New York is known for having some of the toughest graduation standards in the country — but those requirements have been anything but static over the past century.
Most students in New York today have to take and pass Regents exams in order to earn a diploma. But the vaunted exams, which date back to the 1800s, have held very different roles in state education policy over the years.
In the last few years alone, the state has allowed students to substitute work in the arts, career and technical education, or a skills certificate for one of their five required Regents exams; let more students appeal a failed score; and tried to establish a set number of questions students had to answer correctly on certain exams so that graduation rates would not change.
Chalkbeat took a deep dive into the history of state graduation requirements, the current hodgepodge of requirements that students can use to earn a diploma, and the ways in which exit exams help or hurt students. You can find that story here.
For a quick history of events, check out our timeline below.