At the July Board of Regents Meeting Chancellor Betty Rosa announced the beginning of a process that may lead to the discontinuance of Regents Examinations.
… the state Board of Regents [is[ consider[ing] scrapping the high school Regents exam requirement as part of an effort to improve the state’s graduation rates and better define the significance of a New York high school diploma.
This fall, a commission convened by state Board of Regents … will meet to examine — among other questions — “to what degree requiring passage of Regents exams improves student achievement, graduation rates and college readiness,”
High School graduation rates have been steadily increasing over the last decade, from 70.9% to 80.4%, if we use the August rate to 82.6%. The New York City rate is 72.7%, well above Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
If you include “persisters,” students who graduate in five and six years, the graduation rates are 2% higher. The Research Alliance for NYC Schools has done an interesting study of the “persisting students,” students attending transfer high schools in New York City.
Six percent of students drop out; which means stop attending school before their graduation date and the remaining ten percent who fail to graduate in six years are mostly students with disabilities and English language learners who entered school in their middle and high school years. White students have an 88.9% graduation rate and Black students (70.1%) and Hispanic (69.2%) students.
While graduation rates have been steadily increasing; not surprisingly Black, Hispanic and English language learners are far behind White student graduation rates.
Can the state simply no longer offer Regents exams?
The state can eliminate Regents exams; however, federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires testing in English and Mathematics in high schools, a common option,
- Choose the ACT or SAT instead of a separate state high school assessment
Check out the state by state course requirements here and state-by-state high school testing requirements here.
Will students who are currently not passing Regents tests do better on the SAT or ACT? Or, Will we be creating another test prep culture in high schools?
Regents are content tests, they test what is taught, and, the results are scale scores, the state determines passing rates: why abandon the Regents and substitute SATs or ACTs?
Check out the New York State high school graduation course requirements here, and,
Check out the New York State alternative Multiple Pathways to Graduation here, and,
Check out the safety nets for students with disabilities and here.
Can the state recreate a Regents Competency Test in lieu of Regents exams targeting students with disabilities or/and English language learners?
I do not believe the ESSA allows “dual” testing. We can lower safety nets.
The problem is not the Regents exams, the problem is that totally committed principals and teachers, who love the kids they teach, decide to teach to the grade level ability of the kids; each year the kid falls further behind.
A teacher in the Bronx wrote,
“An issue we run into a lot is that the tests are not at an appropriate level for our students,” he explained. “At a certain point, I want to teach them where they’re at. I feel like that would be most beneficial for them. If you’re at a sixth-grade or seventh-grade math level, but you’re in ninth grade, I kind of want to start where you are and build you up from there.”
For decades we have been teaching down to the level of the kids instead of raising kids, challenging kids to achieve at or above grade level.
On the international scene we are being out competed by a host of nations. Read a rather depressing account, “How Far Behind are the Very Best U.S. Students?”
The National Conference of State Legislatures has just released a relevant report: No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System.
“Fixing” high school testing is part of a state system that needs significant rehabilitation.
The Executive Summary of the “No Time to Lose” report begins,
The bad news is most state education systems are falling dangerously behind the world in a number of international comparisons and on our own National Assessment of Educational Progress, leaving the United States overwhelmingly under prepared to succeed in the 21st century economy.
The U.S. workforce, widely acknowledged to be the best educated in the world half a century ago, is now among the least well-educated in the world, according to recent studies.
At this pace, we will struggle to compete economically against even developing nations, and our children will struggle to find jobs in the global economy.
The report will be released tomorrow, watch live streamed tomorrow, August 6th.The panel will convene at 4:30 p.m. EDT and will be live streamed on NCSL’s Facebook page.
I would recommend,
- Pre-K for three and four year olds should be available for all low income communities across the state
- Let’s be honest, the inequitable funding formula is the prime reason for inequities, we must drive dollars to the neediest communities and make sure the funding is used appropriately; namely, smaller class size especially in the earliest grades, small group tutoring, mentoring, etc.
- Year round school from Pre-K through the First Grade
- Evidence-based instructional models, including extending schools day.
I fully understand that many legislators and perhaps the governor have little interest in attacking the most challenging questions, especially inequitable funding. I hope the Board begins the process of aggressively attacking these core questions.
Substituting the SAT for the Regents are nibbles around the edges of far more deeply rooted issues.
Ed In The Apple 
Year round schooling should be optional not mandatory. Short of that for many American families, summer is a time for family bonding and travelling. are there students who would benefit from year round schooling? Yes. are there families that do not have the resources to travel? Therefore, while year round schooling may be good for some, it is not good for all. Abolishing Regents exams has been a hue and cry for years and years. Regents exams represent minimum student understandings of curriculum. . All a student needs to pass is a 65 or high 50’s. If our kids can’t do that, then who are we kidding? Besides which, these are High School level exams. If taught properly at the elementary and JHS levels, where curriculum is supposed to be scaffolded leading up to Regents readiness,the attainment of passing grades should be readily accomplished. The real problem lies in the ever increasing numbers of children from poor countries, where education was often a part time requirement or not a requirement.I have always felt that these students in transition, were not being sufficiently serviced in our educational complex. at best, I felt that the effort was a token gesture. abolishing Regents exams, is nothing more then an attempt to highlight mediocrity as the striven for norm.
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