Georgia, South Carolina evaluate graduation tests

In the next few years, changes to high school graduation requirements could be in store for students in Georgia and South Carolina.

Related Stories

• Graduation requirements might shrink
• Georgia looks to phase out tests

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The states are among 44 that have adopted the Common Core State Standards in English and math, and they are among states working to develop tests aligned with those standards.

The new tests could replace the current exit exams -- the Georgia High School Graduation Tests and South Carolina's High School Assessment Program -- in the next few years, according to a recently released report. The State High School Tests: Exit Exams and Other Assessments was prepared by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

For now, the existing exit exams are the norm, with 28 states using them.

"States continue to use high school exit exams as a policy lever for school reform," Jack Jennings, the center's president and CEO, said in a statement. "But until states can provide more reliable and consistent longitudinal data, researchers will continue to struggle with identifying how exit exams impact student achievement and high school completion rates."

Possible changes

South Carolina is one of 15 states indicating that it plans to either replace its exit exam with a yet-to-be-developed common core exit exam or adjust the HSAP so it conforms to those standards, according to the report.

It is a member of both consortia of states that are developing the new tests. They are the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, which has 25 states, and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, which has 31 states.

"Pending decisions made by the state regarding future consortia memberships, new assessments may be developed that will replace the HSAP tests that are currently administered to meet the state exit examination requirement for high school graduation," according to the report's profile of South Carolina.

Georgia was originally part of both groups but decided to leave the SMARTER Balanced consortium and play an active role in the Partnership for Assessment group. Georgia did not indicate whether it intends to replace the GHSGT with a new test based on the common standards.

Either way, it appears Georgia's exit exam is on the way out. The State Board of Education voted in November to phase out the test. Starting with students who enter ninth grade next fall, only end-of-course exams will be required, and the last exit exam will be given to students in the class of 2014.

The graduation tests are given for the first time in 11th grade and cover material taught in ninth through 11th grades in English, math, science, social studies and writing. End-of-course tests, as their name implies, are given at the end of the year in the associated course. Georgia students already take those tests along with the graduation test, but the end-of-course exams will count for much more, starting with the class of 2015.

That makes Georgia part of a growing trend, according to the Center on Education Policy.

Spending drops

As of the 2009-10 school year, seven states required students to pass end-of-course exams to earn a standard diploma, and another 10 plan to do so in the future. Georgia is not among the 10 because the report was compiled before the state made its decision.

The report also pointed out that South Carolina is one of six states that have significantly cut remedial programs for students who fail exit exams on the first try. In the 2007-08 school year, the Palmetto State reported spending $82 million to provide extra help to schools with the two lowest ratings on state report cards. That was reduced to $63 million in 2008-09 and to $60.4 million in 2009-10, even as the number of eligible schools increased.

"These reductions could further affect students who are at the greatest risk of being impacted by exit exams by reducing the amount of help that is available to them," Jennings said.