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Ohio Superintendents Call On Lawmakers To Change High School Graduation Requirements

Karen Kasler

Superintendents are calling on lawmakers to help the state avoid a possible high school graduation crisis -- again. They say, without state intervention, as many as a third of students will not meet the requirements to graduate. 

Thousands of kids in the class of 2018 might not have graduated under new testing-driven standards. So lawmakers delayed those standards and allowed seniors to pick from a menu of attendance rate, GPA, a final project, community service, work experience or a college credit plus course.

Now Superintendents such as Craig Hockenberry of Three Rivers Local Schools in the Cincinnati area are again pushing for delay in the new standards and an extension of the alternatives.

“If you got kids running around on the streets with no diplomas and in and out of programs that aren’t fit for them, they’re gonna commit crimes, they’re gonna end up in prison,” says Hockenberry.

If lawmakers make no changes by the end of the year, they’ll have to start over again in January with a new General Assembly.

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Andy Chow is a general assignment state government reporter who focuses on environmental, energy, agriculture, and education-related issues. He started his journalism career as an associate producer with ABC 6/FOX 28 in Columbus before becoming a producer with WBNS 10TV.