NY high school graduation rates may have been ‘inflated’ during COVID pandemic: reportBy Cayla Bamberger
August 8, 2022
High school graduation rates across the Empire State may have been “inflated” during the pandemic, a new report found.
Roughly three out of every four grads used at least one state test exemption to earn a diploma in 2021, according to data released Monday by the New York Equity Coalition.
New York’s graduation rate has been growing since 2016, to 86.1% in 2021, for a 1.3% increase, according to data analyzed by The Education Trust, a statewide policy and advocacy group.
But the report notes that, “while this is great news on the surface, recent changes to state graduation requirements make it difficult to know if graduation rate improvements accurately reflect how well schools are preparing students — especially those who have been historically underserved by the education system — for future success.”
The state Education Department has made several tweaks to rules around Regents exams since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, first canceling the standardized tests altogether in 2020. For the 2020-2021 school year, officials allowed kids to graduate without taking exams, and only required they pass their Regents-based course by the end of summer.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/08/08/ny-high-school-graduation-rates-may-have-been-inflated-during-covid-pandemic/
