More than 90 percent of Athens High School seniors received a diploma in 2016, while the statewide graduation rate for seniors was 83 percent.
A report published by The Columbus Dispatch revealed 66 percent of high school juniors in the state of Ohio are on track to graduate in 2018.
Of the 183 seniors at Athens High School for the 2016-17 academic year, AHS Principal David Hanning said it is likely that 175 will graduate. As for the current junior class, which has 209 students, he said it is hard to know how many will graduate in 2018 since they have not taken their end-of-course test for
The end-of-course tests are taken at the end of seven specific classes, each worth five points, and students must earn at least 18 points to graduate, according to the Ohio Department of Education website.
“I think the discussion about juniors not being on track to graduate is premature,” Hanning said in an email. “Likely, there will be some that we will need to provide intervention for, but ... I don't expect it to be much different
Hanning said there are 22 credit specification requirements that must be met by students for them to graduate.
“I really don’t think (the requirements are hard to meet). I thought it was pretty easy,” Miranda Minor, an undecided freshman who graduated from AHS in May, said.
She said she felt she had an easy path to graduation, but that didn’t mean the classes she took were easy.
Ammar Fauzi, a freshman studying engineering, also graduated from AHS in May. Fauzi said he felt the rate of students who graduated was fair for the education he received, and the expectations were “just right” with some effort.
“I didn’t worry (about graduating),” Fauzi said. “They were challenging, some of them, like math. And chemistry — chemistry is pretty hard. But I didn’t think I would not graduate on time because of them.”
