In May of 2014 the Department issued a memo on aspirational scores indicating that the Class of 2022 (students who enter grade 9 in the 2018-19 school year) was to be the first cohort of students required to pass the English Language Arts and Mathematics Regents Examinations at the aspirational performance level (i.e., Performance Level 4) indicating that they fully met Common Core course-level expectations in order to satisfy the State testing requirement for a Regents Diploma. NYSED will not be moving forward with the implementation of this requirement for that cohort.

At this time the Department is embarking on a revision to the New York State standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics. This spring, the Board of Regents will be presented with the revised New York State P-12 English Language Arts and Mathematics Learning Standards for adoption. Over the next several years, as these standards are implemented throughout the state, the assessments measuring student achievement in these areas will also be revised.

Therefore, there will be no change in the scale scores required for students to meet the graduation requirements for the Class of 2022 on either the ELA or Mathematics Regents Examination. In order to meet the standard necessary for graduation, students will continue to need to achieve a scale score of 65 on these examinations to earn a Regents diploma. Students with disabilities will continue to need to achieve a scale score of 55 on these examinations to earn a local diploma.