Graduation Measures

All students deserve to graduate from high school with a meaningful diploma that reflects their readiness for the future. But too many young people — disproportionately Black, Latinx, and Native American students, and students from low-income backgrounds — are graduating without the foundational skills necessary for future success. Thus, students may be required to take remedial coursework upon entering college — classes that often lead to increased debt and lower completion rates.

Graduation measures — the requirements students must meet to graduate from a New York State public high school — must prepare students for success in college and the workforce.

Our Equity-Centered Approach

As the New York State Education Department (NYSED) continues to review and rethink graduation measures through the Blue Ribbon Commission, we champion recommendations and policies that strengthen accountability measures alongside our partners from the New York Equity Coalition. 

We support additional flexibility for students to demonstrate proficiency, particularly for students with disabilities and multilingual students. At the same time, we raise the alarm to ensure that school districts that under-educate students of color, particularly Black, Latinx, and Native American students, and those from low-income backgrounds, do not use graduate measures that advance students to higher education and the workforce without preparing them for success.

Latest Resource

Shared Statement on New York State Graduation Requirements

As the New York State Education Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures begins to draft recommendations to reconsider the state’s graduation requirements, the New York Equity Coalition released a unified statement raising concerns about a shift from objective measures like the Regents exams to more subjective performance-based learning assessments.

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Featured Reports and Resources Over the Years

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Statement: Graduation Data for the Class of 2023

The data released by NYSED lacks transparency in terms of how many students graduated with exemptions or other changes made to the graduation requirements during the pandemic. The lack of this type of disaggregated information in this release raises more questions than it answers.

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Brief: What’s Behind the State’s Improved Graduation Rates?

Our brief explores graduation rates from 2018-2021 and the use of Regents exemptions, deep dives into an analysis of the class of 2021’s graduation rates, and outlines a historical pattern of regulatory changes that began even before the pandemic.

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Statement: Changing High School Graduation Requirements

While we support the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) move to expand diploma pathways for students, our primary concern is that the proposed changes to graduation requirements will lead to varying standards of rigor across districts.

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Opinion: How New York’s Bid to Reduce Graduation Requirements Could Backfire

A proposal to exempt some students from the rigorous Board of Regents exams could end up promoting greater inequity. The proposed timeline and implementation plan present a crucial opportunity to confront and resolve the equity concerns surrounding graduation reforms. EdTrust-New York's executive director, Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, takes a deep dive into this critical issue in an op-ed in *The 74*.

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Data Snapshot

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of New York State 2021 graduating class students utilized at least one Regents exam exemption to graduate.

*New York Equity Coalition Report, 2022

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of eighth graders were proficient in math, yet New York's graduation rate was 87% in 2021-22.

*New York Equity Coalition Statement, 2023

More Resources