New York State education bosses are considering ditching the Regents exam as a graduation requirement for high school students, leading to some education advocates accusing them of dumbing down standards.
The New York State Education Department on Monday presented the Board of Regents with the recommendations on graduation measures — which included giving students the option of taking the Regents exam to graduate.
Mona Davids of the NYC Parents Union said moving away from the Regents exam requirements to earn a diploma signifies an insulting lack of faith in the abilities of students of color.
“This is a continuation of the soft bigotry of low expectations from our black and Hispanic students,” said Davids, who was part of a 2014 lawsuit challenging New York’s tenure laws that shield ineffective teachers from losing their jobs.
“They don’t think our kids are smart enough to pass the Regents exams. They’re lowering the bar. It is racist to look down on our kids.
“It’s dodging accountability for educating our students. They don’t think our students are educable.”
A state education policy veteran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Post that New York was heading in the wrong direction, away from accountability for whether poor and mostly minority students are learning.
“How are we going to monitor success? How are parents going to know if students are learning if we move away from exams? This is going in the exact opposite direction,” said the source.
If implemented, the move would mark a significant shift in state education policy, which has required high schoolers to take and pass the Regents exams before earning their diplomas for more than a century.
The State Education Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures was convened in September 2022 to improve educational outcomes while ensuring New York’s students were being adequately prepared for the rigors of the modern workforce.
The commission’s recommendations would move the state education system away from a monolithic approach towards graduation requirements, instead acknowledging that every student is different and that their mastery of the knowledge and skills needed for success after high school can’t necessarily be measured by any one test.
“Every student has unique talents, skills, and interests, and a one-size-fits-all approach fails to recognize and nurture these differences,” said Commissioner Betty A. Rosa in a statement.
“We must remove barriers and facilitate equitable access to education by addressing the individual needs of students, increasing opportunities for work-based learning or college readiness programs, and providing students with practical skills and experiences that enhance their employability and post-secondary education opportunities.”
Under the commission’s proposed roadmap, students would still have the option of taking the Regents exam to graduate, but they could also be allowed to demonstrate their proficiency in different ways, such as various forms of “performance-based” assessments, like essay writing or developing portfolios of their work.
These assessments would be developed in partnership with teachers and ultimately approved by the state before implementation.
Among the commission’s recommendations was axing the current system which awards three different types of diplomas, predominantly based on how many exams students have passed. Instead, schools would offer a single diploma that could be burnished with endorsements or seals denoting students’ completion of additional coursework in various subjects.
The commission touted its recommendations as meeting the needs of more students and creating more opportunities for students with different learning styles to thrive.
However, the proposal for New York schools to shift emphasis away from Regents exams raises concerns about whether students will be receiving the same quality of education, or whether it’s merely an attempt to dilute graduation requirements.
Eric Nadelstern, former deputy schools chancellor during the Bloomberg administration who started the first portfolio school as principal of International High School at LaGuardia Community, told The Post that any alternatives to the Regents must be “rigorous.”
“It’s a waste of time if they’re simply eliminating the Regents requirements without having another way to measure student achievement,” he said. “You’re watering down the standards.”
But it could be a good thing if the alternative assessments are rigorous.”
Nadelstern said teachers would have to be properly trained to teach students about preparing portfolios and other proposed non-traditional ways of demonstrating their skills proficiency.
Yiatin Chu, a Brooklyn parent, and president of Asian Wave Alliance, an advocacy group that promotes merit-based systems in education, called the proposed changes “a step in the wrong direction.”
“They’re lowering the bar for students and lessening accountability for public schools.”
Chu said “subjective” portfolio projects are not the same as exit exams, pointing out that some projects may be rigorous, while others may not.
She also objected to condensing three Regents diplomas into one, saying what the state actually wants is to move away from acknowledging or providing distinction for “advanced achievement.”
“The Regents exams were never a high bar.”
She said more students, with lower diploma requirements, will end up having to pay for remedial costs out of their own pocket in college.
In addition to making Regents exams optional and replacing the three-diploma system, some of the dozen recommendations made by the commission include: