The Mississippi Board of Education announced an adjustment to graduation requirements for high school seniors statewide.

When students complete the courses Algebra I, Biology I, English II and U.S. History they have to take a Subject Area Test Program exam to graduate. For the 2015-2016 school year, students can graduate with a combined minimum score of 646 on all four tests instead of having to pass each test outright.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Chad Shealy said. “It gives students an additional opportunity to demonstrate mastery because ultimately we get the opportunity to do that in college. Our GPAs are averaged. You walk across the stage with an aggregate GPA, and also our scholarships are awarded based on that.”

The combined minimum score of 646 was reached because it is the average passing score of all four exams after being adjusted for error.

“Giving a child the option to show an average just gives them another chance to be a graduate, and graduation changes lives,” Shealy said.

He said the composite score helps students graduate who are just a few points shy of passing a test in one subject but are proficient in other subjects. He said it’s hard for him to see students just a couple points short of passing a test being told they won’t have the opportunity to attend college because of how they did on one test, on one day.

“It shouldn’t be that way,” Shealy said. “It shouldn’t be that this one day in your life should be so important. This one assessment keeps you from the rest of your life.”

Students can also use a combination of their SATP scores and their course grade to apply of graduation this school year. A table will be used to determine if the student’s grade and score prove a mastery of the subject.

However, there is a small drawback to the new policy.

“The only thing I hate is it changes our ability each year to model what graduation looks like because you have another variable that’s now in that,” Shealy said. “The following year we’ll have a whole other measurement, which will be a graduation rate based solely on the score of your course.”

During the 2016-2017 school year, the student’s SATP exam scores will be factored into the student’s course grade making up 25 percent of their final grade. This is only applicable for students who are enrolled in these courses for the first time.

“It’s basically kind of like a finals mindset. It becomes the end of course assessment that’s a portion of the grade,” Shealy said. “You have to take the course to take the test, and you have to take the test at the end of the course.”

There are additional methods for seniors to reach graduation, which were put in place in April. Even if students obtain one of the following options for graduation before they take the SATP, the student will still be required to take the test.

If students attain at least a 17 score in a subject area on the ACT or American College Testing, a college entrance exam, they can graduate. Students who are dual enrolled in a college course for high school credit in the applicable subject areas and make at least a C can graduate.

Making a score of 36 on the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery, Armed Forces Qualification Test in a subject and either earning an approved industry certification or earning an approved Career Planning and Assessment System score, is another way students can graduate. The final possible graduation option is reaching the Silver Level on the ACT Work Keys and either earning an approved industry certification or earning an approved Career Planning and Assessment System score.

Students who took the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam in Algebra I or English II last school year will also have a combined score they must reach if they did not pass each test, which will be announced in early 2016. This test will also have a table to determine if the student’s course grade and score prove competence in the subject area to apply for graduation. The PARCC exam was only used for one school year and is no longer given to students in Mississippi.

“In this school year, students will be tested on the same standards but with a different test,” Cook said.

Students who failed last year’s end of course test will be able to take the test again this year.