ALBANY – The state Board of Regents voted yesterday to phase in over the next four years a plan to make graduation from high school contingent on receiving a passing grade of 65 on at least five Regents exams.

According to the new timeline, students entering ninth grade this fall must have two scores of 65 or higher on five required Regents exams and all scores at 55 or above. Students entering ninth grade next year will have to pass three of the exams at 65 or above to graduate. Students entering the following year will have to pass four tests at 65.

The phase-in will be complete for students entering high school in 2008.

The Regents’ unanimous vote came eight years after the 16-member board voted to raise the required grade for passing five Regents exams from 55 to 65 by this year, and two years after it decided to revisit its earlier timeline. Yesterday’s vote was a reaffirmation of a decision the Regents made in 2003 to keep the earlier timeline on hold.

“Two years ago, they said: Let’s look at this in two years, and they have been doing that for the past three or four months, and they think this is a timeline that’s doable,” the deputy commissioner of education for elementary, middle, secondary, and continuing education, James Kadamus, said after the Regents’ meeting at the state Education Department headquarters.

The commissioner of education, Richard Mills, has come under fire from opponents of the higher testing standards for pursuing the increase in the passing grade. A bill moving through the state Legislature is aimed at allowing school districts to opt out of the Regents requirement altogether. Yesterday, Mr. Mills struck a conciliatory note, weighing the promotion of higher standards against sympathy for struggling students.

“Fifty-five isn’t good enough,” Mr. Mills said. “It’s 65 that represents proficiency, so how do we enable children to reach the standards? Some people might think it would be fun to say, ‘Let’s just reach for the sky.’ That’s not the real world. The real world is about helping children with what they need … and gradually raising the expectation so it’s possible for them to achieve.”

Mr. Mills said 77% of students statewide who entered high school in 2000 would have passed all five Regents exams at the 65 passing grade. In New York City it would have been 60%. That means that if the original standards had been in place this year, roughly 15% of students who passed would have failed instead.

The Regents also approved an appeal process yesterday that would allow students who do not pass all five exams at the 65 grade to appeal.

Students qualify for an appeal if they score within three percentage points of 65, have passed their courses, have taken the Regents exam at least twice, have a 95% attendance record, and are recommended for the appeal by a teacher.