Regents exams under fire: How some Long Island schools are responding to concerns about this year's tests
Local educators and parents have criticized this year's earth and space sciences and biology Regents exams. Credit: Howard Schnapp
This year's earth and space sciences and biology Regents exams are drawing scrutiny from local school leaders and parents, who say the questions did not reflect the curriculum taught to students and contained errors.
As a result, officials in several Long Island school districts have said they will not count the scores from the two exams, which were administered last Thursday, if they hurt a student’s final average.
“We were not able to review the test until the day of the exam. ... We began to see that there were some questions we had particular concerns about," said John Murphy, principal of Walt Whitman High School in the South Huntington district, one of the school districts that has raised concerns about the exams.
State Education Department spokesman JP O'Hare in a statement Tuesday said classroom instruction, overseen by local schools, was responsible for ensuring the curriculum aligned with state standards.
“Through the New York State Education Department’s extensive, industry-standard test development processes, carried out in collaboration with hundreds of NYS teachers, we are confident that the Regents Exams are well-aligned with the state’s learning standards," O'Hare said. He said in the coming weeks the exam will be posted publicly, including scoring materials.
2 subjects scrutinized
This is the second year in a row that the biology and earth science Regents exams have been criticized for asking about material not covered in class.
According to Rachel Ndembera, director of PK-12 science and research for the Middle Country district, concerns about the earth science exam mirrored issues the district raised with the state last year, including regarding the design and “reading and formatting” of the exam, she said in a statement. According to Ndembera, students were required to navigate lengthy, complex text, detailed diagrams and graphs that were time consuming and “underutilization of the Earth & Space Science Reference Tables, and inclusion of multi-component test items with one-point allocation resulting in suppression of student scores.”
She said, “We do not believe instruction is an issue…Prior to the exam date, our teachers were explicit with their students that they would need to apply what they had learned in class to new phenomena, and we revised our mid-year assessment to include NYSSLS clusters so students could practice with the style and structure of the actual exam."
Last year, the exams were revised to meet New York State P-12 Science Learning Standards based on a framework created by the National Research Council and the Next Generation Science Standards, according to the state Education Department website. O’Hare said extensive information has been provided to teachers regarding the subjects since the standards were revised in 2016 and 2017.
Educators noted the exams also included errors.
In the biology exam, students were given automatic credit for questions 20 and 21 because “typographical errors” left out a correct answer choice, according to a notice posted on the state Education Department website. Students also received automatic credit on the Spanish version of the earth science exam due to a translation error on question 2.
The presidents of both the Nassau and Suffolk council of school superintendents said in separate emails Tuesday they were aware of concerns being raised.
“This is a complex issue that deserves thoughtful examination from multiple perspectives, with students and their ability to fairly demonstrate their learning remaining at the center of the conversation,” Timothy Eagen, president of Suffolk County School Superintendents Association, said in a statement.
“For Earth and Space Science, teachers have noted meaningful differences in this year’s exam compared to previously released versions that had been used to guide instruction and student preparation. For Biology, concerns have been raised regarding errors identified within portions of the examination,” he said.
According to Marie Testa, president of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents, scores on this year’s earth science exams are reportedly lower than prior years.
“As districts continue to review student performance data and guidance from the New York State Education Department, school leaders across Nassau County are carefully assessing the potential impact of these examinations on students,” Testa said in an email.
A spokeswoman for the New York State United Teachers union said that as of Tuesday afternoon, it had received more than 1,000 complaints about this year's Regents exams. The union had solicited feedback on the tests after hearing that “exam content may not have aligned with the approved curriculum that educators were directed to teach and students were expected to learn," it said in a post on its website.
'Hold harmless' policies
While the state does not require that schools count the Regents scores toward a student’s final course grade, some schools do factor the grade in.
South Huntington school officials said in a letter to parents it would include only grades that boost a students' final average. Others, including Huntington, said they would implement a “hold harmless” practice for the exams, which means the grade would be factored into the final average only if it “maintains or improves a student’s course average,” according to a letter the district sent parents.
The Sachem and Commack districts have instituted similar policies.
While students were prepared, Sachem schools superintendent Patti Trombetta said in a letter to parents, “the exams did not provide a fair opportunity to fully demonstrate what they learned.”
Parents react
Deepa Sachdev said the earth science exam left her 16-year-old daughter, who attends Half Hollow Hills High School West, in tears because despite studying for hours and preparing with a tutor, she faced questions on content that felt wholly unfamiliar.
"How is it OK that our kids are coming out crying when all the other tests were fair? Like, this is not a representation of earth science," Sachdev said.
Sara Bobkin, 43, whose 14-year-old daughter attends eighth grade at Candlewood Middle School in Dix Hills, said the same exam also caused her daughter grief. She said Regents prep, a tutor and plenty of sample tests didn't cover many of the questions.
The earth science exam was “labor-intensive, with multiple charts, multiple paragraphs to read and confusing wording," she said.
A petition started by Bobkin calling for the state Education Department to review both exams for “fairness and appropriateness” had amassed 249 signatures as of Tuesday evening.
Both parents were concerned the exam grade, which will remain on students' transcript per state policy, has the potential to hurt their children.
While the state Education Department will no longer require students to pass Regents exams to graduate high school, beginning with students who started ninth grade in 2024, they must continue taking the exams until fall 2027 due to state and federal mandates requiring assessments, according to the state.
Lorena Mongelli has been reporting for Newsday since 2021. Prior to that, she covered breaking news at the New York Post.
