Weighting Career-Technical Education Advance Standing (CTAG/ITAG) Courses
To prepare students for success in life and careers, Ohio recognizes Career-Technical Education courses approved under the state’s transfer initiatives as Advanced Standing Courses. Commonly, these transfer initiatives are known as the Career-Technical Assurance Guide (CTAG) and Industry Recognized Credential Transfer Assurance Guide (ITAG). This guidance document is intended to support schools and districts in implementing consistent policies for career-technical education courses when district grading or class standing policies weight advanced standing and/or honors courses. While each school may develop its own local policy, this resource is designed to help clarify expectations, reduce confusion, and address common questions. It reflects current law to promote consistency across all advanced standing and honors courses. Use it as a reference when reviewing or updating local grading and class standing policies.
New Law
Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 3313.6031, which became effective Sept. 30, 2025, requires each city, local, exempted village, and joint vocational school district, as well as any other high school that offers any of grades 9-12, including a community school, STEM school, or chartered nonpublic school, to adopt and implement a policy for awarding grades and calculating class standing for Career-Technical Education CTAG (
Career-Technical Assurance Guide (CTAG) Descriptions ) or ITAG courses established under
3333.162.
The policy adopted under this section shall be equivalent to the district’s or school’s policy for courses taken under the advanced standing programs described in divisions (A)(1) to (3) of section
3313.6013 of the Revised Code or for other courses designated as honors courses by the district or school. If the policy includes awarding a weighted grade or enhancing a student’s class standing for these courses, the policy adopted under this section shall also provide for these procedures to be applied to courses that meet the CTAG or ITAG criteria and articulate to postsecondary credit.
What is Advanced Standing?
An “Advanced Standing” program is defined as a program that enables a student to earn credit toward a degree from an institution of higher education while enrolled in high school. Advanced standing programs may include Career-Technical Assurance Guides (CTAG) and Industry-Recognized Credential Transfer Assurance Guides (ITAG), which provide college credit for students who earn specific industry-recognized credentials aligned with in-demand occupations (
ORC 3333.162). Additional Advanced Standing programs include the College Credit Plus Program, Advanced Placement (AP) courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma courses, and early college high school programs (
ORC 3313.6013).
Last Modified: 11/17/2025 3:14:19 PM