05.03.2018 | Chalkbeat New York | The confusion surrounding Garcia’s diploma grows out of the system that New York’s education leaders have been creating for years — carving out new ways for students to graduate that rely less on the passing the state’s traditional five Regents exams. The goal is to ensure students like Garcia don’t get left behind while keeping the state’s rigorous graduation standards. But…for students, teachers, and families in New York, the mishmash of rules and exceptions that the state has carved out to make earning a diploma more achievable has made it challenging to decipher pathways to graduation, said Ashley Grant, a supervising staff attorney at Advocates for Children. Grant says she helps families through the process, but that the state should create a more coherent system — one that doesn’t require an attorney’s assistance to understand. Read article