Overview
The Regents Exams in New York State: A rite of passage that every student must conquer on their academic journey. Since 1979, New York State has made it mandatory for high schoolers to pass regents exams to provide schools a basis for evaluating the quality of instruction and learning that has taken place throughout the school year. To graduate, all students must pass at least one ELA, math, science, and social studies exam in order to receive a regents diploma. For every exam, students have three hours to finish, but they are allowed to leave after two hours of sitting for the test. To pass, students need to achieve a score of 65% or higher. To receive a mastery status, they must get 85% or above. Although it is not common, students also have the option to retake the test in August if they failed to pass in June. These tests are notoriously known to be easy to pass as most of the tests have a pretty large curve which serves the purpose of ensuring fairness when scoring the tests. However, students who struggle with test taking because of test anxiety or learning disabilities don’t have another option to fulfill the requirements of a Regents Diploma, which is necessary in order to graduate.
A Teacher’s Perspective
All teachers have different teaching styles, some choose to focus on teaching to the test, while others place an emphasis on teaching material that they feel is important. The high school staff had a lot of crucial feedback regarding exams that provide a perspective unknown to most students. We had many questions asking about how teachers choose to prepare their students while also still teaching the curriculum, and their answers expectedly varied. Even though this approach is not universally favored, here at RHS there is a de-emphasis on “teaching to the test.” Teachers choose to teach more curriculum rather than just focusing on what is seen on the regents exams. Some teachers align themselves to teach more directly to the test because of a few reasons: standardized curriculum, limited time, student success, and accountability. This may not always ensure a student’s success because the tests are different every year and teachers who are “teaching to the test” might cover specific details in a certain topic they should really be making sure their students understand general topics, ideas and subjects. Mrs. Nelson, a current English teacher at RHS, had a bit of a different experience this year because her students were able to take the exam in early January. She expressed that having her students take the test earlier in the year was a great way to enhance and strengthen the pace and curriculum in her class. Additionally, she claims her class felt more authentic for the remainder of the year, allowing for more creative and research-based work.
We asked if teachers think that the exams are necessary and helpful in terms of reflecting on how much a student has learned. Mr. Randall, a geometry teacher in the high school, and Mrs. Nelson revealed that they do not think the tests are necessary but that some forms of testing can be valuable. Mr Randall voices his concern that especially on the math regents exams the curve is much higher than other subjects and a student can get 30% of the test correct in order to pass which doesn’t reflect on what they’ve learned throughout the year. “Although tests are different for everyone, they can show common trends in students’ overall understanding and progression in units of math, science, or aspects of writing and language” stated Mrs. Nelson. For some students, it may not always reflect how they are doing in the class. If a student were to get a fair shot at their final test or big grade at the end of the year teachers thought some other options could include; heavy weighted projects, research assignments, or personalizing an exam for their students to take. Essentially, the teachers felt that the regents exams are not incredibly beneficial or necessary for students because of the lack of information that is able to be gathered by looking at their test scores.
A Student’s View
In order to get some students’ views we talked with Nora Lopez and Caswell Larose, two accomplished juniors at Rhinebeck High School who have taken many regents exams. We found that while they agreed on most aspects of the matter, they did have some opposing views. Both students agreed that if the regents were optional, they would not decide to take them unless they were a requirement for graduation. Lopez stated that she spent “months preparing for the regents” and felt that her preparations were “worth it.” While Larose felt that “preparing was unnecessary.” Also, with the exams being in June it is exceptionally hot outside. Usually, all regents were held in the high school gym but starting last year they were issued to be moved into an air-conditioned unit. They felt that the change in temperature helped them to focus a lot better, but other than the air conditioning it wasn’t any different. Additionally, we found that students experience a lot of stress during the exams. Generally, students don’t do as well or feel as confident in taking an exam they are stressed about. The students expressed that it causes stress because of the impact it has on their ability to graduate, which is huge. Overall, we found that students don’t particularly enjoy regents exams and they wouldn’t take them if they were optional.
Conclusion
Ultimately, we’ve gathered information from experienced students who have sat for plenty of exams and knowledgeable teachers who both feel that the exams do not contribute much to their educational experience at Rhinebeck High School. We found that while they can provide overall trends in students’ academics, they also create a false understanding or illusion of what a student has learned while taking a class. Additionally, they can create insurmountable amounts of stress and anxiety for students causing them to not be able to perform to the best of their ability. We’ve uncovered that teachers have thoughts on a different approach to a final exam and feel that they would benefit from steering away from standardized testing. The exams are viewed as just a part of high school to tackle and get through for most high school students who ultimately feel like they don’t get much out of their exposure to the test.
