{"id":158395,"date":"2026-03-09T20:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/158395\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:49:07","slug":"nyc-2025-grad-rates-dip-with-steeper-drops-for-students-with-disabilities-and-english-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/158395\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC 2025 grad rates dip, with steeper drops for students with disabilities and English learners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Graduation rates dipped last year across New York City by just over 2 percentage points to 81.2% \u2014 the largest year-over-year decline in more than two decades \u2014 as officials have reinstated requirements that were loosened during the pandemic. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the graduation rate across the state fell by just under 1 percentage point to 85.5%.<\/p>\n

The drops in students graduating on time were most pronounced for some of the city\u2019s most vulnerable children. Just 59% of students with disabilities graduated in four years, a drop of 5.5 percentage points. Nearly 52% of English language learners graduated in four years, down by about 3 percentage points. <\/p>\n

The data, which state officials posted quietly online without the customary public announcement or press briefing, reveals the graduation rates for the Class of 2025. Those students began ninth grade in September 2021, the first time all students were required to attend school<\/a> in person after the pandemic hit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey entered high school in a weird place,\u201d said Sarah Part, a senior policy analyst at Advocates for Children, a group that provides support and legal help to low-income families. \u201cIt is possible that some students started ninth grade not as prepared as they otherwise would have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the city and state\u2019s overall graduation rate remains higher than before the pandemic<\/a>, when about 77% of city students graduated in four years and 83% of students statewide did. <\/p>\n

City officials contend that last year\u2019s dip was largely driven by resuming graduation standards that had been relaxed during the pandemic<\/a> to account for disruptions to instruction. Some students received waivers from Regents exams or were allowed to appeal low scores.<\/p>\n

Nearly 14% of city students relied on a Regents exam waiver to graduate in the Class of 2025, down from a whopping 53% in the Class of 2024, city officials said. (Nearly 53% of students successfully appealed low scores, a similar number as the year before.)<\/p>\n

It is difficult to determine to what extent the graduation policy changes have affected the graduation rate because some students may have still graduated even without the more lenient standards. <\/p>\n

Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University\u2019s Teachers College who has studied school performance, said it is possible the policy shifts are having a meaningful effect but it\u2019s important to look at longer-term trends. \u201cMy perennial claim is don\u2019t make too much of a one-year change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pallas said other factors could be playing a role. Rates of chronic absenteeism remain elevated<\/a>, for instance, likely affecting students\u2019 academic performance.<\/p>\n

Grad rates drop significantly for students with disabilities and English learners<\/p>\n

Andrew Wilder, an English as a second language teacher at Brooklyn\u2019s Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, said he was unsurprised that graduation rates for English learners dropped after soaring during the pandemic. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that students did not have to pass the English Regents \u2014 that led to a pretty substantial bump in the graduation rate,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an English language test more than it is a test of a student\u2019s high school ability.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even accounting for this year\u2019s decline, however, graduation rates for that group are up about 11 percentage points since the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n

Yet, dropout rates for English learners spiked to 18%, up 4 percentage points, city data show. <\/p>\n

The city\u2019s overall dropout rate increased slightly to 5.2%. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

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One group that bucked the trend: The dropout rate for students with disabilities fell slightly, to 6.7%. That could suggest some students who remain in school but didn\u2019t graduate on time will still eventually earn a diploma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible students are just needing a little bit more time in high school,\u201d said Part, from Advocates for Children.<\/p>\n

The data reveal continued disparities in graduation rates between different racial groups. Nearly 92% of Asian American students graduated on time along with 87% of white students. About 77% of Black and Latino students graduated in four years. (Every racial group saw a decline.)<\/p>\n

Education Department spokesperson Isla Gething wrote in a statement that the city remains \u201ccommitted to high-quality instruction and strengthening targeted supports so that every student, especially students with disabilities and English language learners, has equitable access to rigorous instruction and clear pathways to graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phasing out Regents offers opportunity to rethink graduation standards<\/p>\n

The graduation rate fluctuations during and after the pandemic could hold important lessons for policymakers as they rethink what it should take to earn a diploma<\/a>. <\/p>\n

State officials are in the process of phasing out Regents exams<\/a> \u2014 which have been in place since the mid-1800s<\/a> \u2014 as a graduation requirement. Instead, New York students will need to meet a broader set of criteria demonstrating critical thinking, communication, and other skills known as the \u201cportrait of a graduate.\u201d State officials, however, have not unveiled the specific graduation standards students will be required to meet in the coming years. <\/p>\n

Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, the executive director of EdTrust-New York, said the fluctuations for students with disabilities and English learners should prompt a broader conversation about how state officials can set appropriate standards for different groups. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a \u201creal opportunity to think about these two subgroups particularly, because this data really shows us how much they\u2019re impacted by whatever the graduation measures are,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving a disability shouldn\u2019t be a reason that you are not able to graduate from high school.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, she noted that officials must be careful to ensure that graduation standards remain rigorous and signify that students are ready for life after high school, including college or the workforce.<\/p>\n

Wilder, the English as a second language teacher, was eager for more details and looks forward to spending less time teaching to the Regents exam. The test, he said, is often too far above his students\u2019 level of English proficiency to be a useful measure of their learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come to believe that their inability to pass the English Regents is somehow a function of them as a student,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[36082,44771,9,24,55,54,56,1232,8568,37403],"class_list":["post-158395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-boy","tag-graduation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-people","tag-person","tag-young-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}