NEW YORK, NY — EdTrust-New York remains concerned about the roll out of NY Inspires and calls on the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and Board of Regents to pause the elimination of Regents exams as a graduation requirement until the state addresses key equity concerns and builds a credible statewide alternative for measuring college and career readiness.
New York should not tear down the measuring stick before it builds a better one.
We appreciate the updates provided at today’s Board of Regents meeting, but the state still has not explained how it will establish a clear, consistent, and equitable way to determine whether students have the skills they need to succeed after high school.
The data demand action to improve student outcomes, not less accountability. New York’s graduation rate reached 85% in 2025, but only 56% of students passed the Algebra 1 Regents Exam. On the 2024 NAEP, just 31% of New York eighth graders demonstrated reading proficiency. New PISA results released last week show U.S. 15-year-olds performing near their lowest levels in reading and math since 2000.
These numbers expose a serious disconnect: New York continues to graduate more students who lack the academic skills they need to succeed. Eliminating Regents exams and changing graduation requirements will not solve that problem.
Regents exams are not perfect, and New York should continue to improve how it measures student readiness. But the state should not respond to poor academic outcomes by weakening an objective statewide measure without first building a stronger replacement. State leaders must focus on ensuring that every student, including Black and Latinx students, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners, has the foundational skills and support they need to succeed in high school and beyond. We cannot make an opportunity gap disappear simply by changing how we measure it.
NYSED also has not given schools enough clarity or support to implement NY Inspires. As the school year begins, schools still do not know how they will measure proficiency in core subjects for current high school students, even though the proposed changes will affect students currently in grades 9-11 in less than a year.
Before changing graduation requirements, NYSED must give schools clear expectations, reliable measures, common rubrics, statewide calibration, professional learning, and the resources educators need to implement the new system consistently and equitably.
Other states offer important lessons. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont pursued competency-based graduation reforms but later scaled back or reconsidered elements of those systems amid concerns about inconsistent definitions of proficiency, equity, educator capacity, and training.
New York should learn from those experiences, not repeat them at the expense of students.
New York can and should rethink how it measures readiness. But state leaders must build a credible, transparent, and equitable alternative before eliminating the existing statewide standard that has guided graduation for generations.
NYSED should pause the decoupling of Regents exams from graduation requirements, address the key concerns surrounding NY Inspires, strengthen the K-12 system, and ensure that schools, students, and parents are prepared before changing the rules.
Our students deserve a diploma that demonstrates they are prepared for what comes next. EdTrust-New York looks forward to working with stakeholders across the state to address this critical issue.
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About EdTrust-New York:
EdTrust-New York is dedicated to eliminating equity and opportunity gaps that hinder students from reaching their full potential. We focus on ensuring that all students, especially Black, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander students and those from low-income backgrounds achieve high levels of success from early childhood through college. For more information, visit EdTrustNY.org.