Thursday, October 1, 2026
Earlier this month, the State Education Department brought a new vision for the future of graduation to the Board of Regents: NY Inspires. At the heart of it is a question we have been asking ourselves for some time now. Does our current graduation system actually tell the story of what students know and are prepared to do?
Nothing changes today. Current diploma requirements, Regents exams, and credit accumulation are all still in place. What NYSED has started is a longer conversation, one that asks every district to look honestly at how we prepare students for life after they leave us. I want to share where West Hempstead already stands, and where we plan to go from here.
Competency-based learning isn’t new territory for our schools. In many respects, it’s already woven into our strongest instructional practices. Our 11th-graders take on a Performance-Based Assessment Task, an assignment that pushes them to build and deliver a coherent argument while adjusting tone, structure and evidence to fit their audience and purpose.
The 10th-grade English PBAT asks students to dig into literature and nonfiction texts and sharpen their skills as analytical readers, writers and researchers. Along the way, they learn to build clear arguments, back their ideas with textual evidence, and communicate their thinking to a real audience. The project also pushes students to connect literary themes to real-world issues, which sparks the kind of critical thinking and discussion we want to see more of.
In the ninth-grade Global PBAT, students dig into enduring global issues and examine how historical events continue to shape today’s world. Through research, analysis and discussion, they build their ability to weigh multiple perspectives, synthesize information and support their conclusions with evidence. The project builds historical awareness and helps students think critically about how the past bears on the present.
Our AP Seminar and AP Research students are judged on how well they can weigh sources against one another, defend their credibility judgments and produce original work honestly, skills that carry well beyond any one class. Our Moot Court program, which runs from sixth through 12th grade, asks students to look at issues through multiple cultural and political lenses and propose a civically responsible way forward. And at Cornwell Avenue, students are already setting and tracking their own learning goals as we move step by step toward mastery-based grading across the district, with secondary students setting measurable goals every quarter.
None of this happened on its own. Every member of our instructional staff has trained in the Project-Based Learning Gold Standard, so our teachers share a common language and a common bar for what authentic, rigorous learning looks like.
Recognizing what we do well doesn’t mean we’re done. NYSED’s framework pushes us to open up more chances for authentic, interdisciplinary, career-connected learning, and to capture evidence of that learning in ways richer than a transcript can offer.
That means looking for more places across our K-12 continuum where students can show what they know instead of just reciting it: more work-based learning, more service learning, more chances for students to put academic standards to work on real problems in front of real audiences. It also means building the infrastructure behind it — the portfolios, rubrics and quality-assurance processes that let us document this learning with the same rigor and consistency our community expects from a Regents exam.
The district doesn’t see NY Inspires as a mandate to prepare for. We see it as confirmation that we’re already headed the right way. Our mission, Future-Ready Graduates, Zero Exceptions, has never been about seat time. It has always been about whether every student leaves West Hempstead able to communicate well, collaborate meaningfully, think critically about information, engage as a citizen and take ownership of their own learning.
The state hasn’t set a timeline for this work, and any changes down the road will go through the Board of Regents’ public process. West Hempstead won’t wait for a mandate to keep doing right by our students. We’ll keep building on the foundation already in place, keep talking honestly with our teachers, families and community about what readiness really means, and keep holding ourselves to the standard our graduates deserve.
The standard is the standard. And in West Hempstead, we intend to keep raising it.
Daniel Rehman is superintendent of the West Hempstead school district.
