Regents to lay out timetable for changes to high school graduation requirements
Changes in high school graduation requirements with be a topic Monday when the Board of Regents meets at the state Education Department building in Albany. Credit: Hans Pennink
State school officials in Albany on Monday are due to lay out their timetable for what could be the biggest shift in high school graduation requirements in more than a century.
Essentially, the changes would give students options. Either they could qualify for diplomas by passing traditional Regents exams, or they could do so through alternatives such as earning an occupational certificate or volunteering for public service.
The report is to be presented at a monthly meeting of the state's Board of Regents.
Currently, the state requires that a great majority of students pass at least four exams — in English, math, history and the sciences — in order to graduate. Such exams, in one form or another, have been administered since 1865. That requirement would be dropped under the new plan, and passing exams would become optional.
By all accounts, the state’s ambitious undertaking will not be completed anytime soon.
On Long Island, the question of timing came up at an Oct. 25 conference of a regional social studies council. Some teachers and administrators wanted to know when effects of change might be felt in their own classrooms. Many also expressed worry that instruction in history and government would get short shrift if the state drops exam requirements in those subjects.
Angelique Johnson-Dingle, a deputy state education commissioner who was fielding questions at the conference, tried to assure local educators that no major changes in testing and graduation requirements would be thrust onto their schools abruptly and without adequate preparation.
“It is not this year. It is not next year. This I can promise you,” said Johnson-Dingle, who formerly worked as a regional BOCES superintendent in western Suffolk County.
The issue of high school exams, and whether students who fail them should be denied diplomas, is a topic of growing dispute, and not only in this state. In Massachusetts, a state widely regarded as having the nation’s highest-achieving public schools, a proposition to drop required testing for graduation has been placed on Tuesday’s election ballots.
In New York, the ultimate decision on whether to revamp graduation policy will be up to the Regents, a 17-member policymaking panel that already has authorized preliminary work on the initiative. The complexity of the task is illustrated by a pilot project launched in May with the goal of trying out various ways of measuring student achievement through hands-on performance, rather than standardized tests.
In all, 23 schools and BOCES centers are involved in the project, three of them on Long Island. Teachers at chosen schools will be trained in new instructional techniques, while students will be encouraged to participate in job internships, research and other practical learning experiences, according to state education officials overseeing the project. Results will be reported back to Albany starting in the fall of 2027 to help in setting new performance expectations, known as rubrics.
Participating schools and their districts on Long Island are Baldwin High School and Brentwood High School, which are in districts of the same name, and Robert Moses Middle School in the North Babylon district.
Roger Tilles, of Manhasset, who represents the Island on the Regents board, acknowledged in a phone interview that revamping graduation standards is a time-consuming process but added that it's necessary to bring about lasting change. Tilles is now in his 20th year on the board and has promoted the idea of broadening graduation opportunities for students for the better part of a decade.
“Education reform is like moving a steamship in the ocean 180 degrees,” Tilles said. “It takes a long time for it to turn. Well, changing graduation requirements, for me, is a major movement. I hesitate to say it’s education reform, because education reform never gets done. But this is going to get done.”
The proposed revamp has won widespread support, including endorsement by New York State United Teachers, a statewide union umbrella group with more than 600,000 members. Still, many individual educators and others remain skeptical that the state can accurately measure student knowledge and achievement in a uniform way, when responsibility for interpreting measurement standards is left largely to hundreds of individual school districts.
Many have messaged Newsday to express their concerns.
“Regents exams have long been established as being both valid and reliable,” Joseph Darrigo, of Miller Place, a retiree who spent 34 years as a high school teacher and administrator, said in an email. “Until projects, research papers, portfolios and the like — and I don’t disparage their value — can be proven to be equal to Regents exams as effective measurements of the basic concepts, facts and skills we want all students to know, then I urge caution before we let the former replace the latter.”
State school officials in Albany on Monday are due to lay out their timetable for what could be the biggest shift in high school graduation requirements in more than a century.
Essentially, the changes would give students options. Either they could qualify for diplomas by passing traditional Regents exams, or they could do so through alternatives such as earning an occupational certificate or volunteering for public service.
The report is to be presented at a monthly meeting of the state's Board of Regents.
Currently, the state requires that a great majority of students pass at least four exams — in English, math, history and the sciences — in order to graduate. Such exams, in one form or another, have been administered since 1865. That requirement would be dropped under the new plan, and passing exams would become optional.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- State school officials on Monday are due to lay out their timetable for what could be the biggest shift in high school graduation requirements in more than a century.
- Currently, the state requires that a great majority of students pass at least four exams — in English, math, history and the sciences — in order to graduate. That requirement would be dropped under the new plan.
- Revamping the standards will be a time-consuming process, said Roger Tilles, who represents Long Island on the Regents board. "But this is going to get done,” he said.
By all accounts, the state’s ambitious undertaking will not be completed anytime soon.
On Long Island, the question of timing came up at an Oct. 25 conference of a regional social studies council. Some teachers and administrators wanted to know when effects of change might be felt in their own classrooms. Many also expressed worry that instruction in history and government would get short shrift if the state drops exam requirements in those subjects.
Angelique Johnson-Dingle, a deputy state education commissioner who was fielding questions at the conference, tried to assure local educators that no major changes in testing and graduation requirements would be thrust onto their schools abruptly and without adequate preparation.
“It is not this year. It is not next year. This I can promise you,” said Johnson-Dingle, who formerly worked as a regional BOCES superintendent in western Suffolk County.
Deputy State Education Commissioner Angelique Johnson-Dingle at the conference on Long Island last month.
Credit: Dawn McCormick
Scrutiny elsewhere for required testing
The issue of high school exams, and whether students who fail them should be denied diplomas, is a topic of growing dispute, and not only in this state. In Massachusetts, a state widely regarded as having the nation’s highest-achieving public schools, a proposition to drop required testing for graduation has been placed on Tuesday’s election ballots.
In New York, the ultimate decision on whether to revamp graduation policy will be up to the Regents, a 17-member policymaking panel that already has authorized preliminary work on the initiative. The complexity of the task is illustrated by a pilot project launched in May with the goal of trying out various ways of measuring student achievement through hands-on performance, rather than standardized tests.
In all, 23 schools and BOCES centers are involved in the project, three of them on Long Island. Teachers at chosen schools will be trained in new instructional techniques, while students will be encouraged to participate in job internships, research and other practical learning experiences, according to state education officials overseeing the project. Results will be reported back to Albany starting in the fall of 2027 to help in setting new performance expectations, known as rubrics.
Participating schools and their districts on Long Island are Baldwin High School and Brentwood High School, which are in districts of the same name, and Robert Moses Middle School in the North Babylon district.
Board of Regents member Roger Tilles, seen last year. "I hesitate to say it’s education reform, because education reform never gets done. But this is going to get done," he said. Credit: Morgan Campbell
'Like moving a steamship'
Roger Tilles, of Manhasset, who represents the Island on the Regents board, acknowledged in a phone interview that revamping graduation standards is a time-consuming process but added that it's necessary to bring about lasting change. Tilles is now in his 20th year on the board and has promoted the idea of broadening graduation opportunities for students for the better part of a decade.
“Education reform is like moving a steamship in the ocean 180 degrees,” Tilles said. “It takes a long time for it to turn. Well, changing graduation requirements, for me, is a major movement. I hesitate to say it’s education reform, because education reform never gets done. But this is going to get done.”
The proposed revamp has won widespread support, including endorsement by New York State United Teachers, a statewide union umbrella group with more than 600,000 members. Still, many individual educators and others remain skeptical that the state can accurately measure student knowledge and achievement in a uniform way, when responsibility for interpreting measurement standards is left largely to hundreds of individual school districts.
Many have messaged Newsday to express their concerns.
“Regents exams have long been established as being both valid and reliable,” Joseph Darrigo, of Miller Place, a retiree who spent 34 years as a high school teacher and administrator, said in an email. “Until projects, research papers, portfolios and the like — and I don’t disparage their value — can be proven to be equal to Regents exams as effective measurements of the basic concepts, facts and skills we want all students to know, then I urge caution before we let the former replace the latter.”
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
