Alternate Route to Diploma Proposed in Md.

"It is a loophole that you could drive a truck through," Cohen said.

Grasmick said that although local school systems would be responsible for designing the projects, the state would ensure that the standards were equal to those of the tests.

"It would have to be much more than a book report," Grasmick said of the projects. "It is going to be rigorous."

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) called Grasmick's plan "interesting" but said in an interview that he had not been consulted or briefed about it before its release. O'Malley said the move sounded like a response to an "overly ambitious" testing program that presents some thorny issues.

"You don't want to create a workforce where a number of young people are unemployable because they haven't mastered basic high school skills, and at the same time, you don't want to make a number of kids unemployable because they haven't been able to get a high school diploma," O'Malley said.

Local school officials said they wanted more details but were receptive to the plan.

"Once you go through several takings of a test, not everybody's going to be able to jump the same hurdles the same way," Richmond said. "But if you reach a handful that can demonstrate through a project that's been approved and very much guarded by the school, that's one way of providing another way the kids can make this."

State officials contended that the data showed that a relatively small number of students would be affected by the Bridge Plan and that the vast majority of Maryland students were on track to pass the tests.

Officials estimated that about 55,000 students will graduate with the Class of 2009; about 51,000 students have passed the algebra exam, and the remaining 4,000 have two more years and several more opportunities to pass it. They said the results on the algebra test were comparable to results on the other three tests and noted that some students would fail to graduate, regardless of the tests.

The state school system did not provide its usual testing data, saying that its data were distorted by a large increase in students taking the test for the second time, as well as students for whom the test does not count. For example, students from the Class of 2008 who had been held back were included in the state data, making it difficult to assess how many students in each graduating class still need to pass each test.

The state left it to each jurisdiction to release assessment data, because local school systems can track students more easily.

In Prince George's, about two-thirds of the 7,300 students from the Class of 2009 have passed the tests, county officials said. In English, the pass rate was 68 percent; in biology, 62.1 percent; in government, 73.7 percent; and in algebra, 65.5 percent.

John E. Deasy, the Prince George's superintendent, said he was pleased by the results. His analysis showed that six of the county's high schools would exit "school improvement" status -- a federal classification for schools that are having difficulty on state tests; none will enter that status.

Nevertheless, he said, he was interested in the alternative method proposed by Grasmick, so long as it maintains rigorous standards for his students.

"It deserves serious consideration," he said.

Staff writers Daniel de Vise, Philip Rucker and John Wagner contributed to this report.