This is a draft document for discussion purposes and is not intended to reflect final action of the committee, State Board of Education or Ohio Department of Education.

Graduation Requirements Advisory Committee Recommendation

DRAFT 7– October 2018

TO BE DISCUSSED AND VOTED ON AT NOVEMBER 15, 2018

Andrew Brenner, State Representative

Peggy Lehner, State Senator

David James, Superintendent – Akron City Schools

William Hampton, Superintendent – Marietta Schools

Jim Fritz, Superintendent – Anthony Wayne Schools

Tom Perkins, Superintendent – Northern Local Schools

Shelly Vaughan, Superintendent – Mercer County ESC

Dan Murphy, Director – RG Drage Career Technical Center

Jesse Maxfield, Career-Technical Education Director – Mad River Local Schools

Tony Gatto, Superintendent – Arts and College Prep Academy

Dustin Miller, Principal – Dublin Jerome High School, Dublin City Schools

Heather Powell, Principal – Williamsburg Local Schools

Sam Scavella, Principal – Glenville High School, Cleveland Metropolitan Schools

Paul Kidd, Director of Student Services – Medina City Schools

Tanya Ficklin, Counselor – Cincinnati City Schools

Sara Williams, Counselor – Union-Scioto Schools

Sara Hoffman, Counselor – Whitmere High School, Toledo City Schools

Keith Ahearn, Principal – Lakewood High School, Lakewood City Schools

Karie McCrate, Assistant Superintendent – Dover City Schools

Tim Littell, Executive Director of Student Success/Associate Dean – Wright State University

Leann Jones, Parent – Ohio PTA

Stephanie Dodd – State Board of Education

Laura Kohler – State Board of Education

Pat Bruns – State Board of Education

Background

In May 2018, the state superintendent convened the Graduation Requirements Advisory Committee to discuss graduation requirements for the classes of 2021 and beyond. Thecommittee consisted of 25 members who occupy roles as school district superintendents, high school principals or school counselors, career and technical center directors, state board of education members and elected representatives. The committee also included parent and higher education representatives. The committee met a total of seven times from May to the end of September 2018. The charge to the committee was to generate recommendations to the state superintendent of public instruction that create a long-term approach to high school graduation requirements for Ohio.

The work of this committee builds on the work of a prior Ohio Graduation Requirements Workgroup, convened in 2017, which generated recommendations that responded to concerns specific to the graduating class of 2018. The 2017 recommendations recognized the need for a long-run approach to graduation that would be less reliant on standardized assessments. The current Graduation Requirements Advisory Committee was convened specifically to develop the “long–run” approach.

In approaching this work, the committee was informed by Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education,Each Child, Our Future. The committee’s work is explicitly part of the strategic plan’s primary goal as follows:

One Goal: Ohio will increase annually the percentage of its high school graduates who, one year after graduation, are:

The work also was viewed as specifically supporting Strategy 10 of the strategic plan, as follows:

STRATEGY 10: Ensure high school inspires students to identify paths to future success, and give students multiple ways to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary for high school graduation and beyond.

The discussions of the committee also included a review of the strategic plan’s Attributes of a Graduate and how the recommendations should align to the attributes. In this way, the committee’s work attempts to capture the four equal learning domains—foundational knowledge and skills, well-rounded content, leadership and reasoning, and social-emotional learning — identified in the strategic plan.

Design Principles

The committee created a list of principles to guide its graduation requirement recommendations. These principles are listed below.

Graduation requirements should:

5Graduation Requirement Policy Tensions

As the committee discussed how graduation requirements may change, members struggled with some of the tensions inherent in creating graduation requirements policy. A significant amount of time has been spent on the discussion of these tensions, though the balance of these tensions has not yet been determined.

The committee acknowledges that, like so many policies in education, there is a desire for consistency throughout the system — namely, that a diploma reflect a common accomplishment. Such standardization supports ease of implementation and understanding. At the same time, the committee recognizes the future success of each child can be highly variable — success can be achieved in many different ways relying on very different combinations of skills and abilities —and a graduation system that acknowledges those variations will have many different manifestations.

As human beings, we often crave simplicity. Ideally, a graduation requirements system should be easy to explain and easy to implement. We recognize, and are willing to tolerate, some degree of complexity in the interest of greater customization and flexibility.

Sometimes in conversations, we hear a tension between academic content knowledge and non-academic skills acquisition. In our minds, and consistent with the strategic plan, the graduation requirements system needs to require both, and students need to acquire a mix of skills that best ensure future success.

The committee had numerous discussions about when a student might best identify a particular path to graduation. Clearly, conversations about potential careers and future aspirations can start in middle school or earlier. Specific conversations about a student’s chosen path could begin in the sixth grade, as state policy requires that students begin their postsecondary exploration and planning at this time. However, allowing students to gain greater exposure to academic and career activities during high school before determining their paths also provides additional opportunities for personal growth and exploration.

While Ohio is a local control state, there are times when establishing norms at a state level are important. Many education policy issues often hinge on whether the state should establish requirements and parameters or whether the local district should have authority. Establishing graduation requirements is one area where public policy should seek a balanced approach that includes some level of state direction while also allowing some local flexibility.

Key Themes

Over the course of the meetings, the committee has come to agree on a few key themes. These themes have appeared in conversations again and again and are identified below.

The committee supports the concept of multiple equivalent pathways. The committee is cognizant that no pathway should be viewed as “easier” or as a “lesser” path — the paths should be viewed as equally rigorous and prepare, but not limit, students for the paths they choose. Our goal is to ensure any student successfully completing any path is equipped for future success.

The committee is excited by the idea that graduation requirements should allow students opportunities to explore and expand on individual interests and passions and not restrict them —or not simply march a student along a predetermined sequence of classes and events.

Members of the committee want every student to be excited, engaged and motivated by the prospect of beginning to chart their future courses in life. Students should have a voice and, in some respects, have responsibility to manage their own pathways to graduation.

The committee’s discussions made it clear Ohio should continue to engage in discussions and actions about redesigning the high school experience. The first two years should be an opportunity for career and academic discovery and broad learning. The second two years should be an opportunity to allow for greater focus and the identification of interests, passions and aspirations. Students should be able to explore multiple career options and gain a better understanding of the world of work. Districts should be empowered to explore innovative and flexible approaches to the high school experience and provide integrated learning experiences for students.

Recommendations

The committee recommends the state adopt the graduation requirements framework described in the attached document, A Proposed Approach for High School Graduation Requirements in Ohio. The committee developed this proposal as an approach to graduation that includes multiple methods for students to use to demonstrate what they know and can do — including both test and non-test options. Successful implementation of this “show what you know” approach will take time but, in the end, stands to provide a more robust, engaging and motivating approach to graduation than can be achieved through the current system. The committee strongly recommends this plan first apply to an incoming class of freshman at such time as all the various components and rubrics are completed, and sufficient professional development has been made available.

The committee recognizes implementation of the proposed approach will take time andrequire districts and schools to make significant changes to their current systems. Implementation will require the state to design and prototype a variety of tools and resources, which should not be done hastily. Consequently, the committee supports the continuation of alternative graduation requirements similar to those adopted for the class of 2018. The committee respects that there may be a desire to modify some of the components of the alternatives for the class of 2018 viewed as not sufficiently rigorous. The committee is supportive of modest modifications that still allow flexibility for students. Ideally, the transition period should extend until a new class of students entering high school is given clarity about the specifics of the requirements under the proposedapproach.

Implementation Considerations and Conclusion

The committee recognizes there is still much work to be done. Schools and districts will need to be supported as they transition to a new way of graduating students. The Ohio Department of Education will need to provide technical and professional development support, as well as other resources. Specific guidance will need to address mobile students, transfer students and students seeking to earn diplomas past the time of their expected graduation dates. We are committed to working together to address these issues.

We also must recognize the education community must hold itself accountable to ensuring the approaches recommended in this document are implemented with great care and a commitment to ensuring the highest standards of integrity and rigor. As always, diligent attention to professional development and quality implementation will be essential.

Ohio’s education community is committed to the work necessary to make the recommendations in this report highly regarded, meaningful and reliable representations that students are ready for future success.

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This document was created for discussion purposes only. Nothing in this document should be construed as reflecting the opinion or perspective of the Graduation Requirements Workgroup, the Ohio Department of Education or the State Board of Education until further action is taken.

A student’s high school years are an important time for learning and transition. It’s a time to think seriously about the future — to deeply consider interests, passions, career goals and more. High school is the culmination of a period of knowledge acquisition and skills development leading to the next chapter in a student’s life. What a student knows and can do at the end of high school will have a tremendous impact on his or her future success.

Currently, in Ohio, there are three ways to earn a high school diploma. Each requires students to perform at a certain level on one or more tests. It’s not a bad approach. In fact, many students graduate by meeting the current requirements. But, there are some students who have gained meaningful knowledge and skills and the required tests aren’t the best way to show it.

This proposal is designed to reframe Ohio’s graduation requirements to better allow students to show what they know and are able to do in multiple ways. It reflects Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education, Each Child, Our Future. As shown in the graphic below, it’s built around five areas. The first three — English, math and technology — are essential because they enable all other learning. Well-rounded content represents learning ranging from science and history to art, music and technical areas. Finally, leadership/reasoning and social–emotional skills represent competencies that relate to applying andsynthesizing knowledge, critical thinking and succeeding in settings that involve interacting with other people, like on a college campus or in an office or workplace.

The design recognizes each student is different and the manner in which a student demonstrates his or her knowledge and skills in each area can be different. In the first four areas, students can demonstrate what they know in any number of ways including:

In the last area – leadership/reasoning and social-emotional learning, students will have many options to show what they can do. Districts will have the responsibility to establish expectations for student demonstrations of these skills through different approaches ranging from the use of tools like the OhioMeansJobs Readiness Seal to community service or other accomplishments.

The Culminating Student Experience concept is fundamental to this new approach. The experience is intended to be a significant project or set of projects aligned to a student’s interests, passions and aspirations — similar to a capstone project. It is meant to be an opportunity for a student to integrate learning —academic as well as leadership/reasoning and social-emotional — and demonstrate knowledge in multiple ways without the need to rely on test scores. The experience can include (as needed) specific and rigorous demonstrations of knowledge and skills in three areas — writing, quantitative reasoning or mathematics, and presentation. Each of these would be scored against a rubric by qualified adult.

It’s important to understand that the various options available to students included in this proposed approach are each intended to be challenging and generally reflect a sufficient level of competency to contribute to a student’s success. It’s also important to understand that every student still needs to meet the state and district course completion requirements and take the necessary high school end-of-course tests (to support, at a minimum, school and district accountability purposes).

Students, parents and educators also should recognize that leaving high school without the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t make sense for a student to drop out or want a high school diploma that doesn’t reflect a level of accomplishment that actually translates into future success. Students should recognize it is better to take more time to be ready than to rush into the future unprepared. Students also should expect the teachers, administrators and other caring adults in their lives will do whatever is necessary to support them in acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to succeed — even if it takes more time.

To “show what you know,” as reflected in this proposal, represents a better, fairer, meaningful, more equitable and more motivational approach for students to demonstrate they are ready for future success and worthy of receiving a diploma. It will allow more students to thoughtfully consider their future success and reach levels of accomplishment that will support their goals.

More details about this proposal are available in the detailed description below….

Overview

This document describes a proposal for a personalized student approach to graduation that would allow multiple ways for each student to demonstrate knowledge and skills sufficient to earn ahigh school diploma. It relies on the use of multiple methods to measure a student’s knowledge and skills and providesvarious opportunities for students to demonstrate readiness for post-high school success. This “show what you know” approach is expected to be a better, fairer, meaningful, more equitable and more motivational experience for students to demonstrate their readiness for future success and worthiness to receive a diploma.

This approach would require students to demonstratecompetency in English, math and technology knowledge and skills through various options, including traditional tests, classes, grades, experiences, existing high school programmingand other demonstrations of learning. Students also would have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in well-rounded content through a Culminating Student Experience, which would allow a student to focus on particular passions and aspirations and make connections among ideas and concepts.The plan also promotes a student’s cultivation and demonstration of leadership and reasoning skills including, but not limited to, those on the OhioMeansJobs Readiness Seal and social-emotional learning skills.

An important aspect of this student planning process is the deliberate nature of thinking ahead and identifying a set of activities and experiences that allow a student to demonstrate what he or she knows and is able to do with sufficient time and opportunity to accomplish it. Conceptually, a student could begin work on a graduation plan as early as ninth grade. The plan would be refined and honed in 10th grade and perhaps again in 11th grade. A plan could be completed as early as 11th grade but more likely will be completed during the student’s senior year.

The proposed plan reflects the four learning domains of Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education, Each Child, Our Future. The objective of the proposed approach is for each student to demonstrate satisfactory accomplishment in all domains through one or more measures of success. The foundational knowledgedomain is separated into English and math. Also, for simplicity, the leadership and reasoning and social-emotional learningdomains are combined because the competencies for both domains are foundational in the required activities. The grids below show a variety of options for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in each of the domains. In some areas, the requirements allow students and schools to identify other demonstrations of learning that, in the judgement of the school or district, show the student demonstrates the satisfactory acquisition of knowledge and skills to ensure future success.

This proposal also reflects an approach to demonstrating knowledge and skills that may be particularly suitable for students who appreciate an opportunity to take more time than afforded during a testing session to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. This proposed planning process would be a diploma-earning strategy for any student, including gifted students, students with disabilities and English learners. This proposed approach requires no specific accumulation of points on state tests (unless selected as options for the various domains). For some students, it will make sense to meet the requirements primarily through tests. For others, it will make sense to meet the requirements primarily through non-test demonstrations. Still, others will use a mix of tests and non-test demonstrations.

Key

The two grids below present options for demonstrating English and math skills. Students would need to meet at least one of the items listed in each grid. The scores established below are for illustrative purposes. Under this proposal, the State Board of Education would be responsible for establishing the required scores for graduation purposes.

The well-rounded content requirement is designed to ensure each student has been exposed to and gained knowledge in a variety of content and skill areas. Clearly, the course requirements for high school graduation already are a significant contributor to the well-rounded content requirement. Additionally, students who participate in career-technical education programs gain knowledge and skills that contribute toa well-rounded content experience. This proposal reflects theidea that it is important for students to demonstrate successful performance in at least two areas beyond English and mathematics. (These areas do not need to be science or social studies.) The scores established below are for illustrative purposes. Under this proposal, the State Board of Education would be responsible for establishing the required scores for graduation purposes in consultation with experts and with appropriate oversight. Additional tests that may be identifiedmay also be added as appropriate.

For the final two domains, each district or high school shall adopt a policy specifying what students are required to successfully complete to demonstrate sufficient acquisition of skills in this category. The district policy may include, but is not limited to, the following:

Description of Culminating Student Experience and Demonstrations

The proposed Culminating Student Experience and Demonstrations are designed as an option for students to meet the graduation requirements in each of the four domains as laid out in the grids above. The following are detailed descriptions of the various components:

The Culminating Student Experience would be a project or set of activities and experiences identified and completed by a student (and verified by an appropriate adult) that would allow the student to demonstrate a collection of knowledge and skills that affirm a student’s readiness for post-high school success. The experience could include in-school and out-of-school activities. (The work done as part of the student experience would be conducted as a separate course for which the student earns credit. However, student work in other courses — for instance, junior or senior English, Algebra II, etc. — may support various components of the experience and accompanying demonstrations, as needed.) The experience may be embedded into existing school programming and may allow students to earn credit through other arrangements, such as a district’s credit flexibility policy, integrated coursework, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate coursework, or College Credit Plus.

The Culminating Student Experience would be identified and defined in such a way as to support the Demonstrations of Knowledge and Skills (see section 2 below) if these are selected as preferred demonstration approaches by the student and advisor/counselor. This means the experience should include activities during which the student writes for the writing demonstration, shows mathematical competency or conducts some data analysis for the mathematical competency/data analysis demonstration, and for which apresentation can be made. The experience also should be designed to allow the student to demonstrate leadership/reasoning skills including, but not limited to, those on the OhioMeansJobs Readiness Seal and social-emotional learning skills.

The Culminating Student Experience could include any meaningful collection of activities and experiences. Depending on the composition of activities, the experience and/or demonstrations can serve to meet requirements in all four domains. The below list illustrates, but is not meantto be exhaustive, examples of what could be included as part of a Culminating Student Experience:

In addition to a major activity similar to those listed above, the student experience also could include other related but minoractivities such as:

Students, advisors and counselors should not feel limited by the above list and should exercise creativity and personalization to identify the set of activities and experiences aligned to the particular student’s aspirations, interests and future plans. The experiences selected should challenge the student and facilitate continuing learning.

Based on the Culminating Student Experience, students have the opportunity to complete any or all of the following based on identified demonstration approaches selected as part of the student’s High School Graduation Plan:

State Standard Alignment: This task is in alignment with Ohio’s Learning Standards for Math for high school —specifically the statistics and probability standards identified as necessary for students to be college and career ready — which expect students to interpret categorical and quantitative data and make inferences and justify conclusions from these data. (See Appendix A.)

The writing assignment can be supplemented with various written artifacts. Such artifacts could include, but are not limited to, project/activity logs, journals, a completed job application or a resume. It can demonstrate technology competence if prepared using word processing softwareand includes images, tables and graphs.

State Standard Alignment: This task is in alignment with Ohio’s College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing, which expect students to produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience. Students also are expected to engage with technology as a part of the writing and researching processes and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting or trying new approaches. As part of the research process,students should be able to identify credible and reliable primary and secondary sources of information. (See Appendix B.)

State Standard Alignment: This task is in alignment with Ohio’s College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening, which expect students to present information, findings and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and organization.(See Appendix C.)

Student and Mentor Pledge. For any of the demonstrations listed above, the student and faculty mentors (teacher, counselor, supervisor, etc.) should affirmatively attest all work involved in the student experience was the student’s and the final product satisfactorily met all requirements and will be available for review by employers or postsecondary experience providers.

Note: Students pursuing the custom graduation plan process stillare responsible for taking required courses and, for school and district accountability purposes, end-of-course exams. Schools and districts, at their discretion, may require students who score below proficient on any tests to participate in interventions and retake tests. Also, schools and districts are responsible for providing all students grades 6–12 with career counseling experiences consistent with district–adopted policies, including activities related to student success planning and other activities consistent with Ohio’s Career Connections K-12 Framework.

Implementation Considerations

Implementing the High School Graduation Plan may include a variety of issues that will need to be worked out and will take time. Some of these are as follows: