New Jersey Poised to Eliminate High School Exit Exam, Like Most States

Supporters of tossing the test said students don’t take it seriously and classroom time can be better spent. Critics say we’re making it too easy to graduate.

A science teacher works with her students in a high school in Homestead, Fla., on March 10, 2017. Rhona Wise/AFP via Getty Images

The high school exit exam is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

New Jersey is on track to become the latest state to eliminate the graduation test, which measures 10th-grade proficiency in English and math and is administered to high school juniors. A bipartisan bill ending the requirement passed the state’s General Assembly 55–17 on Dec. 8 and will be considered by the Senate in the coming weeks.

The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Michele Matsikoudis, a Republican, said the exam no longer serves its purpose.

“Students do not take it seriously. Districts can’t rely on the results. The data simply does not reflect real student learning,” she said in a Dec. 8 statement.

“At the same time, administering this test pulls valuable time and resources from classroom instruction—time that would be far better spent teaching, mentoring, and preparing students for life beyond high school.”

Only five other states—Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia—still have graduation tests for the class of 2026, according to FairTest National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

In Massachusetts, voters passed a referendum in 2024 to eliminate the test.

In New York state, most public high school students must pass Regents exams in various subject areas to graduate. But that requirement will be phased out ahead of the 2029–2030 academic year and replaced with the Portrait of a Graduate program centered on “child development, equity and belonging, and authentic application” of skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking that students will be expected to demonstrate before they are handed their diplomas, according to the state Department of Education.

Harry Feder, FairTest’s executive director, said that about 30 states still required high school exit exams as late as the early 2000s.

There was strong pushback against so much testing from teachers and parents, he said, but over time, education leaders also realized that a final multiple-choice test was an ineffective and outdated method when schools already had a system of course sequences and final exams as graduation requirements.

“It’s a needless barrier,” Feder told The Epoch Times.

He said schools should have guardrails in place to ensure that students are not illiterate when they graduate, let alone behind grade levels in math and other subjects, but diploma candidates should also be required to show an understanding of the modern world, deeper thinking, problem-solving, and responsible use of technology.

Michelle Fitzgerald, director for advocacy and networking at the education consulting company Instructional Empowerment, said her company advises against high-stakes exit exams because they don’t “measure the whole child or what they learned throughout their education.”

“If we keep assessing kids and they keep getting results that say they can’t do something, they’re eventually going to believe that they can’t do it,” Fitzgerald told The Epoch Times. “Secondary teachers often see themselves as ‘holders of knowledge’ who spew content to students. But this approach isn’t working with the generation we have in front of us. Education needs to shift from teachers as holders of knowledge to teachers as consultants who guide critical thinking.”

New Jersey Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, a Republican, voted against the bill to eliminate the exit exam. Fantasia, who worked as a teacher and administrator before starting her current full-time job as a school district curriculum assessment coordinator, said the main reason her opponents want to eliminate the requirement is to close the achievement gap by race and wealth, but they haven’t proposed an alternative for ensuring that students are at the 10th-grade level in reading and math before graduation.

Without this state standard in place, she said, 600 districts in the Garden State will be free to determine their own definitions of “graduation ready.” This would only add to the ongoing problems of grade inflation and chronic absenteeism in several high schools where seniors carried 4.0 grade point averages but couldn’t pass the exit exam.

Fantasia said one struggling district increased its graduation rate from 40 percent to 82 percent after implementing a minimum score of 64 in all subject areas, regardless of attendance, test performance, and assignment completion. Statewide, she said, half of New Jersey public school graduates who continue their education are required to take remedial math and English courses in college.

“We’re lowering the bar so they can hop right over it,” Fantasia told The Epoch Times.

New Jersey allows students who fail the exam in their junior year to take it again in 12th grade. Students who achieve high enough SAT scores can get an exemption, as can special needs and non-English speaking students who can alternatively provide a portfolio of their work to the state Education Department, Fantasia said.

Michael Petrilli, president of the Fordham Institute education policy think tank, said, “It’s never been easier to graduate from high school in America than it is today—and that’s a problem.”

He said public schools should do more to push Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses and their associated exams. Additionally, end-of-course exams for core high school courses should be implemented to check against grade inflation, he said, and all higher education institutions, including community colleges, should set higher minimum standards.

“With rampant grade inflation and the elimination of graduation tests, thousands of young people are being handed diplomas they can barely read,” Petrilli said.