Math and GHSGT Changes

 The high schools of today are facing many challenges that will be hard to overcome (for some). Here in Cherokee County and the State of Georgia, the laws are changing concerning the graduation test and the math curriculum.

Beginning in the 2011-2012 school year, new freshman will not have to take the GHSGT (Georgia High School Graduation Test). Instead of taking the graduation test, which is supposed to test the student’s comprehensive knowledge gained throughout school, emphasis will be placed on eight end-of-course tests. In one way, I believe this is a good thing because students will be taking exams of exactly what they have learned in that respective subject over the school year. To be honest, I believe Georgia creates tests that are extremely rigorous and hard for students to take. I have never been a good test taker and these standardized tests are set to, in my opinion, “fail” students. Some of the questions on these exams are not even over material (that the student has covered).

Our parents can not adequately help us study for these exams because they are totally different, and harder, than what they took when they were in high school. Now, for rising tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders, starting next school year, we will have the opportunity to pass at least one EOCT for each of the four core subjects or passing the corresponding section of the graduation test. The end-of-course tests will be fifteen percent of the student’s final grade. The math curriculum for Cherokee County students is also changing.

The three courses (Math I, II, and III) will not longer be integrated into the schools. The State Board of Education voted to allow different school municipalities the authority to decide if they wanted to keep this “integrated” system or move to a more traditional system. The Cherokee County School Board voted to move back to the traditional system. Instead of having classes like Math II, I will now go into GPS (Georgia Performance Standards) Geometry. State standards will not change.

State officials say the new classes will, again, be more rigorous. The main difference of the courses will be that the material is delivered differently. I believe that it is going to take high school students more effort to pass these classes. We, me included, are going to have to study more and go in for extra help. These are, however, going to be very hard to pass (in my opinion). It is required to pass these classes to get into college. Statistics show that to get into the University of Georgia, you would have to graduate with a 3.9 grade point average (GPA) and have made a 1260 on the SAT. Colleges will probably expect you to make even higher on standardized tests, now.

 In conclusion, I believe that our elected officials should take into consideration the needs of all of their students. It is harder for some students to pass tests, than others. I also believe it is time to streamline the process for students to pass high schools classes.