Ask almost any New York high schooler about Regents exams, and you’ll probably get a less-than- enthusiastic response. However, new policies could mean that these state-required tests will soon become an anxiety of the past.
The first New York State Regents Examinations were administered in 1865 to eighth grade students. It wasn’t until 1878 that high schoolers began taking them, and from then until the late 1900s, different subjects and versions of the tests were administered as high school curriculums changed.
Over the years, examinations in art, Latin, and agriculture among others circulated through the subjects that were offered, but many were discontinued. In 1979, the Regents Competency Tests (RCTs) were introduced that allowed students to take tests that assessed their basic proficiency in the areas of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies to earn a “local” high school diploma as opposed to the Regents diploma. RCTs stopped being administered in the summer of 2018 and since then there have only been minor changes made to the Regents that we take today.
In November of 2024, state officials released a timeline for a proposed plan that would mean that New York students would no longer be required to pass Regents exams to earn a diploma starting in the fall of 2027. It’s been two years since this information was first unveiled, but the details since then have been vague.
We talked to Principal Perez-Katz, who is a part of a fellowship called “New, Now, Next” that is working on the proposed Portrait of a Graduate, a new standard that would be phased in to measure students’ academic progress and character building through projects, internships, and more. (Under the proposal, students could demonstrate skills through presentations, long-term projects, work-based learning experiences and other alternatives to standardized testing.) Perez-Katz is optimistic about this new standard and how it could look for Baruch.
“New York State is one of the only states in the country that still has exams as a graduation requirement, so it’s a pretty antiquated system,” Perez-Katz said. “Because there’s so many schools in New York City, one school can’t do all the things, and so if there’s some flexibility in helping schools identify what they do well, [The Portrait of a Graduate] can really, at its best, provide different pathways for students to demonstrate proficiency.”
Ms. Perez-Katz’s comments highlight one of the major arguments behind the proposed changes: allowing schools to offer more individualized ways for students to prove their understanding beyond standardized testing.
However, Ms. Perez-Katz brought up the question that we are all wondering: are the Regents Examinations really ending? Perez-Katz doesn’t think so. “The misunderstanding that’s going around is that the Regents are going away,” she said. “My understanding is that they’re not going away. There will only be one diploma, so that is being phased in. It’s just going to be a Regents diploma.”
There are mixed reactions to the changing of graduation requirements in New York, and as the state sorts out the future of Regents and other plans, these feelings will continue to evolve. As of right now, New York state is saying that the Portrait of a Graduate will be phased in starting in the fall of 2027 for freshmen in high school. At Baruch, we may see the effects soon.
Whether the Regents examinations disappear completely or are defined by a new meaning, the graduation requirements that have shaped generations of New York students will certainly look distinctly different for years to come.
