High school exit examinations and high school dropout in Texas and Florida, 1971-2000

In this article, the authors ask whether state high school exit examinations are associated with high school dropout rates and racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in high school dropout rates in Florida and Texas. Using data from the 1968-2000 October Current Population Surveys, they first consider the 1971-2000 graduating classes and use a measure of whether students left school without obtaining any high school credential as the outcome variable. They next consider the 1991-2000 graduating classes and use a measure that classifies students who obtained general equivalency diplomas as dropouts as the outcome variable. In neither case did the authors find evidence that state high school exit examinations are independently associated with higher dropout rates or greater inequalities in dropout rates.