New York Removing Regents Exam as Requirement for High School Graduation
“The Board of Regents directed the state Department of Education to make all Regents exams optional and to develop alternative graduation requirements.”
They’re doing this just as California is realizing what a mistake it was to stop standardized tests.
The New York Post reports:
NY scraps high school Regents exam graduation requirement starting in 2028
New York’s education policy-making board passed a resolution Monday phasing out the requirement that students pass a series of Regents exams to earn a high school diploma.
Current 12th graders will be the last graduating class required to pass at least four Regents exams in math, English, science and Global Studies.
Students on track to graduate in 2028 will no longer be required to pass the exams to finish high school, but they will still take them.
The Board of Regents directed the state Department of Education to make all Regents exams optional and to develop alternative graduation requirements.
The new requirements could include portfolios, which focus on long-term projects, problem solving and critical thinking instead of mostly multiple choice tests.
Education officials are calling the new graduation requirements “NY Inspires”.
“NY Inspires is fundamentally about strengthening teaching and learning and creating deeper, more meaningful educational experiences for every student. By maintaining rigorous standards while giving students more opportunities to apply their knowledge, think critically, solve problems, and demonstrate what they know and can do, we are better preparing them for college, careers, civic life, and the future,” said state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa.
“These transformations will give educators greater opportunities to engage students in high-quality learning while providing a more complete picture of student growth and achievement.”
This is an embarrassment.
The Regents is basically a remedial knowledge exam. At competitive high schools in NYC, having a Regents was always the best, because it meant you didn't have to study for a real final.
If you can't pass a Regents, you're not ready to move on. https://t.co/hfPlbNphuZ
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) September 14, 2026
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Comments
It’s only fair for those suffering from the legacy of slavery blah blah.
“They’re ready to move on if we say they are!
Now they’re someone else’s problem!”
It’s hard to believe the education system of New York State could fall apart like this.
Not for me, along with the communist regions known as MN, WA, OR, MA, IL, VA, and ME
If you hate your kids, send them to public schools. All the $$$ we put into private k-12 has come back as a full-ride NSF pre-doctoral fellowship at Rice.
She’s just doing what the governor of Oregon did last year. Too many kids were flunking the exams for graduation, and it was becoming a political liability. But educating the students better takes work and opposing the powerful teachers’ union, and would probably offend the DEI advocates because of lack of “equity.”
So what’s the easiest thing to do? Drop the exam. Problem solved, and the public won’t know how many students they are graduating who can’t read, write, or do arithmetic.