At first glance, calls from members of Congress to in might sound like a neutral policy.

But even if it can’t or won’t, all of us here at the Center for Assessment 鈥� and many others 鈥� think states should anyway.

Statewide exams are designed to serve four critically important purposes: monitoring of statewide educational growth and achievement; evaluation and continuous improvement; transparency and public engagement, and the signaling of expectations for student learning.

State education leaders and policymakers must monitor students鈥� educational opportunities and outcomes so they can provide the kinds of resources schools need, such as reading intervention for students or specialized training for teachers or principals. High-quality statewide standards-based achievement tests are well-suited to this work because they are designed and administered to yield comparable scores across students, schools and districts.  

State and local leaders also need data to help schools improve and to evaluate programs and initiatives. State tests are not designed to improve instruction in real time 鈥� that鈥檚 a job best handled by classroom assessments. But the state exams play a powerful role in clarifying the bigger picture. For instance, across a district or state, which curriculum and instructional programs are working?

To answer that question, state and district leaders conduct or commission a study, using a range of information that sheds light on student learning. Assessment results are a crucial piece of that picture. Understanding patterns in student performance in fourth grade reading, for instance, helps leaders figure out how to better support reading instruction in fourth grade. 

State test results help the public understand how well K-12 education is working. Public education is a foundation of democracy and one of the largest budget items for state and local governments. The public has a right to understand how these funds are used and whether school districts provide their students with meaningful learning opportunities. 

Comparable statewide test scores are an essential source of information to support efforts to build public trust and increase this type of transparency. Many other indicators of schooling, such as readiness for college or work, should also be publicly reported, but student academic outcomes should be featured. 

High-quality statewide tests that embody state content standards also serve an important signaling function: They help teachers, students, principals and district leaders understand intended learning goals by providing explicit depictions of the content standards. It鈥檚 one thing to show someone a third-grade math standard; it鈥檚 another to show someone the test question that reflects that standard. That鈥檚 when the intended learning goals really come into focus. 

State exams are in a uniquely powerful position to do all this work. They are subjected to higher-quality standards than any other test. They are thoroughly evaluated by local educators, state technical advisory committee members 鈥� independent national measurement experts 鈥� and fellow teachers through the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 peer-review process. 

State tests must document that they meet agreed-upon key criteria, including validity, alignment, reliability, fairness and comparability. These criteria are elaborated in the bible for testing professionals, , and the . These documents provide a shared understanding of quality and guide the work of state testing professionals and their assessment company partners.

District leaders and others have pressured states to replace their annual exams with their favorite interim or benchmark test. The rationale is simple and somewhat compelling: 鈥淲e already use Assessment X three times each year, and we like the results. Why do we also need a separate state exam?”

The answer is straightforward. The level of independent review and evaluation state exams receive, and the resulting transparency, far exceeds that of any other K-12 assessment. Commercial exams are not designed to support the purposes I鈥檝e described, and none have met the technical requirements that state assessments must meet. 

Educators want state assessments to serve critical purposes, and these exams have met rigorous quality standards to do so. They are crucial tools for monitoring the achievement and growth of all students in the state, evaluating programs, providing a way to report transparently about schooling in the state, and signaling to teachers and leaders important information about the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn. States must not give up on them even if the federal government takes its foot off the pedal. 

Jill Norton, an education policy adviser in Massachusetts, has a teenage son with dyslexia and ADHD. Shelley Scruggs, an electrical engineer in the same state, also has a teenage son with ADHD. Both students go to the same technical high school.

But last fall, Norton and Scruggs advocated on opposite sides of a Massachusetts ballot referendum scrapping the requirement that high school kids pass a standardized state test to graduate.

Norton argued that without the high bar of the standard exam, kids like hers won鈥檛 have an incentive to strive. But Scruggs maintained that kids with learning disorders also need different types of measurements than standardized tests to qualify for a high school diploma.

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Voters approved the referendum last November, 59% to 41%, ending the Massachusetts requirement. There and in most other states, Scruggs鈥� position against testing is carrying the day.

Just seven states now require students to pass a test to graduate, and one of those 鈥� New York 鈥� will end its Regents Exam as a requirement by the 2027-28 school year. Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and Virginia still require testing to graduate, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a group that opposes such mandates.

In Massachusetts, teachers unions favored getting rid of the exam as a graduation requirement. They argued it forced them to teach certain facts at the expense of in-depth or more practical learning. But many business leaders were in favor of keeping the test, arguing that without it, they will have no guarantee that job applicants with high school diplomas possess basic skills.

State by state, graduation tests have tumbled over the past decade. In 2012, half the states required the tests, but that number fell to 13 states in 2019, . The trend accelerated during the pandemic, when many school districts scrapped the tests during remote learning and some decided to permanently extend test exemptions.

Studies have found that such graduation exams disadvantage students with learning disabilities as well as English language learners, and that they aren鈥檛 always a good predictor of success in careers or higher education.

An oft-cited 2010 by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin may have ignited the trend to scrap the tests. Researchers鈥� review of 46 earlier studies found that high school exit exams 鈥減roduced few of the expected benefits and have been associated with costs for the most disadvantaged students.鈥�

Some states began to find other ways to assess high school competency, such as grades in mandatory courses, capstone projects or technical milestones.

鈥淢inimum competency tests in the 1980s drove the idea that we need to make sure that students who graduate from high school have the bare minimum of skills,鈥� said John Papay, an associate professor of education at Brown University. 鈥淏y the mid-2000s, there was a reaction against standardized testing and a movement away from these exams. They disappeared during the pandemic and that led to these tests going away.鈥�

Despite the problems with the tests for English learners and students with learning disabilities, Papay said, the tests are 鈥渟trong predictors of long-term outcomes. Students who do better on the tests go on to graduate [from] college and they earn more.鈥�

Papay, who remains neutral on whether the tests should be required, pointed out that high school students usually have many opportunities to retake the tests and to appeal their scores.

Anne Hyslop, director of policy development at All4Ed, a think tank and advocacy group for underserved communities, noted that in many states, the testing requirements were replaced by other measures.

The schools 鈥渟till require some students or all students to demonstrate competency to graduate, but students have many more options on how they could do that. They can pass a dual credit [high school/college] course, pass industry recognized competency tests. 鈥�

鈥淎 lot of states still have assessments as part of their graduation requirements, but in a much broader form,鈥� she said.

Massachusetts moves

Scruggs said her son took Massachusetts鈥� required exam last spring; he passed the science and math portions but fell 1 point short in English.

鈥淗e could do well in his classes, but if he didn鈥檛 pass the three tests, he wouldn鈥檛 get his regular diploma,鈥� Scruggs said. 鈥淗ow do you go out into the working world, and you went to school every day and passed your classes, but got no diploma?鈥�

Her son has taken the English test again and is awaiting his new score, she said.

Norton, by contrast, said the exam, called the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, gave her son an incentive to work hard.

鈥淚 worry that kids like him 鈥� are going to end up graduating from high school without the skills they will need,鈥� Norton said. 鈥淲ithout the test, they will just be passed along. I can鈥檛 just trust that my kid is getting the basic level of what he needs. I need a bar set where he will get the level of education he needs.鈥�

Students in Massachusetts still will have to take the MCAS in their sophomore year of high school, and the scores will be used to assess their overall learning. But failing the test won鈥檛 be a barrier to graduation beginning with the class of 2025. The state is still debating how 鈥� or whether 鈥� to replace the MCAS with other types of required courses, evaluations or measurements.

High school students in Massachusetts and most states still have to satisfy other graduation requirements, which usually include four years of English and a number of other core subjects such as mathematics, sciences and social studies. Those requirements vary widely across the country, however, as most are set by individual school districts.

In New York, the State Education Department in 2019 began a multiyear process of rethinking high school graduation requirements and the Regents Exam. The department decided last fall to phase out the exit exam and replace it with something called a 鈥淧ortrait of a Graduate,鈥� including seven areas of study in which a student must establish proficiency. Credit options include capstone projects, work-based learning experiences and internships, as well as academic achievement. Several other states have moved recently to a similar approach.

Harry Feder, executive director of FairTest, an advocacy group that works to limit standardized testing, said course grades do a better job of assessing students鈥� abilities.

鈥淪tandardized tests are poor ways of incentivizing and measuring the kinds of skills and knowledge we should have high school kids focusing on,鈥� Feder said. 鈥淵ou get 鈥榯eaching to the test鈥� that doesn鈥檛 bear much of a relationship to the kinds of things that kids are being asked to do when they go on to college or the workplace.鈥�

Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association union, said phrases such as 鈥渢eaching to the test鈥� disrespect teachers and their ability to know when students have mastered content and competency. The high school tests are first taken in the 10th grade in Massachusetts. If the kids don鈥檛 pass, they can retake the exam in the 11th or 12th grade.

鈥淓ducators are still evaluating students,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a mirage to say that everything that a student does in education can be measured by a standardized test in the 10th grade. Education, of course, goes through the 12th grade.鈥�

He added that course grades are still a good predictor of how much a student knows.

Colorado鈥檚 menu

Several of the experts and groups on both sides of the debate point to Colorado as a blueprint for how to move away from graduation test requirements.

Colorado, which made the switch with the graduating class of 2021, now allows school districts to choose from a menu of assessment techniques, such as SAT or ACT scores, or demonstration of workforce readiness in various skill areas.

A state task force created by the legislature recently to the education accreditation system to 鈥渂etter reflect diverse student needs and smaller school populations.鈥� They include creating assessments that adapt to student needs, offering multilingual options, and providing quicker results to understand student progress.

The state hopes the menu of assessment options will support local flexibility, said Danielle Ongart, assistant commissioner for student pathways and engagement at the Colorado Department of Education.

鈥淒epending on what the student wants for themselves, they have the ability to show what they know,鈥� she said in an interview. In particular, she said, the menu allows for industry certificates, if a student knows what type of work they want to do. That includes areas such as computer science or quantum computing.

鈥淚t allows students to better understand themselves and explain what they can do, what they are good at, and what they want to do,鈥� she said.

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