do anything to stop it. Instead, states like Iowa must go in a different direction.

States must recognize that high schools are fundamentally different than elementary and middle schools. While early-grade testing regimes in math and reading have coincided with higher scores, those gains have not carried into our nation’s high schools, where scores remain stagnant. Part of this is simply the nature of high schools and their students. While it’s relatively easy to define what someone needs to know about basic math, science, and reading, there’s less agreement on what we should be preparing high school students for. Nearly two-thirds of high school graduates will enroll in college the fall after graduation, but even this group contains wide variety. Some will be attending elite liberal institutions, while many more will be going to regional colleges or vocational schools. The remaining third of students will be going directly into the workforce.

Instead of a test to measure this preparation, states should work to create college or career readiness indicators that measure the full impact of high schools’ work. They should grade schools on their ability to graduate students ready to be successful in college or the workforce by measuring college-going and employment rates and the ability of graduates to keep a job or stay in school. Such measures will require better data collection and a little longer timeframe to measure success, but they’ll be based on outcomes that are driven by individual student motivation to succeed in life, and they’ll be relatively free of gaming.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Former Iowan

Update: P.S. Maryland today released the results of its first year under the new graduation exam. Just 11 students out of more than 60,000 failed to earn a diploma solely due to the tests. That’s a good thing if you think these tests are meaningless anyway and students just need that piece of paper. But it’s certainly a bad thing if the standards are meant to be real.

Tagged as: High School Exit Exams, High Schools, Iowa, Maryland High School Exit Exam