Exit Exams: Making Sure Students Are Prepared

The controversy of exit exams, which has been debated in my school district, points out a glaring problem with the Pennsylvania education system.

It is graduation night, everyone is taking pictures, people are crying, and diplomas are being handed out. A diploma means a high school education and the ability to succeed. Or does it? Diplomas in Pennsylvania currently have no real value. Students can graduate without having learned anything. Those students receive “empty diplomas”. They are given diplomas but the students have no skill and will not succeed in the real world. To prevent empty diplomas, equalize their value, and to properly prepare students, exit exams should be required by Pennsylvania high schools. Exit exams are not high stake tests, and they replace the final exams a student would have to take.

In Pennsylvania there are 501 different school districts. Each one of those school districts has their own different graduation requirements. Each diploma has a different meaning. To equalize the meaning of diplomas, graduation requirements should be the same all throughout the state. Exit exams would be the standard requirement for graduation. Then there would not be a diploma from Central Dauphin School District and a diploma from Central Columbia School District, both representing two different standards and levels of education. It would be a Pennsylvania diploma, not a district diploma.

Instituting Graduation Competency Assessments (GCA’s) would be extremely beneficial to the Pennsylvania education system. Graduation Competency Assessments are used to indicate whether students have mastered the skills necessary to succeed outside of high school.  The Pennsylvania Department of Education states that, “The GCA’s are a series of pass/fail exams-not one test-administered throughout high school.” The GCA’s measure the level of English, math, science, and social studies skills expected of students based on the state’s academic standards.

Students will take the GCA’s when they have completed the corresponding class.

Instead of taking a final exam, students would take the GCA’s. Then at the end of a student’s senior year there would be no need for one high pressure test.

What if a student does not pass the GCA’s? Students are allowed to take the tests an unlimited amount of times until they pass. Plus, students only have to retake the certain test(s) they failed, not the whole series again.

There is a problem with the Pennsylvania high school diploma. That problem is that diplomas have no value. There needs to be assurance that when a person is handed a Pennsylvania diploma, he or she has all the skills necessary to succeed. By adding Graduation Competency Assessments to graduation requirements, the problem can be solved. After all, “A diploma should be worth more than the paper it’s printed on.”