NOTE: The State Board of Education of Ohio on December 13, 2016 debated whether to change graduation requirements for the Class of 2018 and beyond. Below are the written remarks of John Morris, given before the board.
Members of the Board,
Thank you for giving me a moment to offer testimony on behalf of the construction industry. Members of the industry sent me here to thank you for setting a new higher bar with the class of 2018 graduation requirements. We are excited that this board has supported maintaining high standards for graduating and earning a diploma in the State of Ohio. Members of the construction industry were very pleased when the phase out of the Ohio Graduation Test was announced in favor of multiple end-of-course exams and the opportunity for an industry credential to help a student graduate. We expect this new system to be an improvement over the current system that graduates many without the skills to succeed in college and continuously FAILS to introduce others to the hundreds of thousands of pathways to employment via industry credentials.
For many decades, industries such as construction and manufacturing enjoyed a steady stream of individuals coming directly from "vocational" schools with earned industry credentials and experience. The construction industry regularly took graduates and gave them advanced placement into level three of apprenticeship, only two years from full journeyman status. That luxury and system of education is now all but dead and gone. The increased emphasis on a pre-college curriculum for all has severely diminished the ability of high school students to learn a skilled trade while in school and the elimination of middle school "shop" classes has reduced the number of students who learn at young age of their God-given talents in the trades. You see when I was in sixth grade, I learned in middle school shop class that I was not going to be a carpenter when I struggled to build the birdhouse. I knew I would not be a welder or plumber when I could not properly seal two metal objects together; but I was one who could wire a lamp and do the math needed to calculate wattage. When I struggled in high school, I chose to become an electrician. I owned my own company by the age of 28. I paid my way through college debt-free thanks to a trade. I now hold multiple masters degrees and taught economics at the University of Cincinnati. An industry credential and skilled trade open the door to opportunity for me and it can for many others.
The current graduation requirements that offer alternative pathways through industry credentials are perfectly designed to fix a broken system that mistakenly tells every child who gets a diploma that they are college-ready. We all know this is not the case; yet we've heard that many are already talking about making the tests easier and/or reducing the number of points required to earn a diploma rather than increasing the emphasis on schools to work with industries like construction to help steer students into choices that don't involve certain college failure and accumulation of unforgiveable debt. We applaud this board and the Ohio Department of Education for creating a system that includes pathways to graduation via industry credentials and sincerely hope that you hold onto the idea of higher standards for graduation. We all know that not everyone should go to college and industry credentials offer an alternative pathway to success in life—one without failure and debt. The only way school districts will pursue these pathways is to maintain the system as it is. Do not make their jobs easy. Keep the standards as they are written and make the superintendents do what they should be doing anyway—working to find a path to success for all students, not just those who are on a college path. Construction professionals stand ready to help school districts build pathways to credentials in our industry and are pleased to offer Ohio Students a debt-free pass to a lifetime of earnings through a skilled trade.
Mr. Morris is president of the Ohio Valley Construction Education Foundation, based in Springboro, Ohio.
