NYS Regents Dilema

Growing up in central New York I was constantly exploring other areas to move to once I was "all grown up". One of the ways I "researched" was talking to my cousins, who lived in Arizona and Pennsylvania. The most common topic that my cousins and I would talk about is school. We were always comparing our schools, and with that came many discussions about state tests that we needed to take. Of course they had different state-wide tests in Arizona and Pennsylvania than I had here in New York, but many of the subjects being tested were the same (math and ELA). The regents is an entirely different story though.

None of my relatives, outside New York state, had any knowledge about the rigorous Regents exams. They knew about the SAT's and ACT's but the idea of a high stakes, comprehensive, state-wide "final" (the Regents) was lost on them. I remember the stress, pressure, massive study sessions, assignments from past test booklets, the nerves... everything about those exams. My relatives had no idea and they couldn't possibly imagine the tension felt in our classrooms during this time. The most fascinating fact about Regents, for my cousins, was the school calendar during Regents week. I personally believe that high school students in New York state deserve to have a few days off from school during the weeks of Regents exams -they've earned it!

All of the "background" aside, I clearly remember not worrying at all about taking my SAT exam because I knew that the colleges I wanted to get into were in New York. That meant the colleges took into consideration all of my Regents scores. The SAT was one of the least pressured test I have ever taken. I scored a 1020 on this "college acceptance" test (as my cousins called it) but that made no difference to me because I had passed every Regents exam that I took. Getting into college was a breeze for me and my low SAT score did not reflect on my applications.

What if NYS did not have the Regents testing? Would I still have had an easy time being accepted to college? Would my SAT score have been enough to get in? When I heard that NYS was discussing the possibility of cutting some Regents exams I was neutral.

Teachers will not have to "teach to the test" if there are no more Regents, which can be a very good thing. But the lack of such state-wide tests means that a school in Rochester may teach one curriculum while a school in Oswego might teach a much different curriculum. I like the continuity of the Regents because it provides schools throughout the state with a curriculum to follow.

My out-of-state cousins did not have the luxury of Regents so they had enormous pressure surrounding the SAT exam. I enjoy the fact that I had Regents testing because it took away pressure while taking the SAT exam, it gave me more confidence in my education (because I had passed all of the tests), and my 'Regents Diploma with Honors' degree meant something to colleges. I understand that the Board of Education needs to make cuts because of the lack of resources, but I'm just not sure about the idea of cutting 13 Regents exams. It will definitely be very interesting to follow this story and see what the Board of Education decides to do.