By Jennifer Marino
Rockville Centre, along with other Nassau districts such as Oceanside, Long Beach and Baldwin, is looking into developing its own exam. The same consultant who worked on the Regents has been hired to help conceive the county exam.
Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said that the consultant's work for the state had been valid and reliable, but the state trashed his reports. The problem with the 2002 test, as seen by many districts throughout the state, was not the difficulty of the exam, but the scoring. The score that determined who passed was set too high, school officials say.
Michael Book, who teaches math and International Baccalaureate physics at South Side High School, said that in 2002 the raw scores of the students were about the same as in past years, but more failed because the score required to pass was higher.
The countywide test is the only alternative that you can consider, said Book, if schools want kids to continue to take physics. Otherwise, students wouldn't want to put in the effort of taking a challenging course like physics only to be presented with an unfair test that they have a good chance of failing, he said. Book said that his students expressed concern to him about the Regents and found the poor grades discouraging.
Besides the problems with physics, the Math A Regents given last spring also had its issues. Failure rates were up, and the concern was even deeper, because it is one of the Regents students need to graduate. At the end of August, the New York State Department of Education released a new scoring chart for the test. The new chart changed the scores so that students taking the June 2003 test received a grade similar to what they would have earned if they had taken the June 2002 test.
Anxiety about the Regents exams is reaching new heights, because this year's seniors will be the last class with the option to graduate with a local diploma. The juniors in the class of 2005 must earn Regents diplomas. This means they have to pass Regents with a 65 in Math A, science, English, Global History and Geography and United States History and Government.
According to South Side Principal Carol Burris, 5 percent of seniors are graduating with the local diploma this year. The juniors are doing well, she said, though it is a struggle for some. So far, they have taken Math A, Global History and Geography and at least one science Regents. That leaves two more Regents, in English and United States History and Government, for them to take this year.
Generally, students do not take Regents in their senior year. There are some exceptions, such as students who didn't pass a Regents the first time and plan to take it again.
The school district is doing what it can to help students pass Regents early. Kathy Horace, South Side High School PTA president, has two children, an eighth-grader and a sophomore at South Side. She feels that Rockville Centre is a cut above and feels bad for kids in other districts, even if the students in Rockville Centre are struggling. I think what the Regents did to kids in this state is unfair, she said.
Rockville Centre has pushed the curriculum down so that Horace's eighth-grader will have taken the Math A regents by the end of this year. Horace sees it as one fewer test for students to think about in high school.
It is hard for us as parents, she said. Horace tries to help her children maintain a balance in their lives, staying on top of school work but allowing time for them to just be kids, too. She is thankful that the district maintains a well-rounded curriculum, with music, art and sports as well as academics. One problem she sees is that the state keeps pushing standards higher but not the funding, and now the federal government is joining in enforcing high standards that are unfunded.
Her children, she says, have the same concerns that any kids do. Her son in high school sees that he has to take advanced classes to keep up with his peers and to get into a good college. They complain about the big workload, like any other students.
In talking with other parents, Horace thinks that the parents of juniors are bearing an unusual burden as the first to have to live up to the new graduation standards. As the years go on, it will be easier, as students are prepared for the standards earlier, she said.
For now, South Side Principal Carol Burris is pessimistic about the Regents exams and all their problems, but optimistic about the students. I have lost faith in the Regents, she said. I don't think that the problem will be fixed until there is a different philosophy among state education leaders.
A task force has been set up to look into the physics exam and make recommendations to the Board of Regents. After the task force makes a report, a final decision is expected to be made at the board's meeting on Oct. 8 and 9.
Johnson hopes to have a proposal for the Board of Education on the Nassau County physics test this month. It is expected to cost the district about $500.
