To become a registered nurse in the United States, one must pass the National Council License Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). To address the growing national nursing shortage, nurse preparation programs must better prepare students to pass this national licensure examination. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a new nursing program at a large university in the southeast United States improved learning outcomes as measured by the Evolve Reach (formerly named the Health Education Systems Incorporated-HESI) exit examination and better prepared its graduates to pass the NCLEX-RN. Although there was no statistically significant difference in the Evolve Reach performance of students in the old versus new nursing programs, a positive relationship existed between the Evolve Reach results and first-time NCLEX-RN pass rates. These results suggested that the Evolve Reach exit examination was a value added assessment for the new nursing program and was useful for determining student readiness for the national licensure examination.