Graduation Standards

All students should leave high school prepared for college, careers, and active citizenship.

ESSA

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states considerable flexibility to craft their own accountability system.

Course Access

Across New York State, our education system denies students of color and students who are low-income access to rigorous instruction.

Our Priorities

ISSUE 1: Educational equity during the pandemic

More than a year after the coronavirus pandemic forced school closures across New York State, one concern remains top of mind for parents – how the loss of instructional time in the classroom will affect their children.

ISSUE 2: What ESSA means for New York state?

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind, gives states considerable flexibility to craft their own accountability systems — in the process asking states to make crucial decisions about what it means to be a successful school, what rate of academic progress is acceptable, and what to do when schools are not meeting our expectations.

ESSA presents a critical opportunity to improve New York’s education system – a system driven by massive systemic inequities in access, opportunity and performance, especially for students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, and English learners.

ISSUE 3: Ensuring access to advanced coursework

Across New York State, our education system denies students of color and students who are low-income access to rigorous instruction in a range of courses that will prepare them for success in college, careers, and civic life.

It doesn’t have to be this way. New York can and must do better.

ISSUE 4: Addressing disproportionality in suspensions

New York schools imposed out-of-school suspensions on more than 66,000 students in the 2016-17 school year — an average of at least one student a minute, every hour of the school day.

And stark racial disparities persist with Black students being disproportionately targeted for disciplinary action.

Something must change.

ISSUE 5: Meaningful

graduation standards

All students should leave high school prepared for college, careers, and active citizenship. But some pathways may be less aligned to that goal, potentially limiting opportunities available to students once they leave high school.