The high school exit exam (HSEE) is rapidly becoming a standardized assessment procedure foreducational accountability in the United States. I use a unique state-specific dataset to identify theeffect of failing the HSEE on the likelihood that a student drops out early based on a RegressionDiscontinuity design. It shows that students who barely fail the exam are more likely to exit thanthose who barely pass despite being offered retest opportunities. The discontinuity amounts to a largeproportion of the dropout probability of barely-failers, particularly for minority and low-incomestudents, suggesting that the potential benefit of raising educational standards might come at the costof increasing inequalities in the educational system.
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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number
dp0907.
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