| Today more than ever the competition between countries relies on the talent pool of each country. Since education is considered responsible for cultivating the high quality human resources for the future development and prosperity of any country, its importance can never be overestimated in this age. So as to gain or retain the upper-handed position in the emerging of the new economic pattern, worldwide educational reforms have been and are being conducted. The reform on high school has attracted the most attention as high schools play a very important role in each country's educational system. Secondary education can help the country to strengthen its foundation and base, and then make it possible for the country to enjoy an everlasting talent pool and develop sustainably. Students in Senior high schools are faced with different choices. Some will start their jobs after graduation; the others will go the colleges to continue their study. Thus, senior high schools are faced with dual functions and responsibilities. On one hand, it must live up to the expectation of the labor market by making the high school graduates qualified on both their knowledge and skills; On the other hand, it has to live up to the expectation of the post-secondary educational institutes by supplying qualified influx of new students. What's more, it has to be responsible for their students by providing high quality education. This is especially meaningful for high school students in countries where high school education is not compulsory. In those countries students pay their tuition to get the education service, so their payments deserve to be valued. Senior high schools have to provide them with adequate knowledge and skills needed for labor market or higher education. To sum it up, high school education can definitely influence the human resources foundation of each nation. An efficient academic proficiency exam system can be an important guarantee for the quality of high school education. So far, most developed countries have already established such an exam system. Owing to the most cutting edge theories and technologies in educational assessment and measurement field, the academic proficiency exam system for US senior high schools has become the world leading example. China is now experiencing the eighth curriculum reform after the founding the new nation, which aims at setting up a new curriculum structure and assessment system in order to fit in the whole Quality Education scenario. Above all this, the reform on admission requirement of the higher education institutions also calls for the reference of a student's high school academic achievement. Thus the academic proficiency exam system for Chinese senior high schools emerged to cater for all those needs. At this point, China, an old country with more than a thousand year history of exams, and US, a country young but strong on modern education assessment, come to a common area. As a beginner, China can learn advanced experience from US. The comparative study between the two countries'exam systems will sure help China to identify its problems and take some preventive measures.The Proficiency Exam for Senior High Schools in both countries is far-reaching and involved with many practical affairs. This paper aims to 1) describe, interpret, juxtapose and compare the two test systems from five perspectives; 2) find out the similarities and differences between them; and 3) summarize the features, problems and future development trend of them. The five perspectives are namely historical perspective, education assessment perspective, education measurement perspective, education administration perspective. The three perspectives in the middle focus on describing and analyzing the present situation of the two test systems. As a result, the vertical study of the two systems'past, present and future was formed. The horizontal study of each stage was conducted in each individual perspective. In the historical perspective, the paper described and compared the emerging background and development history of each exam system. By doing this, the paper was trying to figure out the question of'where did it come from'. The research found that both exam systems were promoted by each country's political and economic environment, which embodied education's political and economic function. The one in China was directly propelled by the Quality Education Reform, but the ultimate reason was the urge to cultivate creative talents for the nation in the Knowledge Economic Age. The one in US was more influenced by political reasons at its first appearance. From the 1970's Minimum Competence Test to the present Comprehensive Exam and the End-of-Course Exam, the escalation of difficulty level and the expansion of test content mostly answered the calls of the nation's political and economic needs.The study of the two exam systems'status quo was conducted from the three perspectives of education assessment, education measurement and education administration. The education assessment perspective focused on analyzing and comparing the definition and positioning of the Exam, which aimed to answer the question of'what kind of exam it is'. The definition, function, relationship with other assessment systems and the impacts of each exam system were studied one by one. The findings include that 1) all the provincial level regions haven't reached a unanimous recognition of the exam; 2) there are two kinds of relationship between the Proficiency Exam system and the high school comprehensive assessment system in China. One is Integrated Mode; the other is Juxtaposed Mode.3) this exam in China is beneficial to the implementation of new curriculum reform, admission reform of higher education institutions and China's international communication and collaboration with other countries; 4) the Exams in US are all based on the curriculum standards of each state and are summative exams; 5) similar with China's Exam system, the US Exam also performs guiding function, supervising function and assessment function. The only difference lies in its accountability function; 6) the US Exam's impacts are its helpfulness to urge students, teachers and high schools to assume responsibilities to improve themselves and then to enable the nation to maintain its world-leading position. The education measurement perspective focused on the study of the key elements and the implementation of the Exam in both countries, which aimed to answer the question of'how to test'. The exam content, exam methods, time arrangement, test items'development, score calculation and the application of test result were analyzed separately. The findings are 1) the Exam in China has a richer content and various exam methods, which can measure students' learning outcomes in a comprehensive way, but may add students'already-heavy study burden; 2) the test item development in China's Exam is not very professional, which leads to the lack of validity and authenticity. The conversion from raw score to standard grading levels is not scientific, which needs to be improved. As for how to use the Exam results in the higher education admission process is still not clear enough, which aggravate students' worries; 3) the Exam content in US has a tendency to be versatile, but is still dominated by core subjects like reading, writing, mathematics and science. The Exam type is undergoing transformation from Comprehensive Exam to End-of-Course Exam; 4) the whole implementation of the Exam process in US is more reliable and efficient. The Exam feedbacks are more usable in supporting the education practice. The education administration perspective focused on the study of the organization and management of the Exam in China and US, which aimed to answer the question of'how to organize'. The management system, responding institution and management rules and regulations were researched accordingly. The findings are 1) the management system of the Exam in China is mostly a three-leveled hierarchy. The exception is that some places may specifically include senior high schools in the system, which will compose a four-leveled hierarchy; 2) the responding institutions in China are manifold, but can be categorized into four types; 3) different places in China have established rules and regulations to keep the Exam in order. Notifications and specifications are also publicized. Each provincial government has different regulations as to questions of whether or not to charge students for exam fee, and how much the fee should be; 4) the provincial governments in China need to simplify their management hierarchies of the Exam and cultivate the sense of serving the students; 5) the Exam system in US is dominantly two-leveled hierarchy which is shaped by the American educational administration system. The responding institutions of the Exam are usually the departments responsible for accountability and assessment; 6) the administration system of the Exam in US is generally more efficient since it has fewer levels of hierarchy. The regulations and rules of the Exam in US are established in the law. The Exam is almost free in every state and the rights of students are sincerely respected. The government education departments serve the students and teachers in an active way. Last but not least, the alternate exam policies for students with disabilities and language difficulties reflect the nation's humanitarianism and pursuit of educational equality.The future perspective aimed at summarizing and anticipating the future development of the Exam in both countries. The features and the problems were summarized and the future developments were anticipated. This part was trying to answer the question of'where to go'. The key findings include:1) the Exam in China has three outstanding features:bureaucracy-oriented on organization and management of the Exam, diversified on Exam content and methods, comprehensive on implementation and involvement of local governments. There are mainly five problems in the Exam:different places need to reach an unanimous recognition of the Exam's nature, the administration of the Exam need to be improved, test development process and scoring process need to be more professional, the Exam result need to be applicable nationwide and be used reasonably in the college admission process. In the future the government might need to work mainly on three aspects to solve the problems. First is to revitalize its management ideology. Second is to promote the development of professional assessment and measurement and introduce educational service companies. Third is to optimize and simplify the many senior high school assessment systems; 2) the features of the Exam in US are the democracy reflected in the whole Exam system, the rule-by-law spirit expressed in the implementation of the Exam and the professionalism shown in organization and management of the Exam. The common issues in different states are the high expenditure of the Exam, the overuse of the Exam result, the deficiency in the equality, the overestimation of economic value of the Exam, and deformation of the function of senior high school education. To tackle with these issues, the federal government and states might make efforts on the following aspects:to guarantee each student with equal education opportunities, to optimize the present Exam system by unifying the test standards of different states and expanding the Exam content, and to set up a comprehensive assessment system for senior high school education by introducing alternative assessments and by assessing students'high-order thinking skills. Based on all the comparisons between two countries, the paper made some contemplation on the common issues faced by both countries, such as the centralized and decentralized education administration systems and the possible backwash affects brought by the standards-based education reform.
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