It was the fall of 2019 and the NYS Education Department was holding regional meetings across the state to discuss “Graduation Measures,” I defined as “the beginning of the end of Regents Examinations.” The Brooklyn meeting was held at Fort Hamilton High School, overlooking the harbor near the Verrazano Bridge, a lovely setting. We were assigned to tables, at mine a high superintendent, a few parents and a teacher and asked to discuss a few softball questions, I steered our discussion to keeping or eliminating the Regents. The superintendent wanted to keep the regents, the parents and the teacher: uncertain
A few months later everything ground to a halt, COVID, a year later a blue ribbon commission selected, monthly meetings not live-streamed, a report, more meetings across the state and eventually the approval of sweeping changes in graduation requirements without implementation details.
A little history:
For decades New York State had a dual diploma: the regents diploma and the local diploma. The regents examinations were inaugurated in 1878 and changed many times over the decades.
In the mid nineties about 75% of students earned the local diploma and 25% the regents diploma. The business community complained, too many students graduated high school with limited literacy and numeracy skills and after a few years of debate the State took a dramatic step: phasing in a single Regents Diploma.
The regents examination passing grade was reduced from 65 to 55 and each year students were required to pass an additional exam with a grade of 65, the State extended the requirement year after year as well as other changes. The English Regents was reduced from a two day exam to one day, the Global Studies from covering 9th and 10th to only 10th grade, and superintendents were given “discretion” to give credit for regents passage. See current requirements here.
The current changes the State is phasing in are wide sweeping and dramatic. Watch the Commissioner here. See full text here and a summary below,
Key Proposed Changes
- End of Mandatory Regents Exams: Passing Regents exams is being decoupled from graduation requirements. They will remain an optional tool but won’t be required to earn a diploma.
- Competency-Based Assessment: Students will demonstrate learning and academic readiness through multiple measures at the local level. This includes projects, capstone presentations, portfolios, internships, and coursework.
- Transition to “One Diploma”: The current three-tiered system (Local, Regents, and Advanced Regents diplomas) is slated to be phased out in favor of a single, unified New York State High School Diploma.
- Credit Redefinition: The state is looking to move away from rigid “seat time” or traditional credit hours to focus more broadly on student proficiency and real-world competencies.
Implementation Timeline
- Fall 2027: The department plans to transition to the single diploma framework, applying to students graduating in January 2028 and beyond.
- Fall 2029: The newly overhauled credit requirements and fully updated graduation measures will take effect for students entering 9th grade.
At the core of the changes is the Portrait of a Graduate, already adopted by seventeen states
The NYSED has granted waivers to a cohort of schools to use performance-based assessments in lieu of regents for many years, Watch Ann Cook, the Director of the Consortium explain the process here.
The 38 public high schools in the Consortium serve over 12,000 students who reflect the diversity of the NY public school system. Consortium member schools have a waiver that allows them to graduate students using our performance assessment system in place of most Regents exams. This allows Consortium schools to implement innovative curriculum and assessments across disciplines.
See the current 2025 NYS graduation data:
All students: 86%
White students: 91%
Black students: 80%
Hispanic students: 79%
NYC: 81%
I’ve been asking for A Portrait of a Non-Graduate, to no avail. I suspect: chronic absenteeism, failure of courses, high poverty risk load factors, discipline issues and the failure of local school districts to implement targeted and ongoing assistance in early grades.
How will the new Graduation Measures impact graduation rates? TBD
New York State has 700 school districts, the “big five,” NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers with very wide variations in per student spending due to huge disparity in local property taxes. A report by Education Trust reports,
A new analysis by EdTrust found that New York State has one of the most inequitable school funding systems in the nation, with districts serving large proportions of low-income students and students of color having on average fewer resources than other districts.
The state ranked third from the bottom when looking at the difference in per-pupil revenue between school districts that serve the most and fewest low-income students.
The new graduation requirements fail to acknowledge the funding deficits, and resultant current impediments to high school graduation.
While the state has listed a range of assessment tools, details have yet to be published.
The entering class of 2027 will not be required to pass regents and the full implementation by 2029.
Try your hand at the January, 2026 Global Studies and Geography Regents Exam
https://www.nysedregents.org/ghg2/126/glhg2-12026-exam.pdf
What are the graduation requirements in other nations, for example China, France, Finland?
Wait for Part 2, coming soon
Listen to Leonard Cohen, Teachers
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 