State Education Department employees are ready to begin the process to revamp the graduation requirements for New York’s high school students.

The final recommendations won’t be known at least 18 months, but at least one member of the state Board of Regents is asking questions about if any major changes will be able to be applied statewide.

Regent Judith Chin, a former supervising superintendent for 230 schools across New York City’s five boroughs as part of a 35-year career in education, wondered aloud during last week’s Board of Regents meeting if alternative assessments used in charter schools and other specialized schools in some parts of the state can work as part of a statewide graduation requirement.

“We may come up with some grand ideas, but the reality of it is can we do this across the entire state?” Chin asked. “I’m worried about that because if the answer is, ‘No, we can’t,’ does it then revert back to standardized testing once again? It’s almost a vicious-type cycle. I’ve had conversations with schools that have been successful in doing these other types of assessments and they warn us about, ‘can you scale this up?’ and they actually say no, I don’t think you can do it statewide. It begs an answer to that question, whether or not we can go statewide.”

Betty Rosas, Regents chancellor, responded to Chin’s question by saying that a standardized approach to graduation statewide might not be the best approach for children.

“I think we can get stuck on standardization,” Rosas said. “Standardization can sometimes deprive the opportunities of knowing more than one way of knowing. I think that is our challenge. It is a good challenge. We know that there’s more than one way of knowing. If we stay in this standardization mode, I think in many ways we deprive ourselves the opportunity of broadening those opportunities.”

Chin wasn’t the only Regent still asking questions about the scope of the process the Board of Regents and state Education Department will follow to revamp the graduation requirements. Regent Catherine Collins, a Buffalo resident who represents the eight counties of Western New York on the Board of Regents, said that the regulations should include focus on students who perform well and may be able to finish high school early.

“I hope we keep in mind that we have some very, very smart children in New York state, as we do across the country, and we don’t give them the opportunities as they did when I was in high school in this state to challenge all of our courses and be able to graduate sooner than four years,” she said. “If you can leave in two years and three years and know the curriculum, I hope we can keep that in mind that we don’t have to keep kids in school for the four years or the five years. That can become part of the discussion, that whatever requirements we put in place, that if the kids can challenge and leave in two years, let them go, because they’re ready. Many of them are ready. We don’t think about the really smart kids.”

The Regents’ discussion was prefaced with an update by Dr. Kimberly Wilkins, assistant commissioner for innovation and school reform, and Emily DeSantis, state Education Department assistant commissioner for public affairs. Wilkins and DeSantis walked through the latest changes to the timetable for the Blue Ribbon Commission’s work on graduation requirements, including pushing back the start of meetings in the state’s judicial districts to get public feedback to at least Jan. 1. The public meetings have also been given a rough format to follow, with an opening video from Rosas, remarks from the local Board of Regents member presiding over the meeting, a short presentation by a local district superintendent and then time for small groups to be formed to give comments on the five core questions Regents have chosen to focus the discussion. Comments will be gathered via a laptop at each table.

The state has received a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pay Achieve, a non-profit education reform organization that works with states, for the first phase of work: a report focused on graduation requirements across the United States and overseas and a report that contains the results of the public input sessions.

Education Department officials’ update on the process was in stark contrast to the questions and thoughts posed by Regents members. Regent Susan Mittler said she still has concerns about who is being invited to the public meetings. Nearly 50 groups and organizations have been invited to each of the public meetings in addition to any members of the public who want to participate. Mittler said she wants to hear from those who aren’t considered a typical part of the education industry.

“Although I think everything said here was salient and important, I think we need to narrow the task so that we can get some concrete aspects of the input,” Mittler said. “Having people read it and share it is wonderful, but I’m really concerned about the information being filtered by lots of specialist groups rather than adding to it, having a footnote or having an issue of concern. I really need to know what those in the field and the professionals are saying. I want all of the other comments. I want to take a look at those who are delivering the services and then I would also like to take a look at those who are in industry or in commerce — what it is that they’re asking for?”

Mittler also reiterated her preference that civic awareness be part of the graduation requirements. It wouldn’t be appropriate, in her view, to eliminate history or geography because business officials say schools need to focus on churning out information technology workers or computer programmers. Regent Kathleen Cashin made a similar point. Students must know how to get knowledge, but the state’s graduation requirements must also make sure students graduate with a knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.

“This is critical to our democracy,” she said. “However in our planning, and all of us are probably approaching it differently, we’ve to go figure out a way to imbue the significance and importance of the Constitution that gives us the democracy we enjoy. And of course we have to have a rebirth of civics warming everyone up to a knowledge of the Constitution, the three branches of government, the checks and balances on power, that are essential to our existence and our continuance.”