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Regents High School examinations, or simply The Regents, are exams given to students seeking high school Regents credit through the New York State Education Department, designed and administered under the authority of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. Regents exams are prepared by a conference of selected New York teachers of each test's specific discipline who assemble a "test map" that highlights the skills and knowledge required from the specific discipline's learning standards. The conferences meet and design the tests three years before the tests' issuance which includes time for field testing and evaluating testing questions.

History

The Board of Regents devised an entrance examination (Preliminary Regents Exams) for students wishing to attend high school that was first administered in 1865. The original purpose of these tests was to distribute funds to encourage “academic” education. These tests are very similar to tests given, to this day, in England and Ireland to determine if children will continue with an academic program or enter a vocational certificate program. The first administration of the High School Regents Exam was in June 1878. From the original five exams (algebra, Latin, American History, natural philosophy, natural geography), the State Education Department expanded the Regents Exams offerings to forty-two tests in 1879; tests were administered in November, February, and June. Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s vocational education Regents Exams were approved and administered, these included, but were not limited to, agricultural science, costume draping, and salesmanship ). By 1970 the number and types of Regents Exams changed to reflect the changes in high school curriculum: vocational exams were discontinued, and the sheer number of exams were either dropped or consolidated as the curricular emphasis trended toward comprehensive examinations rather than the singularly focused tests of the past. Today there is a distinct mixture of comprehensive style exams (English Language Arts, and Foreign Languages) and the “older” singular style exams (Social Studies, Sciences, and Math).

Exam Protocol

The exams themselves are administered according to strict and specific instructions: printed on the cover of each exam booklet is the date and time when the examination is to begin, and the proctor is required to follow specific regulations for administering the test — e.g., regulations for students leaving the room during the tests, the prohibition of cell phone use by students during a test, and the handling of the test papers. Proctors are required to sign an oath stating that they have followed the regulations, and students also sign an oath stating that they have not received assistance or otherwise cheated on the test. If a student's cell phone or any other electronically devices may make noises the student's test will become void, and he/she must retake that regents at a later time.

Diploma Eligibility

To graduate with what is called a "Regents' diploma", students are required to have earned appropriate credits in a number of specific subjects by passing year-long or half-year courses, after which they must earn a score of 65 points or better on the Regents' examination in that subject area. This expectation is in addition to passing the courses themselves, the passing grade of which is based on an individual teacher's or school's own tests and classwork.

Required Exams

To receive a regular high school diploma, students in New York State must pass, with a score of 65 or higher, five Regents Exams: Integrated Algebra (or Math A), Global History and Geography, U.S. History and Government, Comprehensive English, and at least one Regents level science course (Earth Science, Biology/Living Environment, Chemistry, or Physics). To receive an Advanced Regents Diploma, students must also pass an additional Regents science exam, an additional math exam (Math B), and a foreign language exam.

Formats

Most Regents examinations are offered every January, June, and August. Most are normally scheduled to be taken in June, but some students do take them earlier in January; others have an extra opportunity to take them after summer school in August, or the following January, to make up for a previous exam failure.

Most Regents exams are three hours long. The exceptions are the Comprehensive English exam, the Earth Science exam, and foreign language exams. Comprehensive English consists of two separate three-hour exam periods over two consecutive days. Earth Science consists of a 41 minute (approximate) laboratory component usually given up to two weeks prior to the three hour written exam. The format of the Earth Science laboratory component is presently changing. Several of the foreign 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 the following 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).
• Foreign language exams include a third section on listening skills (with passages read aloud by a proctor), and the history exams include a section of short responses (a sentence or two) on primary documents. For both social science exams, two essays are now required and students do not get a choice as to which essay to answer.

In 2005, the Board of Regents began modifying the Mathematics curriculum. An integrated approach that taught topics in geometry and algebra during each of three years, with exams normally taken after a year and a half and again after three years, was replaced by a curriculum that divides topics into Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. Each of these take the form of a one-year course with a Regents Examination at the end of the year. The "Math A" and "Math B" exams are thus being eliminated and replaced by "Integrated Algebra", "Geometry", and "Algebra II and Trigonometry".

English Language Arts

The English Regents requires four essays, each structured differently. Combined, they are intended to assess students' abilities to read, write and listen for:

• information and understanding,
• literary response and expression,
• critical analysis and evaluation, and
• social interaction,

as per the state's standards for English Language Arts.

The exam is administered in two three-hour sessions, usually on different days. There are four separate parts.

• Task I-A: A passage is read aloud to students twice, from which they may take notes. They must then answer six multiple-choice questions and then write a persuasive essay, following several guidelines for a specific audience based on information in the passage.

• Task II-B: Students must follow guidelines to write another persuasive essay, and answer 10 multiple-choice questions, incorporating information based on two documents. One is a written passage typically almost two pages in length, the other is a chart or table.

• Task III-A: Students again develop an essay on a general theme from two different documents, one prose, the other a poem. There are also ten multiple-choice questions.

• Task IV-B: The final section is the "critical lens" essay. Students are provided with a brief quotation, the critical lens, which they must then use as the basis for an essay interpreting two literary works of their choice, often ones they have read in class. There are no multiple-choice questions on this section.

Earth Science Laboratory Practical

The format of the laboratory practical for Earth Science was changed in 2008. Currently, it consists of three sections, each with a time limit of nine minutes. While administering the test, there are multiple stations for each section. Each station uses different data, but the same task. For example, each section 1 station may have different rocks and minerals, though the task will be the same.

• Section 1: Students must identify a mineral by testing various properties, using a provided flowchart. Students must also classify two rocks as igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, and give the reason why.
• Section 2: Students must find the epicenter of an earthquake. Using a provided map, one must triangulate the location of the epicenter using data from three seismograms.
• Section 3: Students must draw an ellipse and compare it to the orbit of a planet in our solar system.

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 from 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 — a 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.

Though all public schools are required to follow either the Regents Exam system or some form of alternative assessment, private schools may or may not follow either of these systems. Most private schools actually do use Regents exams and award Regents diplomas, but some especially academically prestigious private schools do not. These schools' argument is that their own diploma requirements exceed Regents standards. High schools run by the Society of Jesus; Fordham Preparatory School, Regis High School, Xavier High School, Canisius High School, McQuaid Jesuit High School, and Loyola School; have not used Regents exams for decades.

Additionally, in some schools, individual students whose native language is not English can sometimes be exempted from taking the Regents Examination in Languages other than English (RE-LOE) if they complete a sequence in Art/Music, Business, and Technology (usually composed of five credits).

Successfully completed Advanced Placement exams are another example through which a student may become exempt of the Regents examination for that subject. E.g. AP American History in place of the U.S. History and Government Regents.

Regents Competency Test (RCT)

Regents Competency High School tests, or simply The RCT's, are exit exams given to identified special education students with Individualized Education Programs or students with a 504 plan seeking a high school diploma but cannot pass the difficult Regents exams. This is given through the New York State Education Department, designed and administered under the authority of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

The RCT's can be taken before a student fails the corresponding Regents exam if this will help them be less stressed when taking the Regents, so they know that graduation does not hinge on a Regents exam. However there are some RCT exams that must be taken after a student fails the corresponding Regents exam. The RCT's are available for students until they graduate or when they turn 21. If they still cannot pass all of the RCT exams, an IEP diploma is awarded instead. An IEP diploma is not the equivalent to a high school diploma. This is a certificate given to students who complete the twelfth grade but do not pass required testing. It is sometimes referred to as a certificate of attendance. This diploma can be given to special education and general education students.

• Ninth grade
  • Students take the Math and Science RCT in June. This is done incase the students fail the Math and Living Environment Regents which will be taken next year.

• Tenth grade
  • Students take the Math and Living Environment Regents in June. Students will also take the Global Regents as well. Students can take the Global RCT after they failed the Global Regents.

• Eleventh grade
  • Students take the Reading RCT in January. In June, students take the English and U.S. History Regents. Students can take the U.S. History RCT after they failed the U.S. History Regents.

• Twelfth grade
  • Students take the Writing RCT in January if they have failed the English Regents.

There are 6 RCT's that are administered. They can be taken in January, June and August. The Global and U.S. History Regents are the only exception that does not allow students to take the RCT tests before students fail the corresponding Regents exam.

Current Regents Exam List

List of Exams

The following New York State Regents Exams are administered:

• Mathematics
  • Old curriculum - now ending
    • Math A (Elementary Algebra and Plane Geometry) - Final exam in January 2009
    • Math B (Intermediate Algebra, Trigonometry and Precalculus) - Final exam in June 2009
  • New curriculum - now phasing in
    • Integrated Algebra I - First Exam in June 2008
    • Geometry - First exam in June 2009
    • Algebra II and Trigonometry- First exam in June 2010

• Science
  • Earth Science/The Physical Setting
  • Biology/The Living Environment
  • Chemistry/The Physical Setting
  • Physics/The Physical Setting - only offered in January and June

• Languages other than English, only offered every June
  • American Sign Language (ASL)
  • Spanish (Offered every January and June)
  • French
  • Latin
  • German
  • Italian
  • Modern Hebrew
  • Mandarin Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Russian
  • Albanian
  • Modern Greek
• Social Studies
  • Global History and Geography
  • American History
  • US Government and Economic

• English Language Arts
  • Comprehensive English

Regular Regents & Local Diplomas

Note: Students who entered 9th grade in 2004 must attain a 65 or above on one of the required Regents exams and a 55-64 on the remaining four regents exams to achieve a local diploma. Students who have entered 9th grade in 2005 must get a 65 or above on two of the required Regents exams and a 55-64 on the remaining three regents exams. The students who have entered 9th grade in 2006 must acquire a 65 or above on three of the required Regents exams and acquire a 55-64 on the remaining two exams. Students who enter 9th grade in 2007 must score 65 on four of the required Regents exams and score a 55-64 on the remaining regents exam. For students entering in 9th grade in 2008 and beyond, local diplomas will no longer be available, so all students must get a 65 or above on all required Regents exams.

Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation

Minimum grade required for a regents w/ advanced designation to graduate: Same grades as required for a Regent's Diploma.

Promotion

Guidelines for grade level classification are based on this table.

       5 credits                       10th grade standing
       11 credits                      11th grade standing
       16 credits                      12th grade standing
       __
       32 credits

See also

• Virginia Standards of Learning
• California Standardized Testing and Reporting
• Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System
• Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
• Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
• Washington (State) Assessment of Student Learning
• Connecticut Academic Performance Test

References

1. (NYSED, 1987
2. College Now CUNY: High School Graduation Credit and Regents Requirements, retrieved June 15, 2008
3. What kind of student can receive it?, accessed December 16, 2008

External links

• NYS Regents Exams
• Oswego City School District Regents Exam Prep Center
• New York Science Teacher: New York State (NYS) Regents Preparation
• The Jefferson Math Project

• Articles needing cleanup from July 2007
• Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from July 2007
• Misplaced Pages pages needing cleanup from July 2007
• Standardized tests in the United States
• Education in New York