With a growing disparity between black and white students passing Ohio proficiency tests, lawmakers are being forced to look at these facts and see what can be done to correct this imbalance.

“We need to realize now that we are teaching children of many culturally diverse backgrounds,” said state Sen. C.J. Prentiss, D-Cleveland.

According to the latest data released by the Ohio Department of Education for the 1999-2000 school year 64.3 percent of white students passed the fourth grade reading proficiency test while only 29.7 percent of black students passed. This trend was also seen with the fourth grade math, science and citizenship tests.

The smallest gap between white and black students was seen with the writing test, where 60.5 percent of black students passed and 81.6 percent of white students passed.

Ohio was ranked by the Education Trust as having the fourth lowest percentage of African-American students receive high school diplomas in 1998, with 53 percent. This number is based on the number of students who were enrolled in eighth grade in 1993-1994.

Senate Bill 1 is looking to correct this imbalance in testing and graduation. The bill deals with the current proficiency tests and tries to restructure them in a way to benefit all students. It does this by permitting parents to view the results of their children’s tests, giving more options to students who do not pass the third-and fourth-grade reading tests and lowering the graduation test to 10th grade instead of 12th.

“Senate Bill 1 requires all school districts to provide intervention services to all students who have not passed all five of the state proficiency tests in grade four, six and nine,” said Prentiss in a statement. “Previous intervention efforts have been so poorly chosen, implemented and funded that less than 10 percent of African-American students in sixth grade passed all five of the March 2001 tests.”

However, Senate Bill 1 is being affected by the Ohio Supreme Court’s involvement in the DeRolph case, which will decide if Ohio’s funding for public schools is unconstitutional. The case has been in the system since 1991. To date, the justices have ruled three times, 4-3, that the plan the state has come up with is unconstitutional and does not provide a “thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state,” according to article 6 of the Ohio Constitution.

Prentiss sent a letter to both the plaintiffs and the defendants in the school funding case urging them to implement Senate Bill 1 and to consider the effects that this current litigation is having on the bill.

“Since Senate Bill 1 raises the graduation bar to the tenth grade level, it is incumbent on the defendants and the plaintiffs in the school funding case not to allow any settlement that leaves these children behind,” Prentiss said in her statement.

Her main concern is the children, primarily those who are falling through the cracks, while the state tries to decide how schools are funded.

“While they refigure, they don’t need to mess with the dollars that are there,” Prentiss said. In the letter, Prentiss said the bill is so important to the school districts because it can allow for smaller classes, extra time after school, one-to-one tutoring, summer programs and strategically chosen professional development.

Without the implementation of Senate Bill 1 the funds may not be available to allow for any of these programs to be started.