Students must pass Keystones in order to graduate, and on top of that, there is a Keystone refresher class to help students pass their test.

Students who took Algebra 1b in eighth grade and failed the Keystones are taking the Keystones Dec. 14-Dec. 15. Students who are just now taking Algebra 1b will have to take the Keystones in May.

In some school districts students aren’t required to pass the Keystones because many kids weren’t graduating high school. Altoona Area School District is one of the few school districts that still require it for graduation.

Some students have  said the material they are learning in the Keystone refresher has none of the material that was on the Keystones in the previous years but others feel it will be helpful.

“I think it helped a lot because a lot of stuff we do in class I didn’t know before,” ninth grade student Issac Parisi.

“I really enjoy teaching the class because I think it helps more students pass the Keystones,”ninth grade Algebra 1 interventions teacher Christopher Lloyd said.

Some level three students failed the Keystones last year by a small margin.

“I think the open-ended’s made me fail the Keystones,” Parisi said.

Now students will await results to see if they had success the second time around.