Dinowitz seeks clarification on transition for current juniors
Dinowitz asks whether a current junior will still need to take Regents exams next year. Katie Hansen says students must still earn 44 credits but there will not be a separate assessment system for graduation, and DOE is telling principals not to let students skip Regents yet.
I just have two questions, and I'll turn it over to Council Member Wong, just about, can you clarify the timeline?
Students, I'm a junior now, pretend I'm in high school.
I'm a 21 Jump Street going into...
No one gets the reference.
The old people do, and this one young person does.
You're old enough for me.
But Google it.
I was going to say, it's a younger reference for me, but go ahead.
But I'll pretend I'm a junior, the oldest looking junior in high school you'll ever meet.
Next year, the portrait is being implemented.
I took all these regents.
Do I still get to graduate high school, or do I now have to start doing capstone projects and portfolios?
No, there's, we're not expected next year to stand up a sort of a one-for-one replacement for the regions exams.
Our understanding, and as you know, these are proposed, not even yet proposed regulations, but our understanding is what the decoupling means is students must pass their 44 credits to graduate.
And within that, of course, there's many ways they're showing their learning in order to earn the credit.
But there won't be a separate system of assessments or whatever the case may be that students have to complete to meet graduation requirements.
So you're telling me if I'm a junior right now.
And my teacher tells me, you got to take the Algebra 2 Regents.
I'm going to tell him, no, I don't.
I mean, we've been very clear in our messaging to principals.
We meet with our point people from the superintendents teams weekly to reinforce.
Nothing has been even proposed, much less adopted by the Board of Regents.
And we don't want a single.
student to be impacted by saying, oh, I don't have to take my regents.
But you raise a good point about the transition.
Yeah, I think the concern is what I said in my opening, which is, you know, without a replacement
of equal or more rigor, it's going to turn into, well, I checklist got my 44 credits or the DUE or superintendents might say we're getting pressure to increase graduation rates.
So just do whatever you can to pass the kid.
Things that I've seen in the classroom.