Most survey respondents say Regents exams should be altered or scrapped
A student in a ninth-grade algebra class at Center Moriches High School uses a calculator to help solve practice questions during a Regents exam. Credit: Heather Walsh
A majority of New York school professionals and others surveyed by the state favor altering the use of Regents exams or eliminating them entirely, according to a report released Monday by education authorities.
The surveys, which are part of a sweeping effort by state education officials to revamp high school graduation requirements, drew responses from more than 2,600 school administrators, teachers, parents and others statewide. Respondents participated either in regional conferences or online, and 11% were Long Islanders.
Survey questions dealt with such issues as the knowledge and skills that students require before they graduate, and the type of course requirements or exams needed to ensure that students are prepared for college, careers and civic engagement. One common and controversial response revolved around the use of Regents exams, which have been diploma requirements for more than 140 years.
"The majority of participants suggested modifying the Regents exams or getting rid of them entirely, though a few preferred to keep the Regents in order to ensure rigor across the state," declared the report, which was released during a monthly meeting of the state's Board of Regents in Albany.
Many participants also commented that they would prefer "performance-based" assessments — for example, PowerPoint presentations or research projects by students — rather than paper-and-pencil tests.
The report quoted one respondent, who wasn't named, as saying, "Regents exams are stressful and impossible for many students and not an indication of mastery of material."
Some testing experts have noted, on the other hand, that results from performance-based exercises are difficult to score uniformly from student to student and school to school.
The 161-page report, "Graduation Requirements and Measures," was prepared for the state's Education Department and the Regents by a regional center led by WestEd, a San Francisco-based research agency.
In September, education officials named a 64-member panel including school superintendents, teachers and others to advise on the diploma project, which is shaping up as the biggest transformation of graduation standards in a quarter-century. The panel is supposed to turn in a report with recommendations by the summer of 2024, followed by final action on the part of the 17-member Regents board.
The Regents, though they set much of the state's education policy, faces limits in terms of graduation standards. Federal law requires that all high school students take exams in English, math and science, so some form of standardized testing most likely will remain in place.
However, the Regents could strip Regents exams of their status as diploma requirements, if they chose to take that route. Currently, students must pass four or five of the exams in order to graduate.
Tension over the issue of exams was evident at Monday's meeting.
One board member, Catherine Collins of Buffalo, recalled that she had passed Regents exams in science, math and other subjects to earn a diploma while attending high school, and that this enabled her to go on to nursing school and a career as a health care educator and author.
"I support the Regents," Collins said, "because it gave me and many other students the ability to go into medicine and into nursing and into all those fields that made New York State really a shining example of what we've done with our health care personnel."
In response, Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa, a former Regent herself, urged board members to keep an open mind and consider the opinions of survey respondents — who included not only adults, but also students.
"These are the voices of New York State," Rosa said.
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
