Standardized tests: new standards

Continued from Cover

According to senior Daniel Malinovsky, he was one of five scheduled for the
Hebrew exam.
"There are SAT Us for Hebrew, but they do not offer listening or speaking like
the Regents do. They [SAT Us] are much harder," said Malinovsky.
The Hebrew exam requires an outside proctor to come in to administer
the listening and speaking sections of a test, since it is not offered within the
curriculum. This was an additional expense.
The world language department is not the only department experiencing
changes. The new English Regents will be implemented in January 2011. Instead
of the six hours of testing in a two-day period, there will be one day of three hours
of examination.
"The skills that students will be expected to demonstrate are the same:
reading, writing, listening. Everything that they have been preparing for," said
English chairperson Raina Ingoglia
There will be two short writing responses and a full essay compared to the
four full essays of previous years. This makes the test a lot less writing intensive.
"It is less of an endurance test. Writing two essays in fbree hours was a
weighty task for anyone," said Ingoglia,
Recently the state has begun to re-evaluate Regents standards. According to
The New York Times'July 19, 2010 article "State's Exams : Easier to Pass,
Education Officials Say," a Harvard study was done and showed that New York
students' test scores had dropped from the 36th percentifc nationally in 2007 to
the 19th percentile in 2009. Ironically, state test scores wane increasing. This is
surprising to some, as the Regents are seen as a difficult «»^fr
"I: think the Regents, based on my experience in : :ols, is very
rigorous. Compared to the California High School Exit Exam, the Regents is more
challenging," said English teacher Kevin Dineen.
Teachers, students and administration may continue to see changes to
exams.
"The Regents and I are committed to giving tests better aligned to
national standards and that measure the skills and knowledge necessary for
success in school, college and the workplace," said Ed «-a*im Commissioner
David Steiner in the June 22 NYSED memo. 0

Which Regents are being cut?