By Jennifer Marino
After debating for over a week, the State has decided not to change a grading system that Rockville Centre and many other school districts statewide found flawed. Instead they are offering the physics regents in August, something it has not done in the past.
Administrators are still angry. The opportunity for kids to retake the exam in August is an admission by the State that the results in the first test are wrong, said Dr. William Johnson, superintendent of schools.
He noted that the State didn't notify the school districts about the August exam until July 2, after students and teachers had been on summer vacation for a week.
Johnson and South Side High School Principal Carol Burris explained that they have to try to find a teacher for the review course, to get approval from the board for the appointment and to spend the money that is not in the budget. Then they have to find a place for the students to take the test in August.
Administrators do not know what schools will be offering the exam and the kids may have to be bused somewhere to take it.
Burris maintains that the real problem, the translation from the raw score to the scaled score, hasn't been addressed. Teachers, principals and administrators alike had problems with the way the raw score was turned into a scaled score. South Side physics teacher Tom Hessel explained that it was a negative curve in which getting 68 percent of the test correct resulted in a scaled grade of 65.
This year about 76 percent of South Side students passed the Regents. In 2001, 94 percent passed.
The school district is still considering a lawsuit as an option, according to Johnson. They have been in contact with their attorney and are gathering information.
Hessel and Johnson say scoring was only part of the problem. South Side was still receiving information about the test as late as April and they got the first sample test in November, giving teachers less time than usual to prepare students for the new, harder test.
[The State Education Department] had a responsibility to provide teachers with a sample test that was more complete and reflected the new test construction much earlier than November
