PHOENIX — State senators voted Tuesday to extend the ability of high school seniors to use their grades to supplement their AIMS scores and graduate with their classmates.

 HB 2008 would continue the practice where students who have failed one or more parts of the test can boost their scores by up to 25 percent. The emergency measure still needs final House approval before going to Gov. Janet Napolitano today,  just in time to help up to 6,000 seniors who otherwise will not graduate this month.

 Tuesday’s move continues the state policy of requiring students to pass AIMS — with or without bonus points — before they get a high school diploma.

 But lawmakers balked at an alternate proposal to make passing other versions of the AIMS test given in grades 3 through 8 a prerequisite to being promoted to the next grade. Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, said that would end “social promotion’’ and ensure that teens do not get to their senior year unable to pass the graduation version of the test.

 The test, more formally known as Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards, has been given to seniors for more than a decade. But it was not until 2006 that getting a passing score became a requirement to graduate.

 Facing complaints from students and parents, lawmakers agreed t a temporary reprieve: bonus points — but only through the end of 2007.

 Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe, had sought to put the bonus points back permanently. But facing opposition, he agreed to a compromise.

 Under the terms of the deal, that 25 percent bonus will apply to

 this year’s seniors and those scheduled to graduate in 2009. But

 the measure caps maximum bonus points at 15 percent of AIMS

 scores for the class of 2010 — and just 5 percent for those in

 the class of 2011 and beyond.

 Schapira said he believes that 5 percent margin should be enough

 to help most students who find their AIMS scores short of what is

 considered passing.

 Even that, however, proved too much for some lawmakers.

 Sen. Ken Cheuvront, who owns a restaurant and wine bar, said he

 gets applicants for jobs who are high school graduates who are

 unable to string an entire sentence together

 “A diploma should mean something,’’ he said.

 “At some point we need to expect more from our students, and our

 schools,’’ Cheuvront continued. And he said all AIMS does is

 ensure that “when our students graduate they have minimal

 skills.’’

 Gould suggested there would not be a problem with seniors passing

 AIMS if they were being properly educated throughout their school

 years.

 Gould said the AIMS tests in grades 3 through 8 are supposed to

 show if students have mastered the subjects being taught. But he

 said failing any part of the test has no implications for the

 students.

 “How we’re doing this now is dumb,’’ Gould said.

 “We test kids as they move through the grade, we don’t hold them

 accountable,’’ he said. It is not until they are ready to

 graduate when actually passing that last AIMS test mattes.

 “We need to nip this in the bud ... and make sure that they’re up

 to grade level rather than going all the way for 13 years and

 saying, ‘Sorry Johnny, sorry, Suzie, we didn’t do our job, you

 didn’t do your job, your folks didn’t do their job and now you

 can’t graduate with your class,’ ‘’ Gould said.

 He said holding students back in lower grades until they show

 they’ve learned what they should makes the most sense.

 Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, agreed.

 “To move them on, to me, is almost criminal,’’ she said. “They

 just get further and further behind.’’

 But Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler, said such a plan creates

 problems.

 He said there was a similar requirement in the 1960s for students

 to get into high school. What happened, Huppenthal said, is

 eighth grade classes soon became packed with 16-year-old students

 — many of them boys — sitting in class with 12-year-old girls.

 “It created a very undesirable social situation,’’ Huppenthal

 said.

 State School Superintendent Tom Horne called Tuesday’s vote to

 extend the bonus points a “mistake.’’

 “The reason an objective test is needed is because subjective

 grades are unreliable indicators of whether students have learned

 what they need to know,’’ he said. “If all teachers were tough

 graders we wouldn’t need a statewide test.’’

 Horne also said he likes what Gould has proposed, though he is

 not sure that promotion from each grade should be linked to

 performance on the standardized test. He said it might be better

 to simply use it at certain key points, such as moving on to

 fourth and ninth grades.