Analysis: Reinstate Regents testing

Study highlights critical need to support high school seniors

The Albany City School District was 5.6 times more likely than other districts in Albany County to grant exemptions for Regents exams and graduate a student based on grades and school work alone in 2020, according to new analysis.

The statistic is part of a statewide study conducted by The Education Trust-new York showing that high-need, big-city districts were more likely to rely on the Regents exemptions to graduate students at the end of a school year upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dia Bryant, Education Trust interim executive director, said the group’s analysis highlights a critical need for the state Education Department to take

and 2021, including by reinstating all Regents exams that historically were a prerequisite for graduation.

“Last year’s cancellasteps tions led to high-need school districts disproportionately relying on exemptions to graduate students, which raises broader concerns around whether or not our education system is providing all students the supports they need to pursue their desired future, whether that be college or the workplace,” Bryant said.

The report’s authors also back the Biden administration’s decision to require state assessments for grades 3-8 — a move that drew criticism from teachers’ unions and educational equity advocates and prompted the New York Board of Regents to cancel all non-federally required Regents exams.

Ian Rosenblum, the U.S. Education Department’s acting assistant education secretary, previously headed The Education Trust, a New York Citybased nonprofit focused on educational equity.

Rosenblum wrote in the letter to state leaders last month that the department would not be issuing a “blanket exemption” for the state testing requirements. Last year, standardized tests were waived entirely due to the pandemic.

“To be successful once schools have reopened, we need to understand the impact COVID-19 has had on learning and identify what resources and supports students need,” Rosenblum wrote.

The state Education Department last year canceled the June and August Regents exams and issued an automatic exemption to all students who had not yet completed and passed all the tests needed to graduate.

With the requirement eliminated, many school districts saw graduation rates rise in 2020.

High-need districts like Albany, which serve more English Language Learners, students of color, and low-income students averageand low-need schools, tend to have a larger cohort of graduates who did not meet all of their graduation requirements by the end of senior year and are required to take the late-summer Regents exams.

In the face of a global pandemic, granting exemptions from Regents exams for graduation “was the appropriate and fair thing to do for students,” according to state Education Department spokeswoman Emily Desantis.

“To be clear, no one can say for sure how much of a factor the exemptions were last year on graduation rates,” Desantis said. “Many students who were unable to take the Regents exams due to the COVID-19 emergency would certainly have passed, so no one is able to determine to what extent cancellation and exemptions contributed to the increase overall; an increase that is consistent with the upward trend that we have seen over the last several years.”

She noted that students exempt from the exams were still required to meet specific, rigorous criteria to get that exemption. Those exams are just one measure of a student’s proficiency in a particular course. To obtain a New York state diploma, students must obtain credit in 22 subjects; only five of these require passage of

Regents exams.

The pandemic struck at a time when state education officials were reevaluating the century-old high school exit exams, which are unique to New York and a handful of other states.

Jasmine Gripper, the executive director at the Alliance for Quality Education, which opposes “high-stakes testing,” said administering the Regents exams would cause unnecessary stress for school districts and the data will be misleading due to wide disparities in access to the classroom during the pandemic.

“The data will be really bad, because we can’t get enough kids to participate to collect good data,” Gripper said.

While proponents of standardized testing argue the exams are necessary to drive resources to under performing schools, Gripper said testing data has historically been “weaponized” against school districts that have been underfunded for decades.

“Schools have been closed with testing results as an excuse; charter schools have been allowed to come in (and supplant public schools) because of the data,” she said.

The analysis shows that more students relied on the exemptions upstate than downstate. New York City Department of Education, schools relied on exemptions to graduate 17 percent of students. In the “Big Four” districts, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, schools relied on exemptions to graduate 32 percent of students.

In urban/suburban high-need districts, schools relied on exemptions to graduate 20 percent of students. In rural high-need districts, schools relied on exemptions to graduate 10 percent of students.

In average-need districts, schools relied on exemptions to graduate 8 percent of students, while low-need districts relied on exemptions to graduate 3 percent of students.

The Education Trust is part of a coalition calling on the state to administer all Regents exams, using the full flexibility granted by the U.S. Department of Education — which included options like extending the testing window or moving assessments to the summer or fall — in order to reach as many students as possible.

The group wants the state and federal government to invest more resources in students’ academic, social-emotional, and transition support on the high school and college level.

Albany schools spokesman Ron Lesko said the district agrees with the premise that students going into post-secondary education now will need additional support because of the challenges that COVID-19 has presented.

“We are working on putting those supports and wraparound services in place for our students, and look forward to working collaboratively with higher education to support our graduates as they continue their education,” Lesko said.