States Mull Best Way to Assess Their Students for Graduation

Texas, which has helped shape key tenets of the standards and accountability movement, is on the brink of revamping the way it assesses high school students for graduation. Instead of testing knowledge that students accumulate over several years, the state would test what students learn in each course.

A bill passed by the Texas Senate last month would replace the 4-year-old Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS, at the high school level with 12 end-of-course tests in English, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students would take the tests as they completed each course. The measure could come before the Texas House of Representatives this month.

The proposal signals a potentially important shift in thinking, and one that is gaining momentum. Of the 22 states that required students to pass an exit exam to graduate in 2006, four used end-of-course tests, and three more will do so by 2012, according to the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research group that tracks trends in high school exit exams. Texas’ move, which would take effect with freshmen in the fall of 2009, would make eight states...