Study notes trend toward more testing in high school

01-03-2011

Blog by Catherine Gewertz/Education Week

Coming soon to a high school near you (if it hasn't already): more testing. That's according to a new report. In its ninth annual examination of high school exit-exam trends, issued today, the Center on Education Policy analyzes a handful of intertwined trends that, taken together, suggest a net increase in testing is taking shape for high school students. One of the center's findings, for instance, is a steady increase in the number of states using an exit exam (some kind of test students must pass in order to graduate). Indeed, it finds that three-quarters of the nation's high school students now live in exit-exam states. Only half did when the CEP did its first exit-exam study in 2002. Trend lines also point to another thing: More states are using end-of-course tests—tests that cover the material contained in only one course—rather than comprehensive math-and-English exams that might cover years of material. (This is true regardless of how states use those end-of-course tests; some tie them to graduation, and some don't. But either way, they're getting more popular.) (more…)

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Study notes trend toward more testing in high school

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