New York Regents Examinations
Regents Examinations, or simply Regents, are a set of standardized tests given to high school students through the New York State Department of Education. The exams are designed and administered under the authority of the Regents Board of the University of the State of New York. Regents exams are prepared three years before their issuing by a conference of selected teachers in the specific disipline in New York, and are administered in a rigid manner - each exam will have printed on their cover the date and time of when the examination is to begin, and the proctor for the exam has specific guidelines regarding students leaving the room and the handling of tests. These proctoring guidelines have caused some controversy, such as issues regarding fire alarms.
Required Exams
Students in New York State must pass five Regents Exams (Math A, Global History and Geography, US History and Geography, Comprehensive English, and any science subject) with a score of 65 or better in order to receive a Regents school diploma. If a student scores a 85 or better on a Regents examination, they are judged to have achieved mastery level. If a student has an average of 90 or higher on all regents exams taken, a Regents diploma with distinction is awarded. Most Regents examinations are offered every January, June, and August, except as otherwise indicated below. All Regents are three hours long except the Comprehensive English exam, which consists of two separate three-hour exam periods over two consecutive days. Also several of the language regents have oral exams which are administered before the written test and are not part of the three hour time limit.
Most Regents exams are structured in a two-part format: A multiple-choice section (Part I), which is usually between 30-50 questions, and a long-answer/essay section (Part II), which consists of either a selection of detailed questions for which the work must be shown (for math and physical sciences), or a set of essay topics, of which one or two must be written about in detail (for the social sciences). For both social science exams, two essays are now required and students do not get a choice over which essay to answer.
List of Exams
New York State Regents given are as follows.
* Mathematics
o Math A - roughly corresponding to Algebra I
o Math B
* Science
o Living Environment
o Chemistry/The Physical Setting
o Earth Science/The Physical Setting
o Physics/The Physical Setting - only offered in January and June
* Languages other than English, only offered every June
o Spanish (Offered every January and June)
o French
o German
o Italian
o Modern Hebrew
o Latin
o Russian
* Social Studies
o US History and Government
o Global History and Geography
* English Language Arts
o Comprehensive English
In 2005, the Board of Regents began modifying the Mathematics curriculum. An integrated approach that taught geometry and algebra in all three years with concepts being taught at higher levels in later years was replaced by a more traditional sequence of Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. Accordingly the "Math A" and "Math B" exams will be eliminated and be replaced by three new exams, "Integrated Algebra", "Integrated Geometry", and "Integrated Algebra and Trigonometry". These changes have not yet taken effect and may still be changed.
Exemptions from the Regents Exams
During the 1990s, some alternative assessment schools, similar in character to charter schools, were founded in parts of New York in an attempt to provide a way for students to graduate high school without taking any Regents Exams. Usually, the substitute graduation assessement involved would consist of the review and grading, by a panel of teachers, of an academic portfolio, or collection of the student's best work from all his or her years at the school. From such a "portfolio examination" would be issued a "Regents equivalency" grade for the areas of Math, English, History, and Science, and a "Regents Equivalency" diploma would be awarded to the student at commencement.
However, by the end of the 1990s most if not all of these self-labeled "alternative schools" have been forced to adopt some or all of the standard Regents Exam, and can no longer use portfolio examination criteria as the sole basis for graduation from the school. A notable example of this progression from full portfolio-based assessment to nearly-total Regents Exam based assessment is The Beacon School.