A Georgia Board of Education change in high school graduation rules could help more students get their diplomas.
The state board approved a change in July allowing high school juniors and seniors who fail the Georgia High School Graduation Test at least four times to use other test scores to graduate, Department of Education spokesman Matt Cardoza said.
The change in the process will give struggling students more options for graduation, Cardoza said.
Previously, students could submit end-of-course test scores to seek a variance for a diploma, he said. But students can only take the tests once, and anyone who failed or missed a test had no score to use. Now other test scores can come in as substitutes, he said.
Ridgeland High School graduation coach Jason Mc-Kinney said the new route to graduation might be more work for students in the long run than the graduation test, but it is worth the effort.
"Even if we just catch one or two students who struggle on the test, anytime we get an option for graduation, it's a good option," McKinney said.
Cardoza said the path to a diploma remains rigorous. To qualify for a variance, a student must have failed the graduation test four times, taken remedial classes after each attempt, passed any three of the five graduation subject areas within a specific score range, met attendance and credit requirements and passed end-of-course tests.
"Really, it's not even a judgment call for the board. If you're submitting a variance, you hit all seven of those check marks, there should no problem getting the variance," he said.
Now, students can use scores from qualifying assessments such as the SAT, ACT, AP, vocational assessments for certifications or other portions of graduation assessments in place of end-of-course test scores.
State officials said details will be rolled out to schools in the next couple of months.
"The main thing it will help is those students who can show high school mastery in a different form," said Ridgeland's McKinney.
Out-of-state transfers who lack credits or other test results will benefit from the change, too, he said.
"It's going to take some time to see how it all plays out," he said.
Biology teacher Rebecca Jenkins at Northwest High School in Whitfield County said the change balances factors that can cause some students to perform poorly on the graduation test. Family problems, illness, test anxiety and other circumstances can lead to a bad score on test day, Jenkins said.
"That doesn't always indicate their level of competency," she said. "Anything we can do to help students like that, I think that's a great idea."
Scores for 2010 show that between 22 and 30 percent of Northwest Georgia first-timers failed the graduation test.
Four of eight Northwest Georgia county high schools' passing rates for 11th-grade, first-time test takers were at or above the state average of 74.2 percent.
Cardoza said the rule change will not improve pass rates on the graduation test, though graduation rates might improve slightly. He said the number of students affected will probably be too small to make much difference.
"We didn't do this to make our graduation rate look better," he said. "We did it because there are some students across the state that could show proficiency."