Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 24
New York State’s Education Department shared its official plan to sunset the Regents exams, the make-or-break tests required for a high school diploma.
Under the new plan presented at Monday’s Board of Regents meeting, students would no longer need to pass the three-hour Regents exams to graduate. Regents would instead be offered to students who want to “demonstrate their proficiency in meeting the State’s learning standards.”
New York students must earn 22 credits and pass at least four Regents exams for a Regents diploma. Students must pass at least seven state exams for the advanced diploma designation, seen as giving a boost to their college applications. The exams were first given in high school in 1878, and now, New York is in the minority of states that require exit exams to graduate from high school.
Efforts to nix the current state-level examination requirements were led by now-NYSED Commissioner Betty Rosa, who had argued that graduation rates remain stubbornly tied to by race, poverty and special needs.
The plan presented Monday is the state department’s “vision to implement the [commission’s] recommendations,” which “are intended to ensure that all New York State public school students receive the educational opportunities and supports they will need to succeed in school and beyond.”
Along with removing the Regents exams requirement, the NYSED proposed to adopt a “Portrait of a Graduate,” meaning students must demonstrate that they are “critical thinkers,” “culturally competent” and”global citizens” – among other proficiencies – to graduate.
The department also recommended redefining its credit system to align with this “Portrait” and moving to a system with only one diploma available to all public school graduates.
Critics of changing requirements worry that getting rid of the Regents could share the wrong message.
Source: Fox5 NY
