Monday, July 14, 2025

A High-School Exit Exam in Science: Consequences

 Preparing students for science, technology, and engineering careers is an urgent state policy challenge. This study examines the design and roll-out of a science testing requirement for high-school graduation in Massachusetts. 

While science test performance has improved over time for all demographic subgroups, there was rising inequality in failure rates and retest success. English learners, almost 8% of all test-takers, account for 53% of students who never pass. There were large differences by family income, even conditional on previous test scores, that raise equity implications. However barely passing the exam increases high-school graduation and college outcomes of students near the score threshold, particularly for females and students from higher-income families.

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