High School Exit Exams and Their Impact on Graduation Rates and Achievement

• In Event: 70.066 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 70.066-14 - High School Dropout: Issues and Policies

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the long-term effects of high school exit exams (HSEEs) on graduation rates and achievement using an interrupted time series (ITS) approach. We find that introducing a HSEE has an overall positive effect on graduation rate trends, an effect which is heterogeneous over time. In the year of introduction and the following three years we find a negative impact of HSEE on graduation rates; this negative impact is short-lived and becomes positive following the initial dip. We perform robustness checks using States that do not have HSEEs as control group. We also estimate a pre-intervention negative effect, suggesting that high schools start preparing for the HSEE even before its actual introduction.

Authors

• Katherine Marie Caves, ETH Zurich

• Simone Balestra, University of Zurich