Three times a year, the office door opens and the courier brings in several locked steel boxes filled with Regents test materials that are then kept under lock and key until the morning of the exams. This protocol has been strictly enforced in all New York State schools since the early 20th century. In fact, at one time, The New York State Education Department gave as many as 67 various Regents exams to measure if a high school student was qualified enough to graduate from high school!  Presently, a student must take at least 5 exams over three years in order to graduate. Testing sessions are scheduled in June, August and January. However, with the constant threat of bad weather and school closures in January, The New York State Education Department should consider moving the January session to November or March.

Seniors who have yet to pass one of the critical five exams needed for graduation rely heavily on the January test period. Traditionally, when school has been closed, the Regents exams are also canceled and students must wait until the June session to take the test. This adds additional pressure to students who are already under great stress to pass these high stakes exams in order to leave high school. By moving the exam session to November or March, the threat of an exam cancellation would be much less and alleviate much of the duress that the students are under.

Thankfully, this year, NYSED made a historic decision and allowed schools that were impacted by the “Blizzard of 2015” to reschedule any of the missed Regents exams during the course of the week. This was extremely beneficial to those seniors who had graduation hanging in the balance. However, the wintry weather made rescheduling complicated and also raised questions about security of the tests around the state.

With high schools around the nation focused on reform, a January Regents session makes it virtually impossible for schools that want to move to a Copernican block schedule. If the Regents exam for a course is canceled due to weather, the students face the possibility of taking the test in June after not having direct instruction in the subject area since January. On occasions when this has happened, New York State has given students credit for the canceled exam, but NYSED  is unpredictable in these situations and schools can not guarantee that this would be the outcome. Therefore, most schools avoid any type of creative scheduling in order to comply with the testing schedule and delay needed reform.

Besides the additional stress that the weather can bring to January Regents testing, this testing week causes a complete disruption to learning. Many high schools stop all instruction to give the Regents tests and combine it with a Mid-Term Testing Week. In the era of increased testing, a week of summative testing is not the best use of time. Either students are immersed in long exams all week or they are home with very little to do. Furthermore, the reality is that students who are weak academically are further penalized with a long, arduous week of testing that sometimes can turn into even longer if there are weather related cancellations.

At Millbrook HIgh School, we are brainstorming new and innovative ways to maintain the January testing session without stopping instruction for the entire week. However, if the state continues with the January testing session, it will continue to be difficult for those struggling students who are removed from classes in order to retake their Regents exams.