Schools need to know what to work toward

Manhattan: Re “Council pushes for specifics on post-Regents grad requirements” (Sept. 23): Councilman Eric Dinowitz is right to ask for clarity about what will replace Regents exams. Moving beyond Regents doesn’t have to mean lowering expectations. But New York’s “Portrait of a Graduate” will only work if schools have a clear understanding of what students are expected to demonstrate and how educators should assess it.

At United Charter High Schools, we’ve been doing versions of this work for years. We piloted our own Portrait of a Graduate framework at our advanced math and science school in the Bronx, where students are assessed on skills such as critical thinking and communication through performance-based assignments and real-world activities. They build structured portfolios of their work and, before their senior year, present evidence of their learning to a panel of educators. As we’ve expanded this approach across our seven schools, we’ve worked hard to ensure that terms like “critical thinker” or “effective communicator” don’t simply become a checklist. We’ve learned that teachers need shared rubrics tied to thoughtfully designed competencies, and students need real opportunities to apply what they know and show their progress over time.

If students across the state are going to graduate under a competency-based system, educators need a common understanding of what mastery looks like and how students can demonstrate it. That’s where the rigor will come from.

Curtis Palmore, CEO, United Charter High Schools

Bronx: It was reported last........

© NY Daily News