Talawanda High School Concerned About New Graduation Requirements

BY RACHEL BRADY
Miami University journalism student

The Talawanda School District is among those in Ohio with concerns about the new Ohio graduation requirements for the class of 2018 and beyond.

The new requirements, which were approved in 2014 with the intent of better preparing students to enter college or the work force, have induced fear and worry in many academic leaders. Some are pushing for changes, fearful that the requirements are not realistic or obtainable for most districts.

“I will tell you, with the efforts of many superintendents across the state, we will most likely see a revision to this plan,” said Talawanda Superintendent Kelly Spivey.

Spivey joined about 200 Ohio superintendents, school board members and teachers at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Nov. 15, calling for changes. “I’m just one of several superintendents trying to make a change,” Spivey said.

The Spivey and the other superintendents are hoping to make changes that allow their school districts to ease into the new requirements as opposed to immediate implementation. This would then allow them to better adapt to the process and hold on to or improve their current graduation rates.

The requirements

The new Ohio high school graduation requirements include the previously required 20 credits of general courses and one of three new options. The three options include Ohio’s state tests, industry credential and workforce readiness, and college and career readiness test.

The new system was designed to provide variety for students who are not strong test-takers or who are on a career path rather than a college path right after high school.

While the requirements may have been drafted with good intentions, critics believe too little consideration was given to the actual implementation to the plan. The Talawanda School Board noted that its high school could not appropriately implement more than one of the three options for its students.

Challenges

Additionally, Spivey said, the requirements are difficult to read and understand.

The Talawanda School Board fears that with some industry credentials requiring a minimum age of 18 years or older, that option is not feasible for most of the Talawanda high school students. That's because they would have to complete about 400 hours of internship credit after reaching the age of 18 for many credentials.

Additionally limited testing terms for the college and career readiness testing challenge students' ability to retest if they do not reach their desired scores the first time around. The testing terms are at the end of the fall semester, end of spring semester and around winter break.

Limited access to Wi-Fi is a big issue for the Ohio state tests in the Talawanda school district because these tests will be taken online and the current IT account can only support a limited number of students at once. This will cause many issues with scheduling testing dates and times.

In order to overcome some of these challenges and best set up Talawanda High School students to earn their high school diploma on time, the high school has created a graduation tracking system. This system allows students to follow along on their track to graduation, making sure that they are staying up to date and meeting all requirements.

Additionally the faculty is planning meetings with parents and guardians of high school students so that they are aware of the requirements and how close their students are to achieving them.

Students will also be offered advising to stay on track, with math teachers leading that effort.

“But this is why there were so many superintendents at the capital," said Spivey, “because when you have a district like Talawanda that’s been looking at 95, 97 percent graduation rates and now with the new requirements are reporting a 60 percent graduation rate and now we have their attention.”

Ohio Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, chair of the Senate Education Committee, told Spivey and other superintendents changes in the previously determined requirements are in the making. Under discussion: whether the state will implement the new system over several years or move immediately for the class of 2018.

The original plan, created by the Ohio General Assembly, laid out three graduation requirement paths:

Ohio’s state tests

This graduation requirement option requires that students earn a cumulative passing score of 18 points during the completion of seven end-of-course state tests, which are spread out throughout the student’s high school career. The tests cover math, English, science and social studies.

Although the number of points per test may vary depending on the individual student’s subject strengths and weaknesses, the requirement states that each student must earn at least four points in math, four points in English and six points combined in science and social studies.

“This is the most likely path for most of our students,” said Talawanda High School Assistant Principal Molly Merz.

Industry credential and workforce readiness

“The industry credential piece was something that we really were excited about initially, because we thought it was an awesome pathway for some of our kids who aren’t great test takers,” said Merz.

Through this option, students have the opportunity to earn 12 points through a State Board of Education-approved, industry-recognized credential or group of credentials in a single career field. Additionally the student must achieve a score of 13 on the WorkKeys assessment, which the State of Ohio will pay for once.

Age is an issue with this part of the requirements since some of industries will only consider applicants at age 18 or older. Not all students hit 18 with enough time before graduation to consider this option.

“We’ve just got to figure out how to make this a real option for our students,” said Merz.

College and career readiness tests

The college and career readiness option requires that students earn “remediation-free” scores on a nationally recognized college admission exam such as the ACT or SAT. Similar to the industry credential and workforce readiness option, the State of Ohio will be offering the first attempt at one of these tests free of charge.

Merz recognized that one of the major issues with this option is that it’s not so much an alternate pathway because she predicts that those students who are testing well on their Ohio state tests will also be scoring well on their ACT or SAT so it's not actually providing more options for students who aren't strong test takers.

Photo: The Talawanda School Board hopes the state of Ohio will consider changes in new graduation requirements. -- Contributed photo