In Johnson County high schools and high schools across Indiana, students have not been able to graduate unless they passed the ISTEP test, which has been in place since the 1990s.
If a student didn’t meet the desired cutoff score, they would have to retake the test until they passed it or seek a waiver. This fall, high school students were given the option of completing a graduation pathway as an alternative to the test, a new concept that will be implemented for every Hoosier high school freshman this fall.
The change happens at the same time the ILEARN replaces the ISTEP exam in tenth grade, only from the 2019-2020 school year on, the test will only be used to judge school performance at the state level rather than having an impact on students’ graduation, said Adam Baker, spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Education.
Pathways splits requirements into three boxes, all of which students must fulfill in order to graduate.
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First, students must take the classes they would need to graduate. Students can earn the core 40, meaning 40 state credits, by taking classes in subjects such as English, math, science and social studies, according to the department of education.
The next requirement is that students complete a project-based, service-based or work-based learning experience. The experience is meant for students to demonstrate employability skills, which they can do by participating in a club, team or student activity in order to display skills such as teamwork, management and persistence, Indian Creek School Principal Luke Skobel said.
Under pathways, instead of having to pass a state administered test, or any test at all, students will be able to graduate by attaining an academic or technical honors diploma, which would fulfill both the first and third box. Student can also meet the third requirement by attaining a state and industry-recognized credential or certification or a career-technical education concentrator, according to the department of education.
For those who may be struggling academically, earning a minimum score on tests, such as the SAT, ACT or the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test can satisfy the requirement that would otherwise be fulfilled by an honors diploma or career-technical education concentrator, according to the department of education.
The greater array of options for students is one the greatest benefits of the new system, said Franklin High School Principal Steve Ahaus.
“With the state, a lot of frustration is with how much we test. A lot of kids qualify for graduation pathways because they go to (Central Nine). There’s a lot of ways to get it done, but I would rather the kids (go through) pathways rather than testing a lot. There (are) different approaches,” Ahaus said.
“It’s about finding out their path.”
The option for students to take pathways at Franklin high school this year has assisted 175 juniors and seniors who otherwise would have had to continually retake the ISTEP exam, he said.
Many of those students opted to take the armed services exam instead, Superintendent David Clendening said.
“One of the biggest things taking place is, looking at the kids who didn’t pass the ISTEP, providing an alternative assessment,” Clendening said. “We brought in (the armed services exam) and they’re meeting that score. They continue on in academic course work and the thing we’ve seen is the utilization of (the exam) as an assessment piece for students.”
Under the career-technical education concentrator, students would be able to fulfill a requirement related to a technical pathway like welding and agriculture without having one class they got below a C in nix their chance at a technical graduation requirement. With the concentrator, as long as students earn a C average in the introductory class and two upper-level classes they need for their pathway they will fulfill the requirement, said Stephanie Deckard, Indiana Department of Education Career and Technical Education director.
Under the technical honors diploma, students are required to take six career and technical education classes with an average of B or better and no classes below a C, she said.
For Johnson County schools, students who look to complete upper-level classes can attend the Central Nine Career Center for part of the day in order to meet those requirements, said Shannon Fritz, guidance director at Clark-Pleasant schools.
The two upper-level classes differ based on the pathway the student chooses to pursue. For the business and marketing pathway, for example, students must take principals of business management as an upper-level class, she said.
While students pursuing a purely academic diploma will take a world language as part of their required classes, students pursuing a diploma with a technical focus will not. Sixty-six percent of current eighth graders selected the class for their freshman schedule, meaning about 34 percent are expected to pursue a diploma that involves career and technical education, Fritz said, although she recognized that students’ plans may change once they enter high school.
“It’s very individualized and based on each student. If they come in as freshmen and say they have a goal to do welding and an apprenticeship, those students will funnel in through (career-technical education). Our plan class-wide is in ninth grade, students self-select whether they want to take an academic honors program and will take the PSAT during the school day, and at the end of ninth grade we’ll have data about who’s most likely to meet the academic honors program,” Fritz said.
“We want students to have an individualized plan but know they can change. We have ways of giving them opportunities for multiple items in box three. By tenth grade we want them to have narrowed down to one thing.”
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Students are required to fulfill three requirements, often referred to as boxes, for graduation pathways
First requirement:
- High school diploma, with core 40 or general designation requirements
Second requirement:
- Project-, service- or work-based learning experience
Third requirement (can be fulfilled by completion of any option below):
- Academic or technical honors diploma
- Meeting the cutoff score on ACT
- Meeting the cutoff score on SAT
- Meeting the cutoff score on Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery exam
- State and industry-recognized credential or certification
- Federally-recognized apprenticeship
- Career-technical education concentrator
- AP/IB/Dual Credit/Cambridge International courses or CLEP Exam
- Locally created pathway
Source: Indiana Department of Education
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