Making The Grade

Howard County school officials told the ExploreHoward blog that the state's new graduation requirements did not prevent a single student from collecting a diploma this year.

A small number of Howard County’s senior class — a little over a dozen pupils — did not graduate as planned, although none were held back solely because of the HSA [High School Assessment] requirement, as they had failed to meet other graduation criteria, school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan said.


This year's crop of seniors was the first to be face the new standards, which included exams in algebra, biology, 10th-grade English and government, ExploreHoward said.

In Howard, 3,261 students met the requirement by passing the four exams, while 307 earned a sufficient combined score. Sixty students completed “bridge” projects in one or more subjects to meet the requirement, and eight students were granted a waiver.