PARK SLOPE, Brooklyn (PIX11) -- It's been a requirement for graduation for most of New York State public school students for generations, but now, the Regents Exams are on course to be dropped from their mandatory status.
That was the result of an announcement made by the New York State Education Department on Monday, and now families from around the city's five boroughs, Long Island, the suburbs north of the city, and all across the state are trying to figure out what this change will mean for them.
It's not just a wide-ranging potential change. It would also be a massive break in tradition if it's adopted -- the first Regents Exam was administered in 1866.
Ilan Greenberg, a senior at Millennium Brooklyn High School, passed his Regents exams a couple of years ago, and said that the proposed change is welcome.
"It's a step in the right direction," he said while waiting to meet his dad in front of the Park Slope school, "because learning for the sake of educating is way more important than learning for passing a test."
Annissa Johnson, a teacher's aide at Millennium Brooklyn, both helps students prepare for the exams, and remembers taking them herself a few years back. She said that her experience shows that a change in the requirement would be helpful.
"[Students] don't have to be so stressed about what will be on the test," she said.
It was in response to concerns like that that a 64-member group of parents and educators, called the Blue Ribbon Commission, set up by the State Department of Education, considered in meetings over the course of the last 18 months. Their consultations with students, colleges, potential employers and others resulted in the new recommendations.
They were unveiled on Monday. Each of the main proposed changes is called a "transformative action."
The first instructs school districts across the state to establish what are called "portraits of a graduate." According to the commission, it means that each student statewide will have to demonstrate that they are "critical thinkers, innovative problem solvers, literate across all content areas, culturally competent, socially-emotionally competent, effective communicators, and global citizens," according to the state education department.
Other new, "transformative actions" include:
- class credits being based on proficiency in material, rather than by the amount of time spent on it
- Regents Exams no longer being required for graduation, although the exams will also still be available, as a tool to help assess proficiency
- reducing the number of available diplomas. Rather than the three diplomas available now, there will one one diploma only
Sheree Gibson is one of the members of the Blue Ribbon commission.
"This is not a dumb down of the system," she said in an interview. "In truth, if you look at it, it is raising the bar."
That's carried out, she and some other supporters say, because the "transformative actions" look at more than just the exams for graduation.
Considering wider factors is what 36 schools in the five boroughs, as well as two more upstate, already do. Those schools, called consortium public schools, include the P-tech- and other early college schools, as well as international, 6 - 12 grade, and career and technical education programs.
Kemala Karmen, a public education advocate, has had two children graduate from consortium public schools.
"Those schools have been able to produce students who attend and persist college," Karmen said in an interview, "at rates greater than their counterparts."
She said that both of her children have now gone on to rigorous college and master's degree programs.
Starting next month through October, the state education department will hold a series of meetings that it calls Blue Ribbon Commission “Ambassador Forums.”
Sheree Gibson, one of the commission members, said that she'll be in attendance. She's encouraging as many people as possible to also attend.
"Sign up, show up," she said. "Bring the kids, let them contribute."
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