By Andrew Coen
The other districts include Baldwin, Rockville Centre, Oceanside, Long Beach, Garden City, Herricks, Levittown, North Shore, Plainview-Old Bethpage and Seaford.
The superintendents' group is moving forward with the plan, said Hewlett-Woodmere Superintendent Dr. Charles Fowler. It's not that [the exam] is too difficult, it's just that it's not fair. It's not fair to test the students on material they did not learn in their class. It's not a curriculum-based test.
The state passing rate for the physics Regents in 2003 was 50 percent, down from 62 percent in 2002 and 85 percent in 2001. At Hewlett High, only 25 percent of the students who took the test scored above the passing mark of 65, and as a result, the school decided not to count the results on the students' transcripts.
Lawrence opted not to take the test in 2003 after a similar controversy arose over the questions on the 2002 test.
It's all in the planning stage, said Susan Pratt, Hewlett-Woodmere's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, of the possibility of an alternative exam. We're still hoping the state changes the exams.
According to Pratt, Hewlett-Woodmere and the other districts considering the new test would like to see the exam reflect the core physics curriculum. There is a very wide range of topics that can be covered on the exam, and we want to make sure that the questions included are part of the core curriculum, said Pratt. Our main concerns are to encourage the students to take physics and not to abandon it because of the Regents.
If Hewlett-Woodmere and the other school districts offer the county test, the students would still have the option of taking the Regents exam. Pratt believes that if the students take the county test instead of the Regents, it would not negatively impact how colleges judge their transcripts.
The past two years, some schools have not sent the physics Regents exam and have explained why, and it does not seem to have affected anything, said Pratt.
I have a lot of problems with what the state is doing with the Regents, so for that reason I would support the superintendent if this [the alternative exam] is his recommendation, said school board president Richard Braverman. I have a lot of problems with all these high-stakes exams. I am in favor of alternative methods of assessment, and I would certainly look favorably upon any recommendation that calls for an alternative to the Regents.
Pratt wants to make clear that the proposed new test is not by any means a way of decreasing standards. We're not lowering standards, she said. We're trying to provide an exam of questions that students should know and that is fair.
Pratt said that the 1992 decision by then Education Commissioner Dr. Thomas Sobol to break up departments, which the current education commissioner, Richard Mills, has maintained, is another reason for the drop in scores and why so many superintendents are upset. The breaking up of departments meant that instead of having specialists in subject areas like science, generalists make up the exams today.
They don't have a physics associate anymore, said Pratt. The process has changed, and I think that is why so many superintendents are complaining.
Hewlett High School Principal Joyce Bisso is open to the idea of the new exam after disappointing results last year for the second year in a row. We gave [the 2003 Regents] a second chance, and it proved to have the same issues embedded in it as the 2002 exam, said Bisso. We felt there was enough controversy to pay attention to the issue.
The Department of Education has not yet responded to the possibility of some of the Nassau County schools creating their own test. Because this is a policy issue that is in flux right now, we are not going to make a comment about what Nassau County districts are considering doing, said Department of Education spokesman Jonathan Burman.
The first of a series of meetings on the possibility of a Nassau County physics exam will be held on Oct. 14 at BOCES in Westbury, with superintendents, principals and science teachers scheduled to attend.
