New graduation rules for those entering high school

Ohio students who enter high school this fall will have a very different set of graduation requirements than their predecessors.

The class of 2018 will be the first to take seven end-of-course exams – English I and II, two math courses, physical science, U.S. history and government – rather than the Ohio Graduation Test. The change is spelled out in legislation the Ohio House and Senate passed Wednesday.

The bill now heads to Gov. John Kasich.

Students who earn a cumulative passing score on those tests, along with completing the state's course requirements, would graduate. The course requirements still include four units of English and math, and three units of science and social studies.

But the new legislation provides two other pathways to graduation as well.

Students can graduate by earning a "remediation-free" score on either the ACT or SAT college entrance exam (the state has yet to decide which test it will use). As part of this plan, the state will, for the first time, pay the fee for every student to take one of those two tests in their junior year.

The last pathway to graduation is to earn an industry-recognized job credential or license, and achieve a passing score on an approved job skills assessment.