BY BERNIE MIXON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Beginning in 2005, high school seniors will have had to pass a broader graduation test that will measure knowledge of concepts taught through the 10th grade.
The new test, mandated by the state legislature, will take the place of the Ninth Grade Proficiency Test, which will be given for the last time in 2004.
Educators are beginning to receive copies of the proposed competencies -- concepts and skills that students need to master to pass the test. Ultimately, the concepts must be voted on by the state board of education.
"We have high expectations for all students. I don't think anyone was satisfied with a ninth-grade test that reflects an eighth-grade curriculum," said Jan Crandell, assistant director in the assessment center at the Ohio Department of Education.
"We want to make sure the education community understands that this is something that Ohio taxpayers want. They want to have a graduation test that reflects high school content," Ms. Crandell said.
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SOME COMPETENCIES
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Some concepts or skills students need to master to pass the new Ohio high school graduation test:
Reading: Given a variety of selections, the student will be able to support an interpretation by locating specific information.
Writing: Include supporting details appropriate to the audience, purpose and topic.
Science: Explain why there may be more surviving offspring, over time, of dark-colored moths than light-colored moths in a soot-covered forest.
Citizenship: Analyze the global implication of post-World War II regional changes (e.g., politics, religion, social conditions, economics, technology and the environment).
Mathematics: Predict the number of bacteria in a swimming pool after two hours using a table that describes the rate of growth.
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The current Ohio Ninth-Grade Proficiency Test measures student performance at an eighth-grade level in reading, writing, math, citizenship and science.
It is one of four required proficiency tests, given to public-school children in fourth, sixth, ninth and 12th grades. Ohio students -- in both public and private schools -- must pass only the ninth-grade test to graduate.
Under the new test, which must start to be given by spring 2003, students will be tested in the same subjects as in the ninth-grade test, but at a 10th-grade level.
This means this year's sixth-graders will be the first group of students that has to pass the new high school graduation test, and therefore won't take the ninth-grade test.
Jack Lewis, Cincinnati Public Schools director of research and evaluation, said he recently received the proposed competencies but hasn't had a chance to evaluate them.
"We have known this for some time," Mr. Lewis said. "I don't doubt the new test will be more difficult than the test we have been using. Our job is to prepare students for graduation."
Beth Tope, director of curriculum and instruction for Milford Exempted Village School District, said it was only natural to move to a 10th-grade test, and she expects her students to do as well as they have in the past.
"As soon as we get the list of competencies, we will convene teachers and have them cross-reference to make sure we are in line with what the test will ask," said Mrs. Tope. "If any part needs to be changed, then we will make that change."
The Ohio Department of Education is welcoming input from educators, business and industry, and public organizations on the competencies. The competencies could be up for a vote by the state board as early as January. So state education officials say it's important now for districts to start thinking about preparing students for the test.
"That's quite a bit of time between January 1999 and the spring of 2003," Ms. Crandell said. "What happens between the approval date and the time the test is given is critical to the success of students."
