By: Jennifer Marino and Angela Marshall
Although the state's eighth-grade math exam is meant to predict how students will fare on the state's Math A Regents, this was hardly the case for Rockville Centre students. While only 61 percent passed the eighth-grade exam, according to results released last week, 93 percent of those same students have already passed the higher-level Math A Regents.
Confused? Just wait.
The Rockville Centre School District has accelerated its curriculum so that the eighth-grade test is given in seventh grade and the Math A Regents, usually given to students across the state in 10th grade, is administered to Rockville Centre students in eighth grade.
This means that the students in question took the eighth grade test during the 2002/2003 school year when they were in seventh grade and took the Math A Regents last year, the 2003/2004 school year, when they were in eighth grade. The results for the exam they were given in seventh grade, which implied that only 61 percent of the students were on target to pass the Math A Regents, weren't released until last week, a year after those same students took the Math A Regents and 93 percent of them passed.
Phew.
The district said students do poorly on the eighth-grade math exam because they are already being taught what they need to know for the Regents and not what is on the eighth-grade math test. Administrators don't believe it would be an effective use of class time.
Superintendent of Schools William Johnson called the eighth-grade test results meaningless, and criticized the state for not making the test optional. He pointed out the state does allow for an exemption to the eighth-grade science exam for students who take a science Regents in eighth grade.
When Newsday released the eighth-grade test results last week without explaining why Rockville Centre's scores were so low, it started a firestorm of phone calls to the school district. "We get about one an hour," said Johnson, explaining that the calls prompted him to draft a letter explaining the situation. The letter should reach district residents sometime this week. Johnson said the district also received calls from real estate agents who said the statistics could negatively affect property values in Rockville Centre.
The superintendent said it is the end results that show just how well Rockville Centre students are prepared to meet the graduation requirements. "While the average graduation rate for Regents diplomas for the state is 56 percent and for Nassau County is 72 percent, Rockville Centre's Regents diploma rate is 94 percent," Johnson wrote in the letter to residents.
Comments about this story? JMarino@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 285.
