The increasing use of state-mandated public high school exit exams is one manifestation of the current movement in U.S. public schooling toward more explicit standards of instruction and accountability. Exit exam requirements implicitly argue that raising the bar for graduation creates incentives both for students to work harder in school and for…

In this paper, the authors estimate the effect of a high school exit exam requirement (relative to no requirement) on students' academic achievement, persistence in high school, and graduation rates. They are particularly interested in the effects of the policy on the students who have low initial skill levels in high school. The study is based on…