Regents Exam shocker

New York Post ^ | Dec. 20, 2001 | Kenneth Lovett, Clemente Lisi, and Carl Campanile

[Lizavetta]

More than one-quarter of the Board of Education's class of 2001 couldn't graduate because they flunked or failed to take the state math Regents exam, new state statistics show.

And 23 percent of the city's graduating class didn't pass or take the English exam, either. The 1997 freshman class was the first to have to pass both the English and math Regents exams to graduate under stricter state Regents standards. Passing math was required this year.

[diefree]

About a month ago there was an 8th grade test posted. It was from around 1900.

I'll bet a lot of college graduates couldn't pass it.

[OldFriend]

High school teachers couldn't pass it and neither could most college professors.

[razorback-bert]

I did almost the same (gave a five dollar bill and seventy-six cents), got handed my seventy-six cents back along with twenty-four cents in change.

[Orual]

The chancellor added that many students who passed Regents exams did so only because the passing score was lowered to 55 percent from 65 percent. By 2005, all students must score 65 or above to graduate. Levy noted that only 56 percent of the group scored 65 or better on the English test. "Fifty-five is not good enough,"Mills added.

Neither is sixty-five.

[Neets]

Did you ever notice that when you go to a conference with a teacher that the teacher talks to you as though you are a 12 year old?

Actually, I very rarely have that problem. It ususally take the entire conference for them to pick their jaw up off the floor and compose themselves after introducing myself

My children are bi-racial, and believe it or not, it still floors most of the teachers I encounter.

By that time, I have already gone into my rant of how I am an "INVOLVED" parent, so much so that I want to be personally notified anytime my child does wrong, and I encourage little if no slack for any infractions, even if it results in detention or being sent to the principal, and how unfortunate it is we have done away with corporal punishment in the schools. That's another thing that shocks them.

[Orual]

I love to do this because they don't know what to do.

So you're an evil one, too. Heh, heh. Happens all the time and I love the sqirm time.

[Orual]

sqUirm.

[Oschisms]

Yeah, but despite my curmudgeonly manner, I took that exam twice in 1990. ;)

[diefree]

When my daughter was in the third grade, the principal came up with the idea that if one child was naughty then the whole class would have to stay in at recess time. The idea, I suppose, is that peer pressure would cause the bad child to start behaving. HAHAHA. My 8 year old immediately saw the unfairness in this. She was good, why should she be punished for what bad people do.

My husband went to the school and asked the principal, if that during contract negotiations there was one bad teacher, should anyone then get a raise.

Recess resumed for the good children.

[OldFriend]

Eleven years is a lifetime.........lots have changed since then.......namely a succession of terrible terrible Chancellors of Education.....and the emphasis has changed to a social agenda rather than an academic agenda. The tests have been dumbed down.....

[Deckard]

If anyone is interested in what is in the Regents Exam, it's available on the web at http://www.edusolution.com/regentsexams/regentsindexpage.htm

[razorback-bert]

If anyone is interested in what is in the Regents Exam.

When I took them there was one in every major course, every year in high school.

[Lizavetta]

Well lookee here!! This is part of their August 2001 English test:

SESSION ONE - Part A

Overview: For this part of the test, you will listen to a speech about the United Nations, answer some multiple-choice questions, and write a response based on the situation described below. You will hear the speech twice. You may take notes on the next page anytime you wish during the readings.

The Situation: Your social studies class is learning about the United Nations (U.N.). Your teacher has asked you to write a report about the ways in which the U.N. functions in the United States. In preparation for writing your report, listen to a speech by Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, delivered in San Francisco in 1997. Then use relevant information from the speech to write your report.

Your Task: Write a report for your social studies class in which you discuss how the U.N. functions in the United States.

[financeprof]

This is hardly a shocker to me. One of my wife's relatives is currently getting a masters in education at a very prestigious private midwest university. She was so freaked by the impending math exam that she needs to pass for certification that she asked my daughter--who is in 8th grade, mind you--to tutor her. This means that (a) apparently a familiarity with 8th grade math (and not the entire 8th grade curriculum, no less) is all that is required to get certification, and (b) there are some graduate (!) students in education who don't feel capable of doing 8th grade math on their own.

[Deckard]

Here's some of the stuff they're teaching the students as part of "Global History & Geography" (June 2001):

Document 6

The United States and 34 other industrial countries met in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, to discuss world environmental concerns.

Rio Pact 1992  - Agenda 21

The Agenda establishes the following priorities for international environmental action:

• achieving sustainable growth, as through integrating environment and development
  in decisionmaking;
• making the world habitable by addressing issues of urban water supply, solid waste
  management, and urban pollution;
• encouraging efficient resource use, a category which includes management of
  energy resources, care and use of fresh water, forest development, management of
  fragile ecosystems, conservation of biological diversity, and management of land
  resources;
• protecting global and regional resources, including the atmosphere, oceans and
  seas, and living marine resources;
• managing chemicals and hazardous and nuclear wastes.

6 Identify two environmental issues discussed at the Rio Conference. [2]

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Document 7

The selections below are taken from information provided by Greenpeace, an
international environmental and conservation organization

Selection 1

The most important greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂). As part of Greenpeace’s
campaign to protect the ozone layer, Greenpeace developed Greenfreeze technology,
which is a cooling system that is safe for the ozone layer and the climate. Greenpeace
wants this solution to be applied throughout the world to replace [current] refrigeration
[technology].

In 1992, Greenpeace initiated the development of Greenfreeze, an ozone- and
climate-safe refrigeration technology. Greenfreeze uses a mixture of propane and
isobutane for the refrigerant. The technology has spread to other parts of the world.
Cuba decided in 1997 to convert its existing refrigerator factory to Greenfreeze
technology. Companies in Argentina, Turkey, and Russia are also set to produce
Greenfreeze. Strong interest in the techology has also been expressed by companies in
Tunisia, India, Bangladesh, Ukraine, and Belarus.-
An environmental meeting in Montreal, Canada, September 1997

Selection 2

Aerosols
Alternative application methods, such as solid stick and roll-on dispensers, mechanical
pump sprays, brushes and pads are among the wide variety of alternatives in commercial
use. Alternative spray propellants include hydrocarbons, . . . and other compressed gases
such as air and COZ. Many developing countries have switched to, or have always
employed, propellants such as pentane and butane in industrial uses.Even in medical
applications, progress has been made. In Sweden and the Netherlands over 60% of
[people who suffer from asthma] are using dry-powder inhalers.
-“No Excuses Report,” Greenpeace, 1997  

7a What is one environmental problem identified by Greenpeace? [1]

_________________________________________________________________

And from earlier in the test there's this cartoon:

Which reminded me of something written by the late Edward Zehr (who wrote for the Washington Weekly):

"With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Marxists have taken refuge in the environmental movement, their last, best hope for keeping alive the fantasy of a command economy. Since Marxist economics have proven useless as a means of providing for the wants and needs of the people, the new crypto-Marxists have resorted to an attempt to shock and terrify people with 'scary scenarios' of global environmental disaster, whether it be an impending ice age or catastrophic global warming. (Eco-extremists are nothing if not flexible). The bottom line of their message is, "unless you do EXACTLY as we say, you are all doomed to utter ruin if not extinction. " Environmental catastrophe has replaced nuclear winter as the left's "kinder-schreck" (bogeyman) of preference. The object of the exercise is to frighten the public into accepting a much reduced standard of living.

[eleni121]

Mega dittoes!

[Landru]

"If these tests are multiple choice, it shouldn't be hard to guess one's way to a 55 score."

True, true.
But you'd have to show-up to write the damned thing, first; even if you intended on only guessing.

...& this in the state of Chucky & Hitlery?? ~oy

[KC_for_Freedom]

The quality of public education is inversely proportionate to the growth of the NEA.

All of your post was right on target. From a former teacher & CTA member. Teachers could solve the education problem overnight if they would drop union membership and negotiate their contracts as individuals. (Of course some would win big and some would find out that the union has been protecting their jobs. But the kids would be the winners.

[Old Professer]

I worked in a plant that made purses once, one year the supplier shipped us 4 truckloads of pig ears, we worked overtime and weekends for weeks and didn't sell a single purse.

[Straight Vermonter]

This problem would be solved if only we'd give them more money.

No, the answer is to eliminate the test or dumb it down so my cat could pass it. < /sarcasm>