Curriculum-based external exit exam systems: Do students learn more? How?

This article examines the effect of curriculum-based external exit examinations such as the French Baccalaureate, Canadian Diploma exams, and the Regents exams in New York State on student achievement. Students from countries with medium- and high-stakes exit exam systems outperform students from other countries at a comparable level of economic development. When student demography is held constant, New York State students do significantly better than students in other states on the Scholastic Assessment Test and on 8th-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress math assessments. Not only did 13-year-olds from Canadian provinces with such systems know more science and mathematics than students in other provinces, they watched less TV, did more homework, and talked with their parents more about schoolwork. Schools in provinces with external exams had better science labs, scheduled more time for teaching math and science, and hired more qualified teachers and had them specialize in teaching their subject.