Friday, June 15, 2007

NYS Regent Exams are they a valid barometer

I was thinking what was the validity of the NYS Regents Exams. I remember taking them and stressing that I needed to pass so I can pass the course. It was pumped into our head all year. Now pay attention Miss waiting to be pissed off, this will be on the regent exam. Cue in the scary movie music.
Middle One is in the midst of the English Regent, day two. He He day two sounds like some cheesy movie. Now I remember when I was in High School I stressed that their might be some Shakespeare questions on the regent and that I never did read Shakespeare in any of my classes that right before the test I read a lot of crib notes on Shakespeare, while I boned up on Authors etc.
I asked Middle One how he felt about the English exam when he got home yesterday. His answer "It was just another test", I said " Well, what is tomorrow's part? He said, "essays, There are more essays"
So it made me wonder, are the Regents exam an exit test?
Will the scores be waved in our face as a look the Regent Exam scores are up?What a wonderful job Joel is doing, Mayor Mike is the best more Mayoral control. ( ewww gonna hurl my coffee)
Anyway right before I wrote this I read this at Pissed Off (teacher) seems we must be sisters after all, we are starting to think alike

2 comments:

Pissedoffteacher said...

While the math regents is a joke, the biggest joke might be the English regents. I have been tutoring one of my ESL kids for it. Now, I am not an English teacher and had never seen or heard of a critical lens before I started helping her, but had no trouble BSing my way through. I helped her with the reading and other parts also.

The saddest thing is that this girl is only in the country one year. She works hard but knows her English is way below what it should be and there is no doubt in my mind or her teacher's mind that she will pass.

So much for standards. I remember feeling the same way you do about regents exams when I was in high school.

Unknown said...

As a teacher in a low-performing school, I completely understand the pressures to help a kid pass the Regents. What seems most criminal to me is not that teachers want to "help" their students pass, but that every student must pass 5 Regents to be able to graduate high school. We have a large number of special education students and ELLs, some who just came to this country one or two years ago. How are they going to pass these tests fairly? It seems to me that there should be another option. Why not have local diplomas and Regents diplomas like we did in the past? Not everyone's going to college, nor should they. But if you've put in the time and effort, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to graduate. Teachers are pressured to cheat because our school needs to improve or be shut down, but we also, as human being who care about our students, want our kids to get their diploma.
New York State English Regent