Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The State Education Department is looking to do more than Regents tests to determine if a student has grasped lessons to graduate from school. It's a program called Portrait of a Graduate.
"As someone who has long believed in the priority of educating the whole child, it's a step in the right direction that's kind of a long time in coming," says Michael Cornell, incoming Interim President of Hilbert College. He says there are lots of kids who have aptitudes in lots of areas and demonstrate their knowledge and skills in lots of different ways. "The portrait of a graduate acknowledges that simple fact of human development and allows schools to have some flexibility in terms of how they assess kids knowledge and skills and abilities in in each area," adds Cornell.
The NYSED says the Portrait of a Graduate "supports the P-20 continuum by ensuring educators are preparing the whole student for complex and interconnected challenges in the real world." NYSED says as teachers adapt their teaching to meet the diverse needs of students, the revised portrait allows for more flexibility and creativity in the process, ultimately improving student engagement and motivation by making learning more relevant and interesting.
Cornell says this has been done for decades. "Sometimes it's portfolios, sometimes it's debates, sometimes it's an essay, sometimes it's creating a short film," explains Cornell. He says schools have been assessing kids in ways consistent with the way the world exchanges information and talks about the issues that we face. "It makes all the sense in the world for the way the world works to finally work its way into the state assessment system, the way it's been operating in our schools for decades."
Retired Regent Bob Bennett also likes the idea. "Instead of a Regents exam, maybe we could have a student in the biology area, for example, work in a lab for a semester for a company, and at the end of that work, write a paper about what they've learned, what they did and and be able to present it as a substitute for a biology Regents exam," cites Bennett. "If it engages more employers, and it's a good alternative, and it truly tests knowledge, which the best test of knowledge is? Experience, what you learn? How can you prove it? I'm all for that."
Could this help those with test anxiety? Bennett says it could help them a lot. It also could be a benefit to kids with disabilities, demonstrating their proficiency in a certain topic area is something that they could do, and have done and demonstrated that they can do it if a person is super anxious about taking a test, this could be a great alternative, but no less pressure, just different pressure," says Bennett. He notes you've got to be able to demonstrate one way or another what you've learned.
Cornell says Portrait of a Graduate provides kids with all kinds of ways to support their college readiness, saying there's much more to a student's progress than a test score. "It's a value add for kids. It's a value add for the system. It's a value add for colleges. It's a value add from a human perspective," adds Cornell.
The state plans to adopt this in November, with additional requirements in 2027.
