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The Cleveland Plain Dealer
A third of high
school juniors might not graduate next year, officials warn
By Patrick O'Donnell, The Plain Dealer
November 14, 2016
COLUMBUS, Ohio - About one third of high school juniors across Ohio are
in danger of not graduating on time, according to estimates that have
superintendents warning of a graduation "apocalypse" and the state
considering re-writing requirements for the class of 2018.
Olmsted Falls Superintendent Jim Lloyd said his district usually
graduates 96% or more of its seniors. New graduation requirements that
took effect for this year's 11th graders, he said, will likely slash
that rate by 30%.
"If this goes into effect, as is, that would drop to 65% of our
students being able to graduate. I can't imagine what that is across
the state."
"The word 'apocalypse' is what I would use," he said.
Lloyd is helping lead a rally at the statehouse Tuesday morning of an
estimated 200 superintendents, plus school board members from across
Ohio, to call attention to this danger. They also plan to ask the state
school board and legislature to seek more input from educators before
creating new education laws and requirements.
The other co-organizer of the rally, Superintendent James Haswell of
the Shadyside school district on the West Virginia border, said that
about 40% of his juniors are in danger of not graduating as well.
"The current high school graduation point system that was developed by
the Ohio Board of Education is having a negative impact on a large
percentage of our high school students," Haswell said.
This year's 11th graders are the first subject to new state rules
requiring students to score well on new state tests to graduate, beyond
earning credits and strong grades in their schools. Students earn
"points" toward graduation based on how well they score on seven
end-of-course exams.
The tests are more demanding than the old Ohio Graduation Tests that
students had to pass before - so much more that proficiency rates have
fallen dramatically and students are not earning enough "points" to be
on track to graduate.
Clear data on how many students are off-track is not available yet. The
Ohio Department of Education will present statewide details to the
state school board Tuesday morning.
But state school board member A.J. Wagner had warned in June of a
graduation "train wreck." He predicted that graduation rates would fall
to 60% because of low passage rates on the new tests.
School districts have been sorting out where their students stand since
receiving new state report cards this fall and several have started
sending letters to parents informing them of their teenager's progress.
The Cleveland school district is just sending those letters out, with
about 50% of students behind where they need to be to graduate.
"I'm not saying the sky is falling yet," said Karen Thompson, the
district's deputy chief of curriculum and instruction. "But it's pretty
dismal."
That district had the state's worst graduation rate near 50% just a few
years ago and has clawed its way up to just under 70%. New requirements
could knock the rate back where it started.
"If we don't start tending to it now, we could be hit," Thompson said.
The growing concerns are catching the ear of legislators and state
school board members, who will consider adjustments to requirements
Tuesday at the same time as educators rally just a few blocks away.
"It's just not acceptable that we have 50% of students not able to
graduate," said state Sen. Peggy Lehner, the Kettering Republican who
heads the Senate Education Committee. She said she will consider
legislative changes if the state school board can't resolve the issue.
State board members are already floating possible changes that could
ease the crunch on the class of 2018. They are discussing reducing the
number of "points" students need to graduate, so that more clear the
bar.
Others are looking at whether the state should adjust another pathway
to graduate - earning strong scores on the ACT college entrance exam.
Students can graduate if they receive a "remediation-free" score on
those tests, but some question whether that's too high a standard for
kids that won't go to college.
And there are proposals to phase-in requirements over a few years, so
that this year's 11th-graders don't deal with the changes all at once.
The debate, though, centers on the larger issue of what a high school
diploma should signify in Ohio. Board members and experts who have
appeared before the board note that most jobs today require more skills
than high school graduates have, so expectations must be raised.
When Wagner asked the rest of the board to adjust graduation
requirements this summer, the board agreed to only minor changes, not
the large ones he wanted.
And board President Tom Gunlock has said he doesn't want high
graduation rates just so everyone feels better for a short time, while
students don't have skills they need to succeed in the workplace.
At the time, board member Todd Jones opposed lowering standards to make
sure everyone earns a diploma. That would leave standards so low, he
said, that a diploma wouldn't signify much.
"It's the trophies-for-all movement," Jones said, arguing against more
changes. "It's that we have to assure that everyone gets a diploma and
they don't mean anything."
Gunlock, though, says he wants a reasonable solution that doesn't
abandon the long-term goal of raising standards. He said this week he
wants to see how far away students are from graduating, whether they
can make up ground by re-taking the tests after tutoring and what
different changes to requirements will mean.
The data from the state, he said, should offer some clues.
"We'll see where we go from there," he said.
Read this and other articles at the Plain Dealer
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