State Points for Graduation, fair or unfair? Tiffani Wills


At the end of this school year, the first of the students that will graduate under the new state graduation requirements.  The state requirements have changed....again.  Teachers are confused.  Students are confused.  Parents are confused. The state is attempting to communicate clarity but has been unsuccessful. 

According to the Dayton Daily News, students still have to earn 20 course credits by passing classes at their school.

They still have to take the end-of-course exams, and retake any math or English exam where they scored 2 or lower out of 5.
But if they don’t get 18 points, they could graduate by meeting any two of these nine requirements:

* 93 percent attendance senior year
* A 2.5 GPA in at least four full-year senior-year courses
* A senior-year “capstone” project
* 120 hours of senior-year work or community service
* Three credit hours via College Credit Plus
* Passage of an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate class and exam
* A “level three” score on each of three components of the WorkKeys test
* Industry credentials totaling at least three points in Ohio’s system
* Receive an Ohio Means Jobs readiness seal. 
Some argue that these changes were made because affluent schools would have too take a significant hit to their graduation rates.  These changes should have started with a class that had all four years of high school to prepare for these changes.  Lots of adjustments have been made due to poor planning. I understand the intention but the process and implementation is flawed. 

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 10, 2017 at 5:58 PM

    The "bail out" provisions add a lot of confusion, in the effort to avert a huge mess(which may still sort of happen anyway). If the law ever stayed the same for a bit, we could see how the regular rules work. I wouldn't hold my breath on education policy becoming coldly rational anytime soon. I would guess that educational progress will be made in spite of changes in the law, not because of them.
    Knowing the true legislative purpose is seemingly impossible when it comes to education changes. All you ever hear are rumors of such.

    ReplyDelete

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