This summer, high school students will have the opportunity to take another stab at passing the Georgia High School Graduation Test, compliments of the state Department of Education.

“The state has never done this before,” said Sherrie Gibney-Sherman, Jefferson City School System associate superintendent. “They are sponsoring an express summer school option for students who failed the science or social studies portion of the graduation exam and it will be free for students.”

The state-sponsored summer school will feature nine days of high school graduation test remediation in those two subject areas.

On the 10th day, students will be able to retake the failed portion of the test. Although retakes will be available in
both social studies and science, students will only be able to take one of the tests.

“During these tough economic times, the state Department of Education wanted to offer some assistance to school systems,” said Dana Tofig, Georgia department of education communications director.

“We wanted to do something to offer some relief to these school systems. Many have had to cut back on summer school or even cut summer school all together.”

Despite having to cut state funding to area school systems for other spending, Tofig said the department sees the upcoming summer school session as a necessary expense.

“We’ve had to make a lot of cut backs at the state level this year, but (the state department of education) feels that the state’s money is best spent directly helping students,” Tofig said. “We want to do what we can to help students stay on track to graduate.”

Among the details that still need to be worked out is where the state summer school sessions will be located. Although the sessions will be held in schools, not every local school will be a summer school site.

Before receiving a high school diploma, Georgia high school seniors are required to pass the graduation test which includes writing, mathematics, science, social studies, and English and language arts sections.