Raising the Stakes

For a growing number of students, graduation hinges on one big test.

Like more than 40,000 other students in California—about 10 percent of the class of 2006—Raul Navarro did not pass the state’s high school exit exam in time for graduation. But Raul, whose family moved from Mexico to the San Diego area three years ago, is determined to earn a diploma. “I really have to pass,” he says. “It’s very necessary for me...