Regents Tests’ Passing Scores May Be Raised
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The Board of Regents started yesterday to look into just how poorly the high-school students of New York State are doing. Officials said they were doing so with the aim of raising standards for high-school graduation statewide.
The board received new data, tracking the 222,720 students in the state who entered the ninth grade in public schools in September 2000. By graduation last June, 67% had graduated with a local or a Regents diploma. About 17% continued school, 12% dropped out, and 2% enrolled in a GED program.
Of the students who took the Regents exams, 92% scored a 55 or higher on five of the exams, which are required to graduate. A substantial 77% of students demonstrated “proficiency” on their five exams, with scores that exceeded 65. The problem, state officials said yesterday at a news conference in Albany, is not the passing rate. It’s the high proportion of students who don’t take the exams at all.
In New York City, 31% of students don’t take the English Regents, 32% don’t take math, 29% don’t take Global History, 38% don’t take U.S. history, and 30% don’t take science, the data showed. That ranges from roughly double to triple the statewide averages, depending on the test.
The chancellor of the Board of Regents, Robert Bennett, and the state education commissioner, Richard Mills, said the problem is that students are entering high schools unprepared to take on high school-level work.
That, he and Mr. Mills said, doesn’t mean the Regents should drop standards so more people can pass.
“We have to keep the academic expectations high but change the way high school works,” he said. “It’s about changing the conditions for success.”
Mr. Bennett said he and the other regents are interested in requiring all students to achieve five scores of 65 on the high-school exit exams. Currently, students can graduate even if they score a 55, though that score does not demonstrate proficiency in the subject.