State policymakers continue to put increasing faith in high school exit exams to raise student achievement and motivation. But how effective are exit exams? Several researchers have focused on this question recently—and with good reason.

The Center on Education Policy reports that 18 states now require students to pass exit exams to graduate from high school. By 2008, exit exams will have the power to make students ineligible to receive a high school diploma in at least 24 states. At that point, the educational future of about 70 percent of U.S. public school students will rest in the results of a single test given at one point in time.

ASCD has a history of opposing high-stakes decisions made on the basis of a single measure. Our 160,000 members at all levels of education—principals, teachers, superintendents, professors of education, and other educators—have spoken out consistently in surveys and have adopted positions stating that any decision about student grade placement or graduation eligibility should be made using multiple measures that give students adequate opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned.

The Center's study indicates that the number of state tests that include essays and short-answer questions in addition to traditional multiple-choice questions is expected to increase between now and 2008. All states provide retesting opportunities for students who fail, and some offer an alternate path to graduation or allow students to submit supplementary information, such as grades in key courses or letters of recommendation, in an appeals process. However, appeals are the exception rather than the rule, occurring in as few as four states.

For the most part, exit exams remain solitary measures that can block a student from graduating. Parents and educators know, however, that some forms of student understanding cannot be effectively evaluated by a single test. It is time to take into account what we know about the different ways students learn and explore better methods of assessing student learning and making educational decisions.

Although some supporters of exit exams argue that they increase student achievement and motivation, researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe found that this is not the case. Audrey L. Amrein and David C. Berliner contend that if students were engaged in genuine learning, their scores on other measures—the SAT, the ACT, Advanced Placement exams, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress—should have increased in states that have implemented exit exams. They did not. Furthermore, participation rates in ACT and SAT testing also did not increase, indicating that exit exams did not positively influence students' motivation to attend college.

Exit exam proponents want to raise expectations for students. Yet, in some cases, these assessments have created an incentive for holding back students who are in danger of failing or directing them to take the General Educational Development test. High-stakes testing programs are linked to increased dropout rates, with damaging consequences that must be considered in light of another of the Center's findings: greater numbers of African American, Hispanic, and poor children are negatively affected by exit exams.

How is it that a program created with the intent of improving student achievement and motivation could have such negative effects and potentially increase inequality in our schools? It is up to parents, policymakers, and educators to carefully evaluate the consequences of high-stakes testing on children. As we look to the future, perhaps we will see programs that transcend the use of one-time tests as the sole determiner of student performance and achievement.

The October 2002 issue of Infobrief, ASCD's policy-focused publication, focuses on high-stakes accountability.

High-Stakes Testing, Uncertainty, and Student Learning, by Audrey L. Amrein and David C. Berliner, is available in the Education Policy Analysis Archives at http://epaa.asu.edu /epaa/v10n18.