Ohio students striving for their high school diplomas will be expected to complete a series of assessments beginning in 2014 instead of passing the Ohio Graduation Test.
State legislators voted in favor of a July 2009 bill that created a three-part system to replace the OGT within the next four years, said Scott Blake, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education.
We're not just upgrading the OGT; we are actually replacing the OGT
said Tom Parsons, director of curriculum and development for Athens City School District.
Ohio is moving away from the OGT because the exam is taken in the tenth grade and therefore expects students to perform at a tenth-grade level to graduate high school, Parsons said.
The three-part system will require students to complete a senior project;, take a college entrance exam, such as the ACT; and pass end-of-course finals to better suit the state's academic content standards in language arts, math, science and social studies, Blake said.
Not only are we changing the assessments but we are changing what the assessments assess Parsons said.
The academic content standards specify what is expected of students in the four core subjects at the students' age level, Blake said. The hope is that those standards will better align students with the expectations of college, he added.
Athens High School Principal Mike Meek said he feels the new system could be problematic because not every student plans to attend college.
I don't like the idea of requiring students to take a college entrance exam because not every kid is slated for college
he said, adding that such a test should not be required to receive a high school diploma.
The specifics of the senior project that will be required of Athens High School students have not been decided yet, Parsons said. But the intention is to assess students on out-of-classroom tasks and the project could involve anything from product production to participating in community service.
Ohio high schools are preparing for the change even though the switch will not take place for a few years, Blake said.
For the time being
the OGT will stay in place because no definitive timeline has been established
he added.
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Laura Service
