State education officials Friday deflected criticism from some school and parent groups about the pressure of high-stakes state assessment tests, saying the requirement that students pass the tests to graduate might not be set in stone.

“The notion that students are not going to graduate is not true,” said Nancy Grasmick, state school superintendent. “The linkage of the passage of the HSAs to graduation is a strong proposal and it is in the regulations that we review it…. We have marched along with the linkage, but it is not at all a final decision.”