The Difference Between the Ohio Graduation Test and the 9th Grade Proficiency Test

Lots of parents are wondering what the differences are between the 9th grade proficiency test and the Ohio Graduation Test. I will explain the difference between these tests.

The 9th grade proficiency test was a minimum competency exam it was designed to test just the student’s basic skills. The test had a multiple choice format, with the exception of the writing portion that required students to compose two essays. The test was developed to measure a set of general Learning Outcomes that identified basic skills to be learned by the end of the eighth grade. By the late 1990s, the Learning Outcomes were criticized for being too general and too vague to guide instruction. They were viewed as inadequate substitutes for measurable and widely understood “academic content standards.” Something was needed to see that Ohio’s students were properly prepared to enter the college world after graduation.

The Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) was designed has a standards-based exam, created to reflect and closely align with Ohio’s rigorous academic content standards. Each academic content standard includes grade-level specific “benchmarks,” which specify what a student should know and be able to do, and “indicators,” which serve as checkpoints that monitor a student’s progress toward meeting the standards. Educators use the academic content standards as a guide in the selection of curriculum materials and classroom instruction. All five subject areas of the OGT contain multiple choices, short, and extended response questions, which require students to construct written responses. He OGT has far less multiple choice questions than the previous 9th grade proficiency test and many more written responses are required. These questions are significantly more rigorous than those in the 9th grade proficiency test. Students start taking the OGT has sophomores and by their senior year they must pass each of the five sections in order to receive their diploma.