Opinion: New Jersey Is Moving to End HS Graduation Exam. It Must Not Let Standards Slip

The New Jersey Assembly recently moved to eliminate the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment, joining a troubling national trend of states that now allow students to graduate from high school without any objective evidence that they have mastered the minimal skills necessary for future success.    

Diluting academic standards, reducing cut scores or eliminating test-based performance measures altogether are tried-and-true features of administrations that want to give the appearance of progress without doing the often politically fraught work of actually advancing student learning. 

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Proponents frame this as a move to reduce student stress or promote a more holistic education. But let’s call it what it is: a retreat from a commitment to educational equity.  

As a former New Jersey commissioner of education, superintendent of Newark Public Schools and New York City deputy schools chancellor, I have seen firsthand that the most radical, yet necessary, reform states can pursue is an unwavering insistence on equal and high standards for all children regardless of where they live or how much money their families have. Handing out diplomas disconnected from proficiency is a profound error. Students are more than capable of meeting high bars, and policies must reflect that belief.  

Across the country, the number of states requiring high school exit exams has plummeted from a peak of nearly 30 to fewer than 10 today. This quiet erosion of standards ignores a fundamental truth of human behavior: incentives matter.

A graduation exam aligns the interests of teachers, parents and students toward a clear, measurable goal. It also creates a necessary feedback loop, providing an early warning system that allows for targeted remediation before a student enters the workforce or higher education. Without a clearly measurable goal line, students will instead be measured by the courses they complete, a subjective metric that’s prone to the corrosive effects of grade inflation.

It’s odd that in other areas of high school, rigorous standards are implemented and adhered to with no pushback. There is a broad consensus around the value of Advanced Placement exams, the International Baccalaureate and the SAT. A student taking one of these standardized tests must demonstrate mastery to receive college credit or make a case for admission to higher education. There’s widespread agreement that those tests validate learning and ensure a student’s score has a certain value. It makes no sense at all that policymakers in New Jersey are so eager to deny the general population of New Jersey high schoolers the same objective validation from a graduation exam.

International comparisons offer a sobering perspective. Countries that consistently outperform the United States, such as France, with its rigorous Baccalauréat, maintain centralized exit examinations to ensure a high baseline of national competence. These countries understand that a high school diploma serves as a credible signal to employers that a graduate possesses the foundational skills in literacy and mathematics required for adult success. By moving in the opposite direction, New Jersey would be choosing to make students less competitive in a global economy.  

I’ve grown weary of the argument that objective assessments like New Jersey’s graduation exam unfairly penalize young people from underserved communities. When policymakers eliminate a uniform metric, they don’t eliminate inequity. They hide it. They replace a transparent standard with subjective grading that often favors the privileged.

If policymakers feel the current system is too rigid, they could explore a two-tiered diploma system that distinguishes between various levels of mastery instead of abolishing the standard entirely. This would at least keep some objective measurement in place. What they shouldn’t do is write into state law that New Jersey’s students can’t do hard things. They can; but they need a system that expects excellence and refuses to lie to them about their readiness for the world. If they’re not ready, it’s the state’s responsibility to get them ready. 

As Mikie Sherrill begins her time in office, she has an opportunity to not only be a great governor, but also a transformational one when it comes to pre-K-12 education. 

Imagine how refreshing and powerful it would be if her core message was, “Judge me by how much children are learning, not by my allegiance to any particular policy, strategy or political orientation.”    

And what better way to act on that belief than to make sure that a state-certified high school diploma continues to demonstrate that New Jersey’s students are truly prepared for success as they enter adulthood.