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For generations of New York high schoolers, graduation has come with one last obstacle: passing the Regents exams. Forget the homework, projects and years spent in class; a few hours in an exam room could still stand between you and your diploma. But that is set to change.
On Monday, the New York State Board of Regents authorized education officials to move ahead with a plan to end the requirement that students pass a prescribed set of Regents exams to graduate, per The New York Times. This year’s seniors are expected to be the last class bound by the current rule. Beginning with students graduating in 2028, a diploma would no longer hinge on those passing scores.
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But before your kids toss their exam prep books into the East River, there’s a distinction: Regents exams aren’t going away. Students will still take statewide assessments so officials can measure how well schools are teaching core subjects, but the exam result will no longer decide whether a student gets a high school diploma.
The state wants schools to draw on a wider range of evidence to show what students know. That could include classroom work, teacher observations and projects that ask students to apply their skills outside a multiple-choice test. What those alternatives will look like in New York City classrooms, though, remains to be worked out.
The overhaul would also replace New York’s three current diploma categories—local, Regents and Regents with Advanced Designation—with a single state diploma. Students who want their achievements recognized could still earn seals or endorsements.
State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa argued at Monday’s meeting that the change would give schools more room to teach than to drill for a test. “For years, we looked at what elite private schools provide for their students and they do not worry about the Regents exam,” she said, according to the New York Daily News.
Real questions remain behind the welcome news for test-weary teenagers. If schools design their own ways to assess students, how will the state make sure a diploma means the same thing across districts? Education advocacy group EdTrust-New York has urged officials to slow down until they can answer that. State officials have acknowledged that key details remain unresolved.
Monday’s vote gave the Education Department the go-ahead to draft the rules; it did not finalize them. Officials expect to present proposed regulations in February, with a final Board of Regents vote anticipated in June. If that timetable holds, the new rules would take effect in the 2027–28 school year.