Feds Say NY High Schoolers Must Still Take Regents Exams

New York students must still take Regents exams

New York high schoolers will be required to sit for Regents exams even though the tests will no longer be a prerequisite for graduation, the Times Union reported Monday.

While the state is moving toward a new diploma model that prioritizes diverse assessments like projects and presentations, federal regulations mandate that schools use standardized testing to ensure accountability. This creates a complex middle ground for the upcoming 2027-2028 school year, where students will take the exams but will not need to pass them to earn their diplomas.

The conflict arises from federal laws requiring all high school students across the country to be assessed to identify schools that may need additional support. According to the Times Union, the Board of Regents decided to use the existing Regents framework to satisfy these federal requirements, despite the shift in how students will demonstrate mastery for their actual diplomas.

A confusing transition for families

The policy change will create administrative and communicative hurdles for families. Under the new rules, students must take one Regents exam in each of four core subjects: math, English Language Arts, social studies, and science. However, these scores will not appear on high school transcripts and will have no impact on graduation eligibility.

Feds Say NY High Schoolers Must Still Take Regents Exams — Photo: newsday.com

This duality has raised concerns among state officials regarding how to explain the necessity of testing to the public. Regent Shino Tanikawa noted that parents, particularly those with eighth graders entering high school under this new system, will struggle to follow the new procedures.

“The Regents exams have two purposes. We just got rid of one purpose,” Tanikawa said.

The state’s initiative, known as New York Inspires, aims to move away from a system that officials say penalizes students who are not traditional test-takers. Instead, the state wants to foster skills such as critical thinking, creative innovation, and effective communication. To graduate, students must meet six benchmarks, but they can prove their readiness through methods other than a single high-stakes exam.

The timeline for new assessments

While the Regents exams will remain in use for accountability, the state is working on a different suite of assessments to eventually replace them. According to Newsday, the first administration of these new, specialized assessments is not expected until the spring of 2030.

Zachary Warner, an assistant commissioner at the state Education Department, told Newsday that this timeline allows the department to develop a “thoughtful, coherent assessment system” that aligns with the vision of the New York Inspires initiative. This delay ensures that the transition to new testing methods does not disrupt the immediate phasing out of the Regents as a graduation requirement.

The transition period will see a mix of old and new requirements. For the foreseeable future, the Regents exams will function similarly to the assessments used for grades three through eight, where schools are required to ensure 95% student participation. The primary goal of these tests will be to determine which students or schools require extra help, rather than ranking individual students.

Educators worry about increased costs and lost classroom time

Not all educators are convinced that using the current Regents system to meet federal mandates is the most efficient path. Some school leaders have voiced concerns that the state could eventually end up with two sets of tests: the existing Regents and a new set of assessments, leading to increased costs and lost classroom time.

Timothy Eagen, the superintendent of the Kings Park school district, suggested to Newsday that creating entirely new exams to satisfy federal rules might be unnecessary. He noted that administering new tests consumes valuable resources and takes time away from direct instruction.

However, Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, suggested the changes are a necessary step toward better measuring student readiness. He told Newsday that the proposed shifts are intended to prove students are prepared for their next steps in life more effectively than previous methods.

As the state prepares for the 2027-2028 rollout, the practical impact on daily classroom life remains a subject of debate. While the pressure of passing a test to graduate is being removed, many local schools continue to use Regents scores as a measure of student performance within specific courses.

The state has not yet released the specific rubrics or guidelines that will define the new diploma requirements, leaving many questions about how “mastery” will be measured in practice.