The Columbus Dispatch

9/19/2007

By DAVID J. CROSS

Columbus City Schools Superintendent Gene Harris this weekend reminded seniors who didn’t graduate with their classmates in June that education is about earning a degree, not about when you walk across a stage.

On Saturday, Sept. 15, 146 seniors who did not don the cap and gown in June received their diplomas during a summer commencement ceremony at Franklin County Veterans Memorial.

“It’s not the date you get your diplomas, it’s that you get them,” Harris said at the commencement.

“I know how difficult it was last June when the young people didn’t have the opportunity to graduate with their class like they wanted. Last June for you was the face of adversity.”

More than 400 Columbus City School District seniors did not graduate with their class in the spring. State-required exams, mainly the Ohio Graduation Test, held a majority of them back.

While 346 seniors did not graduate because of the OGT, more than 50 still needed to pass portions of the ninth-grade proficiency test.

Students receive their first try at the OGT as sophomores and have seven subsequent tries to pass the test prior to their scheduled graduation.

District officials said they did not immediately know how many of the 146 seniors were among the students held back because of failing to pass the OGT.

But all those who walked Saturday fulfilled all Columbus and state graduation requirements — including passing all sections of the OGT. Most took special OGT intervention courses prior to retesting during the summer.

Several parents of students who couldn’t graduate solely due to the standardized tests asked the Columbus Board of Education to let their children walk with their classmates anyway, to perhaps receive blank diplomas, though this idea was rejected.

Lashad Hamilton, who graduated from Brookhaven High School, did not walk with his class earlier in the year.

“I was a little disappointed,” Hamilton said.

He said the science and math portions of the OGT kept him from graduating on time.

Hamilton credited his family for helping him complete summer courses.

“I felt like I had to do it for my family and myself,” Hamilton said after the commencement, adding that he’ll be attending DeVry University.

Tierra Crawford, a Northland High School graduate, had similar feelings.

“I had hope for myself,” she said.

Harris, who was the keynote speaker at the event, lauded the students and their parents.

“You did not give up,” she said. “You did whatever you had to do to get it done.

“You have worked hard. Nobody could go to those classes this summer but you.”

“Keep learning. You have so much to offer to this community, this country,” Harris told the graduates.

“I know how difficult it was last June … Last June for you was the face of adversity.”