What you should know
- New York’s high school graduation rate rose slightly last year after the pandemic forced the cancellation of tests normally required to earn a diploma, education officials said Wednesday.
- Students generally must pass at least four of the exit exams (in English, math, science, and social studies) to graduate.
- But amid disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, the state said, it was enough for students to pass courses.
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NEW YORK — New York’s high school graduation rate rose slightly last year after the pandemic forced the cancellation of tests normally required to earn a diploma, education officials said Wednesday.
State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said it was hard to know how much of an impact the cancellation of stringent Regents exams had on the Class of 2021.
Students generally must pass at least four of the exit exams (in English, math, science, and social studies) to graduate. But amid disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, the state said, it was enough for students to pass courses.
“This change affected graduation rates this year, but we can’t say to what extent,” Rosa said during a call with reporters, adding that the 1.3 percentage point increase was in line with an upward trend in rates. registered graduation in recent years.
Without end-of-year exams, students were tested on locally developed tests, courses and projects, officials said.
The August graduation rate for students who entered high school in 2017 was 86.1%, compared to 84.8% the previous year. The data showed increases in the African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander subgroups. The graduation rate for white students held steady at just over 90%.
One notable exception to the generally moderate changes among student groups was a 14.5 percentage point increase in the graduation rate for English language learners, a jump to 60.5% that Rosa said was due in part to improvement in services for those students in recent years.
High-needs rural districts saw their graduation rate drop to 85%, a 1-percentage-point decline that Principal Deputy Commissioner Jim Baldwin attributed the shortage to a lack of broadband access that hampered some students during learning periods. remote, a long-standing problem the state has been grappling with. looking to change.
“A lot of schools had to resort to delivering packages to students and that’s far from an ideal situation,” Baldwin said.
All five large urban school districts, known as Big 5, had higher graduation rates than last year. The rate in New York City was 81.2%. Buffalo reported a rate of 78.5%, Rochester had a rate of 71.4%, Syracuse had a rate of 77.2%, and Yonkers had a rate of 90.7%.
Regents exams are scheduled to resume this school year. Rosa said the previous cancellations are expected to affect future graduating classes because students start taking them as early as seventh grade and will remain exempt from taking the tests for classes they have already passed.
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