High school exit exam reducing graduations

California's high school exit exam, which students must pass to receive a diploma, has caused graduation rates among low-performing female and minority students to plunge by more than 30 percent since it was introduced, according to a study released Tuesday. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

"We estimate that about 20,000 students who would have graduated before this policy was in place did not get diplomas and an overwhelming majority of them are minority students - that is something we should all be worried about," said Sean Reordan, associate professor of education at Stanford University and the author of the study.

The Stanford study compared graduation rates and test scores from similar 10th- and 11th-grade students in four large urban school districts - Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco and Fresno - before and after the California Exit Exam was established as a requirement in 2005.