The Maryland Board of Education voted unanimously this afternoon to waive some high school graduation requirements for seniors in an effort to take some of the burden off them in light of the school closures due to the pandemic.
Seniors will still need a minimum of 21 credits to graduate. However, they will not be required to take and pass the high school assessment tests for Algebra I, English 10, American Government or participate in the Maryland Integrated Science Assessment.
Maryland Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon presented these waiver requests to the state BOE at their meeting Tuesday.
While the students won’t have to take normally-mandated tests, the local school systems, including Montgomery County, must do all they can to make sure the students meet the standards in each of those courses, it was decided at the meeting.
Normally, students must pass these tests to receive their high school diploma.
Also, seniors who have not completed their required service hours for volunteer work will be granted the necessary credit.
After hearing the news, Montgomery County Council Member Nancy Navaro tweeted, “State graduation tests are suspended for the first time since they were put in place in 2009. This is because the state has cancelled all testing and closed schools until the end of April.”
