For seniors, it’s important they start to think about what’s needed to graduate; juniors as well have a bit extra preparation. Luckily for freshmen and sophomores, they have a little more time for this. In order to graduate, at the end of their senior year, students need at least 2 seals, a total of 21 credits, and high enough scores on their state tests.
First, let’s go over what seals are. You get a seal when earned to go on your diploma and it basically just states that “yes, I indeed did do that”. For waverly city schools students, there are a total of twelve seals that you could earn, nine of which are state and three local. What that means is that with the first nine, the state sets the requirements to earn that seal, while the local ones are what the school set to earn them. At least one state seal is needed, though the second one could be a local seal or another state.
State Seals:
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OhiomeansJobs Readiness
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Industry-Recognized Credential
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College-Ready
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Military Enlistment
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Citizenship
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Science
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Honors Diploma
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Seal of Biliteracy
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Technology
Local Seals:
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Community Service
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Fine and Performing Arts
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Student Engagement
Moving on with the next requirement, 21 credits. What are credits, you may ask? Well, they are like the points you get for passing a class. Key word there, passing it; if you end up failing a class, you will not get the credit for it and more than likely end up needing to retake said class. For Waverly students, we need 21 credits all of which are needed in a specific subject. We need:
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6 credits in Electives
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4 credits in English
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4 credits in Math
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3 credits in Science
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3 credits in Social Studies
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½ credits in Health
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½ credits in Physical Education (gym or sports)
Passing an economics and financial literacy class is also required, as well as having completed a year of fine arts, in order to graduate.
Lastly, students need to score a high enough score on state testing to graduate. A score of 684 or higher on the Mathematics and English Language Arts state test is needed to graduate. While students are eligible to retake the test while in school if it seems you are not going to get that high of a score, there are other options for this part. Students can either:
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Demonstrate 2 career-focused activities
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Enlist in the Military
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Complete College Coursework
Now that the legal requirements have been discussed, let’s talk cap and grow. While having a cap and gown is not required to graduate, it is if you want to participate in the graduation ceremony. Please see Mrs. Dickens for information on ordering your cap and gown.
I was able to learn all of this by talking with Waverly High School’s guidance counselor, Ms. McQuay, who gave wonderful advice for seniors to “Stay on top of their studies and to enjoy their senior year.” If you would like to learn more, either about how many credits you currently have, about how to earn some of those seals or even about your test scores, I do suggest going to talk to her yourself.
Thank you for reading and goodness, I do hope this helps because it was so helpful for myself. Enjoy your high school career Waverly High School!