The General Assembly wants to change the lives of 8,000 Georgians who were never able to graduate high school because they failed part of the Georgia High School Graduation Test.
House Education Chair Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, is the sponsor of House Bill 91, which frees former Georgia high school students from having to pass the GHSGT to earn their diplomas.
The test dates to 1991, when the Legislature voted to phase in an exit exam that would put some teeth into the rising rhetoric of holding students accountable for basic academic achievement. But the exam was eventually deemed too basic and was replaced by the End of Course Test (which is being replaced this year by Georgia Milestones.)
But failures on the test cast a long shadow. Today, an estimated 8,000 Georgians still lack a high school diploma because of the test. They can appeal for a waiver to the state Board of Education, and 400 to 500 do each month, according to the Department of Education’s Garry McGiboney, who testified at a recent House hearing. But the appeal process is onerous, as applicants must prove hardship or disability.
DOE retired the test with the class that began high school in 2011. At the time, Superintendent John Barge said, “I don’t believe the GHSGT is nearly as good an indicator of how much a student has learned as our End-of-Course Tests. The EOCTs are much more rigorous, and they test a student immediately following a course, rather than waiting until a student’s junior year to determine whether or not he or she has mastered the content of our curriculum.”
It’s unfair, said Coleman, to tell parents, “Yes, your child has to pass a test that is no longer required.”
In its own study of the value of the Georgia High School Graduation Test in predicting how high school graduates would perform in college, the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement found, “Students who score higher on the High School Graduation Test have roughly the same college GPA as students who scored much lower.”
Students took the GHSGT for the first time in the spring of their junior year and could retake it if they failed any portion. They could not receive a full diploma if they didn’t pass all parts — math, language arts, writing, social studies and science. Each test was scored from 100 to 300, and students had to earn at least 200 points to pass each exam.
Science proved the toughest hurdle. In some years, more than 20,000 students failed science. Coleman shared an email from a Whitfield County mother whose daughter could not pass science or social studies. Now 29, the woman had a 3.6 grade point average in high school. The mother wrote, “This has followed my daughter her entire life. What a glorious, happy day to see her get her diploma and stop being passed over.”
Lawmakers at the hearing seemed apologetic that students had to pass these tests — an interesting posture, since the General Assembly enacted the test.
“Our poor students were asked to do things that I think were impossible for some of them to have to do,” said Coleman. “We have students who made As and Bs and 3.5 averages; they did all the requirements for graduation, and many have not passed one or two of the tests by one or two points. There are kids who took the test 22 to 33 times to try and get their diplomas.”
A 19-year-old from Forsyth County told the committee the lack of a high school diploma is blocking his plan to go to Lanier Technical College to train in physical therapy. An Eagle Scout, the teen detailed his attempts at the test and his two months of tutoring. House Bill 91 would allow him to go to college with HOPE because he posted a 3.4 grade point average in high school.
“A lot of students will probably be eligible for HOPE if we just give them hope,” said Coleman. “I have never seen a bill have a positive impact on so many citizens in Georgia.”
