N.Y. 'Portfolio Schools' Get Regents Reprieve.

This article reports that thirty-nine New York state high schools have won a reprieve from a state requirement that students pass the Regents exams to earn a diploma. Advocates of the high schools receiving the waivers, most of which are in New York City, say the interim period will give them the chance to gather evidence that their approach of using portfolios of student work as the measure for graduation is as good as the subject exams that the state now requires students to pass. In 1996, the state of New York started phasing in its Regents exams as a requirement to earn a standard diploma.