The state Senate is looking to stave off a possible high school graduation “crisis” by allowing students to graduate even with poor scores on state tests.
The Senate Finance Committee included exemptions from test score requirements in its new version of the state budget bill today. Those must still pass the full Senate and also be accepted by the House, then gain approval from Gov. John Kasich, before becoming official.
The proposed new “pathways” allow students in next year’s senior class, the class of 2018, to graduate without meeting new state test score requirements that would otherwise start with their class
The proposal would allow them to graduate if they meet at least two non-test standards, including having 93 percent or better attendance their senior year, having a GPA of 2.5 or above for senior year courses, completing a senior project, reaching a certain number of hours in a job or volunteer work and completing several career training steps.
The proposal from State Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Kettering Republican, comes from the recommendations of a panel that State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria and the state school board formed last year.
School officials across the state are concerned that as many as a third of the rising senior class would not be able to meet Ohio’s new test score expectations. A few hundred superintendents and other officials had rallied in protest of the requirements outside the statehouse late last year before bringing their complaints to the state school board.
That board supported today’s proposed changes in April, but with a few reservations. Because members did not have time to debate them in detail, the board had asked the legislature to give it authority to make adjustments if needed. The proposal before the Senate, however, simply makes the changes.
Damon Asbury of the Ohio School Boards Association said the changes proposed today make sense.
“The biggest argument against the proposal was that they were ‘watering down’ the standards,” Asbury said. “I do understand that, but I think this particular class has experienced so many changes in assessment and standards, and to ignore that would be unfair.”
Others say the changes lower standards for diplomas too much. Tom Gunlock, former president of the state school board, has been asking the legislature to hold off until more testing data is available and the state can see if students score better when they see consequences of their scores.
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