The Children’s Agenda fully supports the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) proposal to no longer require high-stakes exit examinations to graduate high school. As an issue brief released by Advocates For Children last year shows, the current requirement to pass multiple Regents exams to earn a diploma are neither equitable nor based in research: 

• There is no evidence that exit exams increase student achievement, raise the value of a high school diploma in the labor market, or convey other benefits to students who pass them. As NYSED’s own literature review noted, high-stakes exit exams are “not positively associated with any college or career outcomes” and have been found to increase high school dropout rates. 

• Rather than an impartial measure of student learning, standardized tests are an unreliable gauge of graduation-readiness. Research has found that factors as arbitrary as the weather can significantly affect a student’s performance on a Regents exam. 

• While exit exam requirements were once popular across the country, many states have reversed course in recent years, leaving New York as one of just nine states that maintains such a policy 

Students must graduate high school with the skills necessary to be successful in college or a professional setting. The research is clear that exposure to a varied and challenging curriculum is the best way to prepare students academically. High-stakes tests by themselves do not impact the quality or depth of coursework. What research has shown is that many students with disabilities and students learning English as a second language struggle on standardized tests for reasons other than content knowledge. Removing the barrier of high-stakes testing allows students multiple pathways to demonstrate their content knowledge and earn a diploma.  

The Children’s Agenda will continue to advocate with the New York State Education Department and Board of Regents to adopt and implement these recommendations in an equitable and expedient way. All children in New York state should have the opportunity to thrive in school, and no single test should be the barrier that prevents them from achieving their dreams.