A state commission is recommending only one high school diploma for New York state high school graduates and another rewrite of the state’s learning standards.

The elimination of local, Regents and Advanced Regents with designations diplomas is one of 12 recommendations from the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures to the state Board of Regents. In the coming months, the state Education Department will develop proposed guidance, program and regulation changes to implement the commission’s recommendations. An update will be given in the spring with how those changes will proceed. Staff work is expected to wrap up next fall.

Currently diploma assessment requirements include Regents exams, state Education Department approved Regents exam alternatives and pathway options. Commission member Lorna Lewis, Malvern Schools superintendent and co-chair of the state Superintendents Association’s curriculum committee, said the state is one of a few states that require an exit examination to graduate high school. Commission members recommend reducing and modifying diploma testing requirements to allow more options, with 81% of members recommending reducing or modifying testing and another 78% saying having more options is recommended. Most members want more writing to be involved in how a student is deemed ready as well as showing students demonstrate “higher-order thinking skills” before they can graduate. More than 90% of commission members also said students should have a choice in the options they have to satisfy graduation requirements. Options would include capstone projects, performance-based assessments, and experiential learning.

“The commission was committed to ensuring that rigor is maintained and recognized that a traditional standardized test is only one way to demonstrate achievement of the learning standards,” Lewis said. “While the comm rec the value of regents exams as valid, reliable and efficient assessment to determine student proficiency, by providing assessment flexibility students could demonstrate content knowledge in a way that best suits their individual strengths and talents. The intent here is not to lower standards, but to maintain the integrity of the diploma process with an emphasis on rigor. There was almost unanimity in seeking multiple pathways towards achieving a diploma with comments centered on the need for variety in assessments.”

Blue Ribbon Commission members said during Monday’s Board of Regents meeting the existing Regents exams should be augmented by flexible assessments. The state is recommended to move to one diploma with the option to add seals and endorsements. That diploma should require students to know about civic responsibility (ethics); cultural competence; financial literacy education; fine and performing arts; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) credit(s); and writing, including writing skills for real-world scenarios in diploma credit requirements.

“As we spoke to industry and our graduates, it became clear to the commission that currently students are not leaving our ed institutions with the life ready skills necessary for successful trajectories. Our hope is by adding these components all students will be better prepared for whichever path they choose,” said Kelly Whitney-Rivera, Valley Stream Central High School counseling director and commission member.

The commission recommends the state make sure there is equal access to career and technical education (CTE), including internships and work-based learning opportunities for all students across New York state. Rivera said stakeholders and commission members made career and technical education access a priority, with 97% of commission members making it a high priority.

“While this option currently exists for some students, access to CTE varies throughout the state,” Rivera said. “Commission members emphasized the need to offer and recognize relevant, rigorous and student-driven opportunities to earn credit including robust career and technical education pathways, apprenticeships, internships and externships that will fit the individual needs of all students. As a school counselor and director of counseling I

Schools are also recommended to move to a model that organizes credit requirements– including content area credit requirements– into larger categories, such as including mathematics and science courses to be included in the “STEM” category. 92% of commission members agreed with the idea.

Schools will move to reduce or modify diploma assessment requirements to allow more assessment options while the state will create state-developed measures for any performance-based assessments allowed as an option to satisfy the diploma assessment requirements. There should be competency based ways to graduate while local school districts can create their own requirements with state approval.

“In alignment with stakeholder feedback, the commission placed a great deal of interest in increasing student flexibility to demonstrate knowledge and skill and opportunities that may not fit in the current model,” Lewis said. “This recommendation follows trends in other states and would provide students with more opportunities to meet graduation requirements.”

Commission members also recommend the state create more specific, tailored graduation requirements to address the unique circumstances of certain groups of students, such as older students, newcomer students and refugees.

The state is being asked to provide exemptions from diploma assessment requirements for students with significant cognitive disabilities and major life events and extenuating circumstances, such as medical conditions, death of a family member or trauma prior to sitting for a required exam. The commission recommends replacing deficit language such as safety nets with language such as opportunities and access. Commission members said special populations need to be involved in developing graduation standards for those groups.

Another recommendation is for teacher preparation programs to provide instruction in culturally responsive-sustaining education practices while professional development plans for teachers will be required to include culturally responsive-sustaining education practices.

Finally, while not a firm recommendation, Lewis said some on the commission think the state Education Department and the Board of Regents should rethink the traditional four-year approach to high school.

“The commission also advised the Regents to decouple the timeline to graduate from credit attainment,” Lewis said. “Students could take three to six years to graduate to reflect students’ ability to achieve their academic goals. While most students complete their high school education in four years, there is no state requirement for students to attain specific credits in specific years of high school. Students can accelerate their graduation to exit high school in less than four years; students can also extend their high school education if additional time is needed for them to satisfy diploma requirements.”