Regents Office - State Education Building

Board of Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch

89 Washington Avenue
Albany, N.Y. 12234
New York State Education Department
Commissioner John King
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12234
Dear Chancellor Tisch, Commissioner King and Board of Regents Members:
We are writing in regards to the proposed changed to high school graduation requirements. We applaud
the move to increase flexibility in high school graduation by allowing students to substitute a vocational
test for one of the social studies Regents examinations. This provides students with much-needed
flexibility but it does not go nearly far enough. We believe that the use of high school exit exams as a
barrier to graduation needs to be fundamentally rethought, and we call on the Board of Regents to form a
working group to recommend flexible, multiple-measure graduation criteria.
The academic research on high school exit exams is abundant and it generally points in one direction:
Such tests have limited academic benefit to high school graduates, and harm at-risk students who just
miss graduation cutoffs. A study by a Harvard researcher found that high school graduation exams did not
improve student achievement, but did increase dropout rates among low-performing students. 1 Another
study confirmed these results, looking at data over three decades and finding that exit exams had no
positive effect on student achievement.2 Yet another study came to even more discouraging findings:
graduation exams may actually lead to lower achievement and lower graduation rates.3
Other research finds that graduation tests do not increase the motivation of students. 4 And perhaps most
disturbingly, recent evidence suggests that high school exit exams may lead to increased rates of
incarceration.5 As a 2010 meta-analysis succinctly put it, exit tests have produced few of the expected
benefits and have been associated with costs for the most disadvantaged students. 6
As an Educators 4 ExcellenceNew York Teacher Policy Team recommended in None of the Above: A
New Approach to Testing and Assessment the Board of Regents should form a working group to examine
this matter further and to make recommendations for reforming the current system. We support an
approach that considers multiple measures, and never allows a single test to prevent an otherwise
qualified candidate from receiving a high school diploma.
We believe that a working group within the Board of Regents should examine a variety of options for how
to improve the graduation process while maintaining rigorous standards for students. The proposed
changes are a step in the right direction, but students deserve policies informed by experience and
evidence and both suggest that the current graduation system needs to be more fundamentally
rethought.

1 Jacob, B. (2001, June). Getting Tough: The Impact of High School Graduation Exam. Educational Evaluation and Policy
Analysis. Retrieved from http://epa.sagepub.com/content/23/2/99.short

2 Grodsky, E., Warren, J., Kalogrides, D. (2009, May). State High School Exit Examinations and NAEP Long-Term Trends in
Reading and Mathematics, 19712004. Education Policy. Retreieved from
http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2008/06/13/0895904808320678.abstract;

3 Marchant, G., Paulson, S., (2005, January). The Relationship of High School Graduation Exams to Graduation Rates and SAT
Scores. Education Policy Analysis Archives. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ846516.pdf

4 Reardon, S., Arshan, N., Atteberry, A., Kurlaender, M. (2010, December). Effects of Failing a High School Exit Exam on Course
Taking, Achievement, Persistence, and Graduation. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Retrieved from
http://epa.sagepub.com/content/32/4/498

5 Baker, O., Lang, K. (2013, June). The Effect of High School Exit Exams on Graduation, Employment, Wages, and Incarceration.
National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w19182

6 Holme, J., Richards, M., Jimerson, J.B., and Cohen, R. (2010, December) Assessing the Effects of High School Exit
Examinations, Review of Educational Research. Retrieved from http://rer.sagepub.com/content/80/4/476.abstract