There are three different categories of high school diplomas offered to graduating students in New York State: a regular diploma called the “Regents,” a “Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation,” and a “Local Diploma,” which is an option for some students with disabilities.
Although Haby Sondo, 18, is earning the top diploma she said it didn't mean that much to her.
“I don’t feel like a Regents in general holds any value,” Sondo said. “It’s pretty easy to get above a 65 on all of them.”
To graduate with the advanced designation, students have to score 65 or higher on three math exams instead of just one for the regular regents; score at least a 65 on two science exams instead of one, and take more language classes other than English.
In 2014, the New York State School Boards Association said less than a third of graduates earn an advanced diploma.
There’s not much incentive to take the extra classes and tests. It doesn’t guarantee students anything and schools outside New York don’t know what the special diploma means.
Sondo commuted from the South Bronx to attend the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in Spanish Harlem. It’s an academically selective school, but not one of the most competitive. And Sondo said she wasn’t always challenged.
“It’s honestly not that difficult. All you have to do is just read chapter textbooks and then answer questions there, write down classroom notes, watch videos,” she said. “It feels like middle school part two.”
Sondo relied on the high school directory to choose her top choices for high schools. She knew she wanted to get away from the South Bronx and from the metal detectors at her old school. In the end, she said the directory failed her.
“A lot of the stuff in the guidebook are really deceiving,” she said. “Like they try to make a school seem like something it’s not.”
She was 12 years old at the time and, like a lot of New York City kids, she managed the process on her own.
“My parents, they don’t know how to read or write so I kind of feel like I’ve had to navigate my educational system by myself,” she said. Her parents came to New York from the West African country Burkina Faso.
So now, this A student is off to Boston University. She admitted she’s a little scared.
“I know for sure that my A's are not the same as A's in people from other schools,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’m going to be on the same level as students who went to academically challenging high schools.”