The New York State Education Department (NYSED) announced the timeline for implementing the phase-out of Regents exams as a requirement for high school graduation.
NYSED’s Blue Ribbon Commission released the results of its efforts, which began in 2019, to broaden the ways a student could demonstrate proficiency beyond taking Regents exams.
Supporters of the initiative say it is “designed to promote greater equity within the education system,” while critics say it lowers the bar of achievement just to make the graduation rates look better.
Rather than testing for the historic metrics of the three Rs of Reading, “Riting” and “Rithmatic” as well as history and science, New York is adding other measures for students.
The proposed “Portrait of a Graduate” metric replaces tests on core educational subjects with soft measurements for students such as “cultural competence, social-emotional competence, effective communicators and global citizen.”
Only one of the seven “Portrait” competencies involves being “literate across content areas” such as reading, math, science, and history.
Seniors from 2023 and prior will operate under the current Local, Regents, or Advanced Regent system for graduation. Students graduating between 2024-2026 can get one diploma type with advanced designations or seals of distinction indicating academic achievement. The current credit requirements for graduation will remain in place.
Graduates in 2027-28 will be under the one diploma program with the seals and endorsements and new credit requirements will be in place. Previous diploma assessment requirements will be sunsetted. After 2029, there will be one diploma, a statewide transcript will be required, and the elements of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s Portrait of a Student will be in place and required.
The program has not yet officially been passed by the Board of Regents yet, but planning for implementation is well underway and it is expected to pass soon.
Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, does not agree with the criticisms that say the new system is lowering the standards for a high school diploma.
“I will give the state education credit for this, that this process to overhaul and transform the graduation standards for the development of the portrait of a graduate has been very deliberate and very detailed, make sure they try to get it right. School boards were represented, and superintendents, teachers, and students were all represented. It has been a bottom-up process,” said Vecchio.
“While Long Island performs very well academically with outcomes compared to the rest of New York state and stacks very well nationally, as a statewide system, I'm not going say it was broke, but you don't have to be bad to be better. And the system left a lot of room for improvement,” Vecchio added.
Vecchio pointed out that as the world changes, the skillsets that are necessary for students after they graduate are different today than even ten years ago. “There has been a shift that not everybody needs higher education after public school.
“It's recognizing the fact that a high school diploma should not be solely based on how people perform on five Regents exams. There will be alternative pathways where a student can demonstrate through performance-braced projects or portfolio-type projects that they understand the coursework.”
Special education students will especially benefit from the new system. Depending on the disability, some special education students had a hard time passing the Regents exams, but they were very competent in other areas that weren’t being evaluated and counted towards graduation. Now, their proficiencies in the Portrait of a Graduate will be recognized in their graduation requirement.
Vecchio concluded by saying, “When you think about, how do we make sure when a kid gets a diploma in New York state, they are ready to either continue education in higher education, trades, or some other avenue. For me, and I've said this for a million years, when a student receives a diploma, they need to be ready for what I call the three E's. That is ready to be Employed, ready to be Enrolled in higher education, or Eligible to enlist in today's military.”
James Montalto, Public Relations Director for Wm. Floyd School District, says, “Implementation is years away and since it hasn’t been officially adopted yet, we won’t be able to weigh in until it is implemented and after we have had a chance to review all of the details.”
Other school districts asked to weigh in via their communications contractor declined to provide comment. These include Bayport Blue-Point, Brentwood, Center Moriches, Connetquot, Copiague Deer Park, East Islip, Eastport-South Manor, Hauppauge Islip, North Babylon, Sachem, South Country, Southold, West Babylon, West Islip.