A decade after the state began putting in place a more rigorous standard for getting a high school diploma, only 2 percent or less of the senior class will not be walking across the stage because they failed to pass the requirement, which is in its first year.
State education officials said yesterday that the latest data show about 1,275 students out of a class of 54,000 probably won't graduate in June because they haven't passed the four subject tests or done projects to make up for their lack of knowledge in those subjects.
The numbers released Wednesday at the state school board meeting showed a steep drop in students at risk of not graduating. In the fall, 9,000 to 10,000 had not passed the High School Assessment tests, and in March, the number had dropped to 4,600.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said she expects more students to meet the requirement before the end of the school year in June. While those seniors may not take part in graduation ceremonies, they will be able to get a diploma.
"We are very excited about what has happened," said Grasmick, who had championed the use of the subject tests in algebra I, biology, American government and 10th-grade English and focused much of her career on seeing that these accountability measures and others in the elementary and middle school grades were in place. She had said as late as this past fall that she didn't believe any child would be held back by the standard.
State school board members in the past two years wavered in their support of the graduation requirement, fearing that thousands of students, primarily poor black students in failing schools, would not get a diploma. Twice after contentious debates, the board voted to go ahead with the requirement. In its final vote last fall, it once again held fast.
The largest failure rates are in Prince George's County and Baltimore City, which have 74 percent of the state's students who are not meeting the standard. Baltimore City has 543 seniors, or 13.2 percent, who have not passed the requirement.
In addition, more than 80 percent of students who haven't met the standard are African-American, said Leslie Wilson, head of testing in the state.
