Ohio Graduation Test

Ohio Students Needs to Be Prepared

In 2001 Ohio changed its academic content standards, on which the Ohio Graduation Test is based. The Governor's Commission for Student Success laid out recommendations for Ohio schools on testing their students. Also in 2001 the No Child Left behind Act became law and made it a necessity for states to have specific standards and a series of tests such as the Ohio Graduation Test. These tests help determine if students are meeting those standards.

Many students and parents want to know what the rationale of the Ohio Graduation Test is. Parents and students feel that if the child goes all through school receiving good grades, then why make them take a test that could prevent them from receiving the diploma they worked so hard for.

The purpose of the Ohio Graduation Tests are to: ensure that students who receive a high school diploma demonstrate at least the high school levels of achievement, measure the level of reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies skills expected of students at the end of the 10th grade, and meet federal educational requirements for high school testing.

The Ohio Graduation Tests are a higher gauge of a students' high school achievement and this test has replaced the Ohio Ninth-Grade Proficiency Tests, starting with the graduating class of 2007.

Students will take the Ohio Graduation Test for the first time in the spring of their sophomore year. Students will be able to take the tests in the fall and spring of their junior and senior years and also during the summer. All five sections must be passed in order to graduate.

If a student does not pass all sections of the test on their first try they will be able to re take the sections that they need to pass during their junior and senior years. Ohio Graduation Tests are taken each fall and spring, with an optional summer test available within some school districts.