Wash. Schools Chief Calls For Fewer High School Exit Exams

Washington’s chief of K-12 education says the state’s high school students are required to take too many exit exams in order to graduate.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn said by the time this year’s tenth graders are seniors, they’ll have to take five exit exams in reading, writing, biology, algebra and geometry. "That’s probably a little too much testing," Dorn said. "That’s too much time from instruction, too much time out of the classroom for assessment, and I believe it’s too much money invested in it."

Dorn said Thursday he’ll ask the legislature to shrink the number of required exit tests to three: algebra, biology, and a combined reading and writing test. He said that's especially important because beginning in 2015, students will have to take a new type of test, as well: the Common Core State Standards reading, writing and math tests.