Setting the Bar
Ohio education blogger Colleen Grady asks some good questions about graduation requirements and the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). Thirty-two Middletown seniors who failed the OGT were not allowed to walk with their class at commencement. But three others were. These students passed an “alternate assessment.”
According to the Ohio Revised Code, students can use the “alternative way” to graduate if they:
• Pass four of five OGT tests.
• Have a 97 percent attendance rate throughout high school and no expulsions.
• Have at least a 2.5 grade point average in the subject not passed on the test.
• Have participated in intervention programs offered by school and have a 97 percent attendance rate there.
• Have letters recommending graduation from the principal and subject area teachers the of failed section [sic].
Grady rightly asks how kids who pass a course could fail to pass the test.
Even though we’ve set the bar for OGT passage and high school graduation so low, some students are still unable to step over it.
What’s really not fair is that a student could successfully earn all their course credits and still not be able to pass the OGT.
And she could have added that high school students who don’t pass the test the first time can take the test four more times.
(H/T: Educational Ohio)
