Some 47,000 Ohio high school juniors are in danger of not meeting a set of tough new graduation standards for next year. And the state school superintendent says he’s pleased that the Senate version of the budget will likely include an alternative for those students.
Students would have to do two of these things: have a 93 percent attendance rate, get a 2.5 GPA, do a final project, complete 120 hours of community service or work experience with a recommendation, or a college- credit plus course. Superintendent Paolo DeMaria supports that, and is opening the door to an extension of those options.
“Do we really want to create the conditions where a lot of students don’t graduate and then have to figure out how to proceed with that, or do we still want to put something fairly rigorous in place that allows for an orderly transition over the next couple of years?” DeMaria says.
Only two thirds of the class of 2018 is on track to get a good enough score a college entrance exam, earn an industry credential or score 18 points over seven different exams.
