Ohio Graduation Test - Cleveland School District

The Cleveland School District had 1,315 of their seniors fail to pass all sections of the Ohio Graduation Test, which means they did not get a diploma. The 2007 senior class is the first class required to pass all sections of the OGT in order to graduate from high school.

The district offered free tutoring to seniors who needed to pass the OGT. Only 300 of the 1,315 took part in the tutoring. Monday July 16th student’s started testing again for the OGT. Students will not know if they passed this time until September.

Ohio Graduation Test - Poorer Schools Hit Hard

The Columbus Dispatch reported on July 9th that district data shows that seniors were more likely to fail portions of the Ohio Gradation Test if they attended schools that have high percentages of minorities and economically disadvantaged students, even if those same schools have had high graduation rates in the past. You can read the rest of this report here.

Ohio Graduation Test - Columbus Public Schools

The class of 2007 is the first senior class that had to pass the OGT in order to graduate; the five sections measure a student’s knowledge in reading, math, writing, science and social studies. Student’s will retake the OGT next week; state law requires that these student’s must have completed at least 10 hours of tutoring to be able to take the test.

234 Columbus Public School seniors signed up for tutoring to help them pass that last section or two of the OGT.

Nearly one in 10 Columbus Public Schools high school seniors, 269 student’s could not graduate with their classmates in June, because they had failed to pass one or more sections of the Ohio Graduation Test, even though they had met other graduation requirements.

At East, 30 of the 137 seniors fell into that category, or about 21 percent of the class. These students’s hope the tutoring will ensure passing the OGT next week.

Ohio Graduation Test - Bexley High School

For the seventh year in a row, the Ohio Department of Education has rated the Bexley City School District excellent. The rating is determined by several measures, one such measure is a district's performance on achievement tests for third to eighth graders another measure is the Ohio Graduation Test.

Ohio Graduation Test - Licking County Private Schools

An article in the Newark Advocate reports that students at some of Licking County's private high schools fared better on the Ohio Graduation Tests than public school students. At Newark Catholic High School, 79 % of their students passed all five subjects needed for the OGTs, beating out all schools except Granville High School, where over 81 percent of students passed. 87 % of Granville Christian Academy sophomores passed all five tests, making the academy's overall scores higher than any other high school in the county. To read more of this story go here.

Ohio Graduation Test - Springfield

The Springfield News has an article that a Springfield student petitioned the state to allow students who do not pass the Ohio Graduation Test to walk at commencement’ They also talk about the fact that she probably won't find help on the state level.
Kristen Davis, a student at Opportunities Industrialization Center, collected about 160 signatures and sent the petition to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, along with the state and local boards of education.

She said she does not think that it's fair that student’s must pass the OGT in order to walk in commencement she said there are honor roll students who get A's and B's and can't walk because they miss a couple points on the OGTs," she said. Kristen said that Strickland responded to her letter with a hand-signed note expressing support and saying he would forward the petition to the state board. You can read more hear.

Ohio Graduation Test-Newark City Schools

The Newark Advocate reports that Newark City School District's Ohio Graduation Test results are near the middle of the pack, in its peer group, which consists of 21 school districts marked by the Ohio Department of Education as being most like Newark, the district was 13th out of 21 in the percentage of students who passed all tests needed to pass the OGTs. Newark sophomores fared best in social studies, in which the district was 11th. The district was most behind in reading, in which it ranked 16. You can read the rest of the story here.

Ohio Graduation Test - Adena High School

The Chillicothe Gazette reports that Adena High School is close to mastering the key to the Ohio Graduation Test. Not only did all of Adena's seniors pass the OGT, but March test results show 78.6 percent of its 98 students who took the test were rated proficient or higher in all five testing areas. To read the rest of the story go here.

Ohio Graduation - Social Studies

Social Studies is proving to be the most difficult of the subjects on the Ohio Graduation Test. Local Ohio Graduation Test results from March indicate the highest number of students classified as limited are scoring this in social studies. Western, Eastern and Chillicothe high schools lead the pack with the most limited students — 22.5 percent, 22.1 percent and 19.8 percent, followed closely by Piketon High School at 18.5 percent. To read the rest of the article at the Chillicothe Gazette go here.

The Ohio Graduation Test Results are In

The Delphos Herald announced the Ohio Graduation Test results are in. Since the spring of 2007, all Ohio high school students must pass the Ohio Graduation Test in order to receive their diploma. Students take the exam as sophomores and have multiple opportunities to pass the test, which covers reading, math, writing, science and social studies. By the time the students are seniors and ready to graduate, they must have passed all five sections. To read the whole article click this link.

Ohio Graduation Test - Licking Count Public Schools

The Licking County's public school districts majority saw an increase in the percentage of students passing the Ohio Graduation Tests this year. This is according to preliminary test results.

Of the 10 districts six saw an increase in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in all five subjects, and the remaining four had a decrease in the total number of students passing the five subjects. Of the 10 districts Granville schools had the highest percentage of students passing the test at 81.2 percent. To read more go here.

Ohio Graduation Test - Ashtabula

Ashtabula county school district preliminary results are in for the 2006-2007 Ohio Acheement Tests and the Ohio Graduation Test will be released by the end of next week. It appears the district has improved and for the second year the district is looking at continuous Improvement rating. it looks like the district passed all 10 state indicators on the 10th and 11th grade and met the graduate rate requirement

To read more go here.

Ohio Graduation Test - Buckeye Local School District

The Star Beacon has a report about Buckeye Local School District. The school district got a sneak peek at its preliminary test scores for the 2006-2007 school year Achievement and Ohio Graduation Test results.

Official results will be released in August. To read more click here.

Ohio Graduation Test - IQity’s online Ohio Graduation Test Practice Guide

There have been many stories in the news about students not graduating and not receiving their diplomas because they were not able to pass all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test.

IQity’s online Ohio Graduation Test Practice Guide however, continues to be available to school district students. It is part of IQity’s Learning Suite and is available without any cost or obligation for an entire year until June of 2008.

Iqity’s Learning Suite has been receiving rave reviews from those schools that have been using it. There are still many Ohio school districts in the Ohio K-12 schools that are not aware that IQity is not charging for the system and also questions can be printed out as handouts for the Ohio Graduation test.

The Ohio Graduation Test is not a stand alone product. It is only part of IQity’s Learning Suite and is designed for your entire school to use.

If you would like to use IQity and its OGT Practice Guide, they just do need a little bit of your curriculum director’s time to give him or her a live, web-based demonstration before your school can use IQity. They do not try to sell you anything during the demo and there are no "catches" to the offer. They will simply show you IQity’s features and how to add accounts to give your students access.


A day and time that is best for you for a demo can be chosen here:

http://ogt.iq-ity.com/ogt/landing-lms.html

A staff member at IQity can better explain all the features and benefits during the live web-based demonstration. Then, if you decide to teach a course using IQity Learning Suite, you only pay the curriculum providers. If you try IQity out but never use the Class.com curriculum, your district does not disburse any funds, but can still use the practice guide free. Teachers are also able to create their own class content at no cost from which students can work.

As you can see now is great time to try out IQity’s Learning Suite and online Ohio Graduation Test Practice Guide, to see the great benefits it offers your school district.

Ohio Graduation Test - Greenon Scores High

Greenon is one of the top scoring schools on the Ohio Graduation Test. The students at Greenon overall increased the passed percentage by 13 points for the 2007 school year.

There were 169 sophomores at Greenon that took the Ohio Graduation Test and of those students 94% passed writing, 88% passed math, 92% passed reading, 83% passed social studies and 86% passed science. 76% passed all sections while only 3% did not pass any of the five sections.

You can read the rest of the report here

3 Cincinnati Schools Test Perfect

Ohio’s graduating class of 2007 was the first senior’s to have to pass the Ohio Graduation Test in order to receive their diplomas. Record numbers of Ohio high school seniors failed the tougher mandatory graduation test. However three Cincinnati Public Schools were perfect of the 499 seniors, all passed all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test.

However more than one-fifth of the senior class failed at two other Cincinnati schools. About a dozen Cincinnati Public School students who failed one part of the Ohio Graduation Test still got to graduate through alternative methods.

To read more of this click here.

Ohio Graduation Test- Summer Retake - Youngstown Ohio

Youngstown Ohio’s 64 city school seniors who did not pass the Ohio Graduation Test and were not able to graduate when their fellow classmates did will get another shot at passing the Ohio Graduation Test the last week of July.

Provided that they successfully complete the summer intervention program and then pass the section or sections of the Ohio Graduation Test that they failed in March. Once these students pass the test they will be counted as summer graduates and added to the total graduating class in Youngstown for 2007 graduating year.

The intervention program will be held at the new P. Ross Berry Middle School at 940 Bryn Mawr Ave. Students will be able to register at the site between 8 a.m. and noon Monday and Tuesday of next week. The classes are free for city residents.

Nonresidents can attend but they will have to pay a fee of $50 for the first session and $25 for each additional session that they attend. Those students who successfully complete the program can take the Ohio Graduation Test again the last week of July.

The classes will run from 10 A.M until 2 P.M. The Ohio Department of Education reported that, statewide, 12,387 seniors took the test and that 8,956 failed one or more parts of it. Of that number, 4,251 failed just one section of the test

Graduation Test Results

Friday June 15th the Ohio Department of Education released preliminary spring testing results for the Ohio Graduation Test. More than half of all of Ohio’s local school districts performed poorer this year than they did in previous years. With scores in social studies dropping at the highest rates for most Ohio school districts, followed by reading and science. The biggest drops in reading over the previous year were found in Carroll County's Brown Local district they dropped 19 percentage points and Canton Local Schools dropped 10 percentage points. While, eight districts made huge gains in science over the previous year, Osnaburg Local scored 13 percentage points higher.

Ohio state education laws say that all students in Ohio must pass all five parts of the Ohio Graduation Test before they can graduate. To read more about the Ohio Graduation Test results click here.

Ohio Graduation Test - Dayton Public Schools

Dayton Public School will have a special graduation ceremony later this summer for students who did not pass the Ohio Graduation Test or did not earn enough credits to graduate. Students will work this summer to pass the Ohio Graduation Test and/or earn enough to credits to receive their diplomas. Then these students will be given a special graduation ceremony.

However, Beavercreek City Schools is not considering a separate summer graduation. "If we have a student that doesn't meet the requirements, they don't march." said Superintendent Dennis Morrison.

Linda Oda the community information officer for Springboro Community Schools said Springboro is not considering a summer graduation because it would affect too few students. She said that Springboro’s situation is different from Dayton’s because Springboro only has one student that did not receive a diploma because of the Ohio Graduation Test.

"Our situation is different from Dayton's in that only one student can't walk because of OGT scores," Oda said, " but I think it's great that DPS is doing this and still honoring those students."

Ohio Graduation Test - Lake County

A survey of the Lake County area school districts shows that more than 98% of the area seniors passed the Ohio Graduation five section test. The Ohio Graduation Test is first taken in 10th grade and students have up to seven attempts to pass the test by the 12th grade. Students who are not able to succeed in passing by their senor year do not get to graduate.

Mentor and Willoughby-Eastlake are the two largest school districts in the area and between the two of these schools; only about two dozen students cannot receive a diploma because of failing one or more sections of the Ohio Graduation Test.
At Willoughby-Eastlake only four of the 12 seniors who did not pass the Ohio Graduation Test met all of the other requirements to graduate.

At Mentor High School about 10 students failed to graduate because of the Ohio Graduation Test. There were a total of 1,500 seniors at these two schools.

At Painesville City School eight students out of a graduating class of about 125 did not receive a diploma because of failing the Ohio Graduation Test. With almost all districts having at least a handful of students that are still struggling to pass the Ohio Graduation Test, each district will offer resources to summer school intervention and tutoring specifically for the test, which can be retaken in July.

Kirtland High School

The only Ohio School to report that 100% of its seniors passed the Ohio Graduation Test was Kirtland High School. Kirtland’s graduating class consisted of almost 90 students and every one of them passed all five sections of The Ohio Graduation Test.

Almost all Ohio School Districts had at least a handful of student’s not pass the Ohio Graduation Test. For Kirtland to have all its seniors pass the Ohio Graduation Test, is saying a lot for the student’s and the educator’s hard work in making sure that the student’s mastered the Ohio Graduation Test.

Kirtland’s Results prove that passing the Ohio Graduation Test can be done.

Ohio Graduation - Pike County Ohio School Districts

In the Pike County Ohio School Districts twenty-eight seniors did not pass all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test. The recent 2007 graduates were the first who had to pass the Ohio Graduation Test which is a sophomore-level test required to pass in order to graduate. Previously, students had to pass the Ninth-Grade Proficiency Test to get their diplomas.

While the Ninth-Grade proficiency test measured learning outcomes, the Ohio Graduation Test is aligned to the Ohio state curriculum standards that all Ohio public schools are must follow, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Design of the test also is different from the Ninth-Grade proficiency test. The Ohio Graduation Test has more short answer or essay answers instead of the multiple choice type that was on the Ninth-Grade proficiency test.

At the Western High School, Principal Phil Howard had mixed feelings about the district policy to allow students to participate without fulfilling the Ohio Graduation Test requirement. The principal said that he understands the reasoning behind it. He also stated that in his opinion he disagrees with the whole concept. However, he also disagrees with the outcome of one test out of 13 years of school being a determination on whether or not a student receives a diploma.

The guidance counselor Steve Kitchen at Waverly High School also is fine with allowing students to participate in graduation if they have fulfilled all of the other graduation requirements. Ohio School District Seniors will have another chance at passing the test in July.

Ohio Graduation Test - Ross County Ohio

Eleven Ross county Ohio Seniors did not pass all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test. The seniors of the Class of 2007 were the first to have to pass the Ohio Graduation test in order to receive their diplomas.

The Ohio Graduation Test is aligned to the Ohio state curriculum standards that all Ohio public schools are bound to follow, according to the Ohio Department of Education, the design of the test is different than the previous proficiency test, with the OGT requiring more short answer or essay answers instead of multiple choice questions.

Many of those Ross County seniors who had met all requirements to graduate except for passing all five portions of the Ohio Graduation Tests were not aloud to walk at graduation with others who had achieved all graduation requirements. Several school districts in other counties were allowing students to walk in the graduation ceremony.

At Zane Trace High School, guidance counselor Linda Holder said the district is following what seems to be wanted by the community. "I think our people see graduation as a celebration, and they feel it's something they should be able to do," she said.

At Huntington High School, their is one student who still needs to pass a portion or more of the test and had to commit to taking the test in July as well as participating in a summer intervention class in order to participate in graduation ceremonies.

At Chillicothe High School, the district's board of education met two days before graduation to discuss whether those who still needed to pass the Ohio Graduation Test could participate in graduation.

Superintendent Roger Crago said, “I felt we should allow them to walk across the stage and we had two board members who thought so, too,” The feeling was that the students had gone through 13 years of school and had fulfilled all other requirements. Sometimes there are good test-takers and then there are some student’s that struggle," Crago said. The district's policy was they could not participate in the ceremony, this policy was not changed.

Lakewood Graduate Guarantee

Lakewood students were the first of the Class of 2007 to graduate with a Lakewood Graduation Guarantee. The Lakewood school district guarantees that all of the Lakewood students who graduate and have passed the Ohio Graduation Test are very capable of meeting the State of Ohio’s academic standards that are measured by the Ohio Graduation Test. The students are tested in reading, writing, science, social studies and math.

Lakewood says that if an employer, potential employer, college or university does not believe that a Lakewood Graduate Guarantee student does not meet the Ohio Academic Standards as measured by the Ohio Graduation test than they may submit a written statement to the Lakewood Board of Education. Once the board receives the statement the superintendent will assess the claim and if in their judgment he Lakewood Guarantee Graduate is deficient in one or more areas than the student will be provided an opportunity to receive additional education.

To read more about the Lakewood Graduate Guarantee please go here.

Parents, Students and Governor Strickland want the OGT Requirements Revisited

Many parents and students are upset by the Ohio Graduation Test. Parents and students feel that relying solely on one test to decide if a student receives their high school diploma is unfair. The 2007 senior class was the first graduating class that had to pass the Ohio Graduation Test in order to receive their diploma.

Thousands of seniors statewide failed at least one section of the Ohio Graduation Test and these students did not receive their diploma. Some of these students had very high averages in their classes but passing all fie sections of the Ohio Graduation Test proved a difficult task.

Many students’ and the parent’s feel that this is unfair, especially for students who have kept high GPA’s throughout their education. Has reported by WKYC.com even Governor Ted Strickland is upset by the test that's preventing thousands of student’s from graduating. Governor Strickland believes that it's wrong to put an all or nothing pressure packed measure of one test as the deciding factor of who graduates and who does not. Governor Strickland wants to start a discussion to revisit the state requirement.

Testing is always stressful and to some students tests are the most stressful times of their education. Taking a test that decides if you graduate no matter what else you have done throughout your school years causing so much stress anxiety for some students that passing is nearly impossible.

While the Ohio Graduation Test is a good idea and can make sure students know what is needed to go into college and succeed once they graduate, maybe the educator’s can find a better way to decide who graduates then simply relying on the scores of one test. Even though student’s do have several times starting in their sophomore year through their senior year, it still may to much too simply rely on one test to decide who graduates and who does not.

No Child Left Behind Law

On June 7th at Cincinnati.com, Denise Smith Amos reported that a new report out says that public school students all across the nation have in general scored higher since the No Child Left Behind law has been enacted.

The national Center for Education Policy, studied standardized test results in 50 states for the years before and after No Child Left Behind, which went into effect in 2002. The center reported that the biggest improvements were found to be in elementary school math. Reading gains also were achieved.

Also the achievement gaps for African-American students and low-income students are improving. However schools still have a long way to go before 100 percent of their students reach proficiency in reading and math, a goal that has been set for the year 2014.

In Ohio it was not possible for researchers to do a before-and-after comparison of student achievement. Ohio has substantially changed its academic standards and state tests since the No Child Left Behind, switching from "proficiency tests" to "achievement tests,' which more closely link to the state's academic standards.
The report shows the percentage of students proficient in Math in reading. The charts are below.

Percentage of Ohio students proficient in reading

Grade 2004 2005 2006
3rd grade 78% 77% 75%
8th grade NA 79% 77%
10th grade OGT 79% 92% 89%

Percentage of Ohio students proficient in math

Grade 2005 2006
3rd grade 70% 75%
8th grade 60% 69%
10th grade OGT 82% 83%

There are Some Exceptions for Students who do not Pass the OGT

Passing all fiv