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Planning is key in high school education

I can’t count how many times I’ve lectured my sons on the troubles that come with school work procrastination.

Sure, my boys still would put off until tomorrow school work that they could have done today. But then again, they were in high school!

So what’s the excuse for the grown-ups in Columbus running Ohio’s education system?

Why is it that Ohio’s legislators and state education leaders feel the need to constantly change the rules on high school graduation requirements? And even worse, why do they do it at the last minute?

State lawmakers just in December passed the latest education bill to outline graduation requirements for some high school seniors.

Prior to that, those local seniors had been in limbo, unclear about what requirements they needed to meet in order to graduate.

Let me repeat that.

Some seniors were unsure in December — halfway through their last year — what criteria they needed to meet in order to graduate in May.

House Bill 491 cleared up those questions, and former Gov. John Kasich signed it into law as he headed out the door at the end of his elected term.

HB 491 rectified issues specifically affecting some 500 Trumbull County seniors who earlier had opted into a previously permissible vocational track to graduate.

These students had been pursuing the graduation option that had been offered as an alternate to state testing or other college prep programs. They believed they were on previously selected pathways best suited for them. But somewhere along the line, changes instituted in Columbus were about to end that alternate path, stopping them short of their graduation.

But even as that bullet was dodged with passage of House Bill 491, language in the bill is already spelling out plans to change it again.

“It is the intent of the General Assembly to engage in ongoing discussions to modify high school graduation requirements for students in the classes of 2020 and later,” the bill’s language stated. “The recommendations shall include a longterm proposal for diploma requirements that reduces reliance on state testing, encourages local innovation and supports student readiness for a career, college and life. The recommendations also shall include a transition plan to allow time for implementation of the new requirements.”

Really?

Local educators tell us they are tired of the constant back and forth in Columbus.

Newton Falls Guidance Counselor Scott Kernen recently said this: “It’s frustrating because as a guidance counselor, we have to map out how students are going to graduate, and I’m upset because we’re left to just wing it. The ODE needs to be consistent because it seems like every year something changes.”

Kernen is absolutely correct. And if he’s frustrated, just imagine how frustrated students and parents must be.

OK, I get it that times change and sometimes educational goals must change, too.

But as I write this, legislators and educators are back at the drawing board once again, wrangling over what criteria and goals must be accomplished before Ohio students may walk across the stage and obtain the coveted diploma.

The graduation requirement modifications could apply to students graduating as soon as 2020. To be clear, those changes could apply to today’s high school juniors, and probably for today’s high school sophomores and freshmen.

To be fair, Paul DeMaria, superintendent of Public Instruction for the Ohio Department of Education, testified last month that the state board of education does recommend the requirements enacted in HB 491 be extended to the Class of 2021. The board also recommends the requirements be altered slightly for the 2022 class and then fully implemented with the 2023 class.

I agree. I can see no reason why any new modifications to the existing rules would apply to anyone beyond next year’s incoming freshmen.

After all, aren’t planning and preparation the skills we all need to learn?

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