EdVANTAGE Blog

The State Board of regents meets in Albany next week and will continue discussions of issues concerning graduation rates.

Several of the issues the Regents will consider only indirectly affect students.  For example, for purposes of federal school accountability system requirements, the Regents will consider whether to give districts some credit for students who take more than four years to earn a high school diploma and how demanding do the the regents want to make graduation rate goals?

There is one issue to be discussed which does directly affect students.  A background paper prepared for the discussion asks, “Do the Regents wish to continue to implement the phase-out of the local diploma option for general education students?”

In 2005, the Regents adopted regulations to phase-out the “local diploma” option for high school graduates, requiring students entering 9th grade in 2008 to earn 22 credits and pass Regents exams in five subjects with scores of 65 or better.

During the phase-in period, students were permitted to pass declining numbers of the required Regents exams with scores of 55 or better.  This phase-in mechanism originated in a meeting between then Commissioner Richard Mills and the Council’s advisory group of superintendents.

Education Department data suggests that thousands of students will not be able to meet graduation requirements without the local diploma option.

For example, among students who entered 9th grade in 2004, over 19,000 general education students who graduated within four years received a local diploma.  The Department also reports that 41 percent of these diploma recipients passed one Regents exam with a score between 55 and 64; 25 percent passsed two exams with scores between 55 and 64, and 13 percent passed three exams with scores in the 55-64 range.

Reliance on the local diploma option was greatest in the Big 5 cities.

The Council has not discussed whether to take a position on extending a local diploma option.