21.   It also voted to require bilingual students to take the Regents English exam, which will soon be a graduation requirement, in English.

22.   Kingsborough Community College already requires the test as a graduation requirement.

23.   Last year, attorneys with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit challenging the use of the TAAS test as a graduation requirement.

24.   Last Friday, the Regents included the language requirement with little discussion, in a vote on the overall graduation requirements.

25.   Last September, five Chinese students beginning their senior year were forced to leave Lafayette without prior notice on the ground that they had completed their graduation requirements.

26.   Many districts are strengthening graduation requirements to include more math, and the state has worked during the past decade to reform its math program.

27.   Matamoros needed one course each in math, science, and physical education to complete his graduation requirements.

28.   Meanwhile, the state Board of Regents is in the process of imposing stringent new graduation requirements on public-school students and their teachers.

29.   Massachusetts now makes tests its sole graduation requirement, even though state law asks for multiple measures.

30.   On Wednesdays, she leaves the school to do volunteer secretarial work at a neighborhood law clinic, for which she receives credit toward a community service graduation requirement.