The Ohio Department of Education will replace the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) with a series of new computerized exams that most BHS students will take by the end of the 2015-16 school year.

These tests are designed to assess the Common Core State Standards in math and Language Arts as well as implementing new standards in science and social studies.

These exams were designed by a consortium, which originally included 22 states,  known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and they are being created by Pearson Learning Assessments.

According to the PARCC web site, a Performance-Based Assessments (PBAs) will be administered after 75% of the school year and an End-Of-Year Assessments will be given after 90% of the school year. The Performance-Based Assessments will focus on writing and application skills, while the End-of-Year Assessments will be comprised of machine-scorable questions.

In previous years, students have been required to pass the reading, mathematics, writing, science and citizenship OGTs in order to graduate. According to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), approximately 70% of public school sophomores passed all five OGTs in 2012.

However, while obtaining a high school diploma should mean the student is ready for college-level work, remediation rates paint a different picture. For incoming freshmen of that same year, 42% were obligated to take remedial courses in college.

Starting next year, Ohio students must earn a cumulative passing score on seven of the end-of-course PARCC exams: algebra and geometry or integrated math I and II, physical science, American history, American government, and English I and II.

Students enrolled in AP Physics 1 or 2, AP US History, and AP US Government may take the respective AP exams in place of the corresponding PARCC equivalent, according to Ohio’s graduation requirements set to take effect with the class of 2018.

Alternatively, students could earn qualify for a diploma by earning a “remediation-free” score on “nationally recognized college admission exams,” such as the SAT or ACT, or receive a state approved license in a vocational field, according to Cleveland.com.

A “remediation-free” score for the ACT equates to at least an 18 on the English ACT, a 21 in reading, and a 22 in math. On the SAT, students must score above a 450 in reading, a 430 in writing, and a 520 in math, according to the Ohio Board of Regents. Finally, students may graduate if they obtain a state-approved license in a vocational field.

The PARCC exams are meant to reflect high school development and cover three years of English and mathematics material. The test is supposed to be difficult, but it is meant to narrow the gap between college and high school.

Carole Katz, the Beachwood City Schools’ K-12 math coordinator and AP Calculus BC teacher explained that this test will be much more difficult than what students are used to.

“The Ohio’s Educator Leader Cadre [an organization that helps to implement Common Core Standards within Ohio] expects to see a decrease in the passage rate,” Katz said.

These increased expectations are meant to reflect the skills students will need to face the challenges of the real world.

Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, was quoted in a Cleveland.com article saying that the standards will hopefully result in a much more in-depth and rigorous curriculum.

PARCC exams will also be more involved than the OGT. Some multiple-choice problems, especially with regards to the mathematics sections, will require students to solve problems with multiple steps.

According to Cleveland.com, Corbin Moore, Vice President of the Ohio Council for the Social Studies, was very concerned when the PARCC exam eliminated the world history section. Due to this drastic change, world history will now be considered an elective rather than a graduation required course.

English questions will concentrate on literary elements and diction. Extended response answers are meant to supplement the multiple-choice questions.

“Based on what we’ve seen, they’ll give one prompt for a narrative writing task, one prompt for a persuasive writing task and another prompt for some sort of synthesis task,” English teacher Nicole Majercak said.

“For the synthesis questions, you’ll see two different texts, [and you’ll have] to compare and contrast the intentions of the authors…the purpose of these two writings, whether the authors agree,” she continued.

Some feel they do not have enough information about the tests to ensure their students will succeed.

“I think the intentions of raising the academic rigor is very noble,” she continued. “…but the implementation is very poor because the quantity of information is unreasonable, and the questions are not age appropriate.”

“I think we’re prepared. We’ve been working hard for three years,” Majercak said. “…but we’re only as prepared as we can be because the state of Ohio has really released very little.”

Although the tests will be more challenging than the OGTs, Katz feels the increased rigor will ultimately be good for the students.

“It is cumulative over many grades,” she said. “It will require more reasoning to answer [these] questions [because now students will be required to] explain their answers.”