Students who flunk Regents exams would still be able to graduate high school under a plan proposed Monday by the state Education Department.
The agency’s proposal came the same day it announced that graduation rates are rising, both around the state and in New York City, and only a month after Gov. Cuomo called for a retreat from tough Common Core standards.
To make life easier for test-challenged students, education officials suggested they be allowed to present “project-based assessments” — such as portfolio work or classrooms projects — to give them another shot at graduating if they botch required Regents exams.
A handful of other states, including Pennsylvania and Maryland, already offer such alternatives.
Deputy Education Commissioner Jhone Ebert said in a proposal submitted to the Board of Regents on Monday that the new graduation path would be especially useful to students with disabilities and to English language learners.
And if that’s not enough to pull the kids through, officials recommended lowering the score for which students can appeal their Regents exam grade.
At present, those who miss the 65 passing grade by 3 or fewer points can appeal.
Officials suggested setting the appeals bar to 5 points below passing.
They estimated that 4,000 more students would graduate each year under the relaxed rule.
School reformers were distressed at further attempts to water down tough standards.
“We’re concerned. The rule should be to pass a consistent battery of tests to graduate, as has been true for decades,” said Steve Sigmund, director of the group High Achievement New York.
Feeling the backlash from a boycott of the controversial Common Core exams for students in elementary and middle schools, Cuomo last month called for a four-year moratorium on using the more rigorous tests to evaluate teachers or to determine promotions of students.
The Regents adopted the changes.
But the latest graduation rates indicate students were not hampered by Common Core.
Statewide, the four-year graduation rate increased from 76.4 percent to 78.1 percent in the 2014-15 school year.
In New York City, 67.2 percent of kids who entered high school in 2011 during the Bloomberg administration graduated last year, compared to 64.2 percent the previous year.
“Standards work, OK?” said outgoing Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch.
When accounting for students who earned a diploma in August, the graduation rate hit 70 percent “for the first time ever,” boasted Mayor de Blasio.
“That is good news for this city,” said the mayor.
In 2001, the year before Bloomberg took office, only 46.5 percent of high school kids graduated within four years.
By 2013, Bloomberg’s final year, the figure was 61.3 percent.
The results come during the second year that new Common Core Regents exams were being phased in.