In 2025, Fordham published a report analyzing how Ohio’s laid-back state policy on industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) allowed districts to push students into earning low-value options as a workaround for standard graduation requirements. It wasn’t the first time we called attention to this issue. Thousands of kids have graduated high school without a basic academic foundation or credentials of value, leaving them ill-prepared for what comes next.
Fortunately, lawmakers eventually ordered a revamp of the state’s IRC framework. The details of that overhaul were released this summer, with the new system dramatically reducing the number of graduation-eligible credentials from 738 to just 126. In his analysis of the changes, my colleague Aaron Churchill joined others in praising the framework’s data-driven measures. But he also issued a warning. “Vendors and industry groups with financial interests,” he wrote, “and schools looking to maintain sky-high graduation rates could urge the committee to approve their favored credential or pressure it to set a low bar.”
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened next.
It took the IRC committee—the group responsible for approving which credentials students can use to graduate—just one meeting to undermine the state’s new framework. They approved two bundles of retail-based certificates that create the same diploma workaround that policymakers were trying to fix. They did so via a brazen political power play that protects the financial interests of the credential vendor. And they established a troubling precedent that credential approval in Ohio won’t be based on objective, data-driven measures, but who you know on the committee and whether they’re willing to do you a favor.
It’s outrageous that efforts to prioritize students’ best interests have been undone by a committee with no public accountability for their actions. But it doesn’t have to stay this way. The committee needs to work immediately to establish clear rules—standards—for credential approval. If it refuses to act, lawmakers should step in to force the committee to follow the state’s data-driven framework and set a high approval bar.
DEW has already released a proposal, which the committee has yet to act upon, that outlines approval standards. As the basis for its methodology, DEW used its new IRC evaluation dashboard, which analyzes 18 separate “value elements” in four primary areas: career outcomes, occupational demand, credential demand, and education mobility. Credentials are assigned a score from 0 to 100 for each value element. Composite, or overall, scores also range from 0 to 100. The table below offers a simplified version[1] of DEW’s recommendations for approval thresholds for both standalone credentials (those that meet the graduation threshold on their own) and bundles (groups of credentials that are combined to meet the threshold).
Table 1: DEW’s draft proposal for IRC evaluation methodology
|
Standalone Meet any three |
Bundle Meet any two* and obtain 75 percent approval from the IRC committee |
|
A composite score of 45 or above. |
An average composite score of 35 or above. |
|
At least ten value elements with scores above 50. |
At least five value elements with scores above 50. |
|
Signed letter from an Ohio business or trade organization indicating that the credential can serve as a postsecondary pathway for a student on its own. |
Signed letter from an Ohio business or trade organization that indicates the credential will result in preferential hiring. |
|
Can be earned by a high school student. |
Demonstrates meaningful linkage between credentials included in the bundle.[2] |
*If a bundle has an average composite score below 35 and fewer than five value elements with scores above 50, it will not be evaluated by the committee.
Although DEW’s proposal is a start, the bar it sets for standalones and bundles isn’t nearly high enough. For instance, 670 credentials receive composite valuation scores of more than 45 and 894 have scores above 35. To ensure that Ohio students aren’t funneled yet again into meaningless credentials, the committee should strengthen the draft framework in the following ways, and then implement it.
1. Bolster the approval standards for standalone credentials.
- Raise the minimum composite score requirement to 60. Raising the bar would narrow the number of eligible credentials and ensure the committee approves only those with demonstrable value to students.
- Require standalone credentials to have a composite score of 60 or above and at least 10 or more value elements with scores above 50. The current proposal allows a credential to meet one or the other criteria, but both should be a requirement for approval.
- Make “workforce foundational” credentials ineligible for approval as standalones (or parts of a bundle).[3]
2. Strengthen the approval standards for bundled credentials.
- Raise the average composite score requirement to 50.
- Require a credential bundle to have a composite score of 50 or above and at least 12 (not just 5) value elements with scores above 50. Credentials that don’t meet both criteria are ineligible for approval.
- Require a credential to have a signed preferential hiring letter from employers or a demonstration of meaningful linkage between the credentials.
- Limit the number of credentials that can be included in a bundle to 4 (the proposal allows up to 7).
3. Ensure transparency and regular reevaluation.
- Require the DEW director to appoint to the committee at least 2 at-large members who are outside both business and government. Business interests should be represented on the committee, but the current makeup gives them undue influence in the approval process.
- Require standalone and bundled credentials to receive a two-thirds vote from the committee. Under one alternative in the DEW proposal, a bundle can be approved by simple majority vote (provided it meets certain criteria). The committee should adopt a consistent approval rule of two-thirds.
- Require DEW to annually update the data included in its IRC evaluation dashboard.
- Require approved credentials to be re-evaluated at least every two years.
- Require DEW to publish on its website the most up-to-date scorecard for each approved standalone or bundle. Scorecards should identify average composite score; scores for each value element; and (for a bundle) the employer letter or documentation of meaningful credential linkage.
***
Getting the IRC approval framework right is crucial. Ohio’s current graduation requirements allow students who haven’t demonstrated competency in math or reading to use committee-approved credentials as an alternative for earning a high school diploma. Competency scores aren’t equivalent to proficiency, which is the term Ohio uses to signal that a student is on grade level. They are even farther from the “college and career ready” academic standard.[4] Students who don’t meet the competency threshold are—by the state’s own definitions—below grade level and academically unprepared for college and the workforce.
If policymakers are going to continue allowing students to use IRCs as a substitute for adequate math and reading skills, then the credentials Ohio approves must be worth something to students. They should support students in their pursuit of stable, well-paying jobs in career fields that are in demand and provide room for growth. The retail-based certificates recently approved by the IRC committee don’t meet that standard.
Students can’t afford for adults to get this wrong again. They can’t afford to wait years for adults to act, either. As soon as possible, the committee needs to adopt a meaningful and objective standard for credential approval. If it falters again, policymakers and state officials should step in on behalf of Ohio students.
[1] DEW’s draft establishes three categories for bundle approval. For the purposes of this blog, Table 1 focuses on category 2, which requires 75 percent of the IRC committee to vote for approval rather than a simple majority.
[3] These credentials are identified in the state’s new valuation system. Examples include CPR First Aid and OSHA 10-Hour Training.
[4] For both Algebra I and English II, the competency score is 684. The current proficiency score is 700. The state identifies accomplished or advanced scores—those above 725—as on track for college and career readiness.
