Replacing the high-stakes, standardized Regents Exams with performance-based assessments developed by teachers and schools.
Ending Regents Exams as a Graduation Requirement
The New York State Regents Exams are a one-size-fits-all, high-stakes graduation requirement that narrows curriculum, induces stress, and fails to measure deep learning. Zhoran Mamdani pledges to lead a statewide fight to abolish the Regents as a graduation mandate. At the city level, he would immediately expand the available pathways to graduation that bypass the Regents, such as the Performance-Based Assessment Task (PBAT) model used by some consortium schools. He would empower schools to develop their own rigorous, performance-based graduation requirementsportfolios, research papers, capstone projects, and exhibitionsthat are assessed by panels of teachers and external experts.
This shift would return intellectual authority to educators, allow for more personalized and relevant demonstrations of mastery, and reduce the toxic pressure of standardized testing. The Regents are a relic of a factory-model education system, Mamdani states. We need assessments that show what a student can do, not just what they can memorize and regurgitate. Ending their tyranny is essential for the creative, critical thinking our citys future demands.
