New York’s education policy-making board passed a resolution Monday phasing out the requirement that students pass a series of Regents exams to earn a high school diploma.
Current 12th graders will be the last graduating class required to pass at least four Regents exams in math, English, science and Global Studies.
Students on track to graduate in 2028 will no longer be required to pass the exams to finish high school, but they will still take them.
The Board of Regents directed the state Department of Education to make all Regents exams optional and to develop alternative graduation requirements.
The new requirements could include portfolios, which focus on long-term projects, problem solving and critical thinking instead of mostly multiple choice tests.
Education officials are calling the new graduation requirements “NY Inspires”.
“NY Inspires is fundamentally about strengthening teaching and learning and creating deeper, more meaningful educational experiences for every student. By maintaining rigorous standards while giving students more opportunities to apply their knowledge, think critically, solve problems, and demonstrate what they know and can do, we are better preparing them for college, careers, civic life, and the future,” said state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa.
“These transformations will give educators greater opportunities to engage students in high-quality learning while providing a more complete picture of student growth and achievement.”
Even backers of rigorous standards such as senior fellow Ray Domanico of the Manhattan Institute said the Regents exams in recent decades were a bust, dumbed down to maintain or bolster graduation rates.
“The results were not meaningful. There was exam `scrubbing’, cheating,” Domanico, the veteran education researcher, told The Post..
The big question is what diploma requirement the Education Department will propose to replace the Regents exams.
“There has to be a meaningful way to determine if students are meeting expectations. They have to come out of high school prepared,” Domanico said.
