High school exit exam

To earn a high school diploma in California, students must pass the state's two-year-old high school exit exam. During their sophomore, junior and senior years, they have six chances to take the exam, which tests eighth-grade-level math and ninth- or 10th-grade-level English.

More than 93% pass the test by the end of their senior year, and tens of millions of dollars is earmarked for remediation and intervention programs for those who don't. But a new study by the Public Policy Institute of California suggests that this is too late. Researchers discovered they could identify students who would struggle with the exam as early as the 4th grade, based on their grades, classroom behavior and standardized test scores. To read more about it, click here.

The entire study is available here.

-- Seema Mehta