The New York State Education Department is laying out how it plans to phase out the Regents exam requirement for a high school diploma, a change set to begin with the class of 2028 that leaves parents and school districts with questions about how it will unfold.<\/p>\n
The Board of Regents authorized the department to move ahead with a plan that consolidates the state’s local, Regents and Regents with Advanced Designation diplomas into a single state diploma, removing the exam-based gate that has determined graduation for decades.<\/p>\n
Department officials say the change responds to feedback from employers and colleges about how prepared graduates are for what comes next.<\/p>\n
“We’re increasingly seeing, and we’re hearing from the business community and from higher education, that students are not as prepared as they should be for post-secondary,” said Ceylane Myers-Ruff, senior deputy commissioner at the state Education Department.<\/p>\n
That rationale lines up with what parent groups, including the New York State Parent Teacher Association, have long argued.<\/p>\n
“Standardized assessments are perhaps a good measure of success and learning, but it is not the only way to measure success and learning in school,” said Susan Fisher, a representative of the association.<\/p>\n
Fisher said her group’s support hinges on how well the department communicates the rollout to families.<\/p>\n
“I really am hopeful that the New York State Department of Education and Board of Regents will be communicative with parents and school districts,” she said.<\/p>\n
Myers-Ruff said that communication is coming, but in stages rather than all at once.<\/p>\n
“There will be an entire rollout plan so that by the time we get to next year, the 2027-28 school year, there will be a lot more clarity about how NY Inspires and how the various transformations are being implemented,” she said.<\/p>\n
The department said it is starting by revisiting academic standards before turning to how students will be tested going forward.<\/p>\n
“We’re prioritizing what do students really need to focus on,” Myers-Ruff said. “Once we’re clear on the standards, then we can begin to talk about the assessments that are necessary, because they are not going to go away \u2014 it’s just that you don’t have that one Regents exam that’s the doorkeeper for if you can graduate.”<\/p>\n
Department officials said that New York’s education system already ranks among the strongest nationally, but said access to quality instruction still varies by region.<\/p>\n
“New York definitely has a great educational system. However, it’s not always equitable,” Myers-Ruff said. “We want to make sure that whether you live in a small city, a rural community or an urban center, students should have the same access to quality experiences.”<\/p>\n
As the department finalizes its rollout plan, the School Counselor Association is urging families to talk with their school counselors, who officials say will help map out what the changes mean for individual students.<\/p>\n
The department said it understands families’ apprehension but is asking New Yorkers to embrace a change officials say will ultimately benefit students statewide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York State Education Department is laying out how it plans to phase out the Regents exam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67,9,11,10,49,51,50,55619,87,200],"class_list":["post-347796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-education","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-noah-love","tag-politics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347796","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=347796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}