Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Preliminary results for graduation tests are in
The number of local students passing all five sections ranged from
30 percent to 87 percent.
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN — Nearly two-thirds of public school 10th-graders who took the Ohio Graduation Test in March passed all five sections of the exam, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
A total of 134,010 public school students took the test.
The figures are only preliminary as school districts continue to review the figures. Final numbers may differ due to appeals, late scoring and other changes, according to ODE.
The final version will be reported in the annual state local report cards in mid-August.
This was the first year that all Ohio students were required to pass all five sections of the OGT — reading, math, writing, science and social studies — before they could get their high school diploma.
Students begin taking the test in the 10th grade and have repeated opportunities to retake any sections in which they fail to reach a proficiency rating.
Local scores
Locally, Youngstown city schools showed improvement over 2006 preliminary scores but still lagged behind all other public schools in the tri-county area in terms of percentage of students passing all five sections of the test. Only 30 percent of Youngstown's 10th-graders passed all sections.
Scores on the individual test sections were better, with 77 percent of Youngstown students scoring proficient in writing, 69.5 percent proficient in reading, 51.6 percent proficient in math, 45.1 percent proficient in social studies and 37.9 proficient in science.
Canfield scored highest across Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties with nearly 90 percent of its 10th-graders scoring proficient or above in all five test categories.
The individual section scores for Canfield were 96.1 percent in reading, 98.1 percent in writing, 95.7 percent in math, 93.4 percent in social studies and 90.3 percent in science.
School officials in both Youngstown and Canfield weren't immediately available for comment.
Districts showing the biggest year-to-year improvements in performance were Weathersfield, up 16.5 percent in the percentage of students passing all five sections of the test; Leetonia, up 15.4 percent; and Columbiana, up 10.8 percent.
Officials in those districts weren't available to comment Tuesday.
More Stories from Sat, Jul 28, 2007
- Officials welcome opening of North Side police substation
- Average Joe starts third campaign for U.S. president
- Commander praises military, describes anti-terror mission
- Nurses endorse Northside contract
- 3 districts to get funds for facilities
- Teens make move to YEC
- Man gets 6 months in prison in killing of his brother, 28
- To the end, Nichols stayed loyal to union members
