Some worry many will fail

About 30,000 Ohio seniors still must pass at least one section in order to graduate.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Educators worry thousands of students may not get their high school diplomas on time in the first graduating class required to pass the state's new and more challenging Ohio Graduation Test.
This year's seniors began taking the test as sophomores, and about 23 percent -- some 30,000 students -- still have to pass at least one section before graduation. Their last chance to take it was earlier this month, and the scores come out in May.
About 14,000 students last year had their graduations held up for failing to pass the previous test, the ninth-grade proficiency test.
The new test has several changes: It tests knowledge at a higher grade level, for the first time is aligned with a state curriculum and features fewer multiple choice questions in favor of short essay responses.
Some teachers worry the changes came too quickly for the class of 2007.
"We didn't phase the standards in. It was suddenly, 'Now we have new standards.' It's kind of changing the rules in the middle of the game," said Dana Herreman, who oversees testing for the Newark city schools.
Schools did not start using the curriculum standards developed by the state until a few years ago, Herreman said, putting students at a disadvantage because their education might not have been structured around material stressed in the state's outline.
Official's response
"There are not any surprises on any of our tests. There should not be anything that is brand new to a student or a teacher if the teacher is using our standards and our model curricula," said J.C. Benton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. "We're not in the business of duping kids or making them fail these tests."
On the other hand, some critics have argued that early versions of the test were too easy.
In spring 2005, 64 percent of students who took the test passed all five sections -- math, reading, science, social studies and writing -- on the first try.
Students typically have a higher failure rate when taking new exams. For example, when the old ninth-grade proficiency exam debuted in 1991, only 30 percent passed. But scores rose quickly, and within 10 years, 98 percent of students had passed all five portions of the test before graduating.
The state's associate superintendent for curriculum and assessment, Stan Heffner, predicted scores for the new exam would rise in the same way, and the furor will die down.
"My guess is if you give us a few years, the numbers [of students not passing] will be fewer," Heffner said. "Kids can rise to the challenge, the expectation. They can and they do."
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