(AP) ATLANTA -  Georgia education officials have approved a plan to phase out the Georgia High School Graduation Test.

The state Board of Education on Wednesday approved the plan, which means that students who enter high school in fall 2011 will no longer take the test in order to graduate.

Under the new plan, students must pass all required courses, and the end-of-course tests will count for 20 percent of a student's final grade, rather than the current 15 percent. Students must still pass the Georgia High School Writing Test to graduate.

 Students who entered ninth grade between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011 must pass the GHSGT or at least one of the two equivalent end-of-course tests to graduate.  

State School Superintendent John Barge said Georgia has been trying to eliminate the state graduation test for more than a decade.

"I don't believe the GHSGT is nearly as good an indicator of how much a student has learned as our end-of-course tests. The EOCTs are much more rigorous, and they test a student immediately following a course, rather than waiting until a student's junior year to determine whether or not he or she has mastered the content of our curriculum," said Barge.