The future of Regents exams, students and teachers weigh in

                                                                                       With the exam waivers due to the pandemic mostly a thing of the past, students, including eighth graders, sat for English, Algebra, and Global Regents during the last week of January. The Regents are exit exams that students need to pass in order to exit, or graduate, from high school. New York is 1 of only 8 states that still require such exams.

In order to graduate from high school, students in most New York public schools must pass at least 5 Regents exams: ELA, 1 in math, social studies and science, and any 1 additional exam. Currently, there is a debate about whether New York should eliminate the Regents exams. 

Proponents believe that the exams are a way to make sure students are meeting uniform standards for graduation, while opponents argue that the tests don’t better prepare graduates for life and that they negatively impact students of color and those from lower income families. The New York State Board of Regents is deciding what to do about the issue.

Students and staff had differing viewpoints on the benefits of the Regents and if they should be a graduation requirement.

“I think that the Regents are useless. I’ve only had to take 5 and the rest got waived due to Covid, but either way it shouldn’t determine whether you graduate or not,” said Jade DeFraitas, a senior and president of QSI’s National Honor Society. “For graduation, I think the only requirement you need is taking required classes and passing.”

Tenth grader Geraldine Qiu agreed. “[Graduation should be] based on the electives you choose or your performance in other classes,” she said. She believes that graduation requirements should be connected to a student’s interests or on what they want to pursue in life, not on passing Regents exams. 

Students weren’t alone in believing that it’s time for the Regents to go. 

“I have never felt that the Regents are fair,” said Katie Finn, a humanities teacher. Finn thinks that it “stinks” that a test determines whether or not you graduate from high school. “Ultimately, I think that if you are passing your classes and are doing well, it should be sufficient.” 

Teacher Riain Molloy, agreed. “If you have a class room full of 25-30 kids that all learn differently at different phases, to have them all prepare for one test in June, its not a fair assessment of someone’s individual ability,” he said.  Molloy thought that a fairer way would be “an interest-based project that can show students’ growth.” 

In written answers to emailed questions, Assistant Principal Stephanie Barnes said that she “believe[s] they are a poor measure of student learning.” Instead, Barnes believes that a good substitute for taking the Regents exams could be having all students make a big exit project to reflect on what and how much they learned throughout high school and present it. 

Some teachers also thought exit projects could replace the Regents. 

“If the Regents go away there needs to be some kind of exit project or portfolio that students add to throughout the course of their time here,” said Alina Kalantorov, 10th grade humanities teacher. She warned that this could be “very complicated [and] it needs to be very organized and very consistent.”

Kalantarov’s co-teacher, Adam Bleecker added that it would need to be objective, such that  “any person that grades it, will give [the student] the same grade, regardless.” 

However, some students thought we should keep them.

Arshdeep Kaur, a senior, wasn’t bothered by the Regents graduation requirements. “I think the concept of Regents isn’t a bad thing [because] it makes sure that like all schools across the states are being taught material to a certain extent,” she said. “I think that like a lot of schools, especially ours, don’t have midterms and don’t have finals so the Regents are kind of our replacement.” 

Sophomore Thomas Rendon also thought it was fine to have the Regents as mandatory for graduation. But, when asked about how he would feel if New York got rid of the Regents, he was fine with that, too. 

“If we weren’t gonna have it in the future, I feel like having grades that meet standards to graduate would be better,” he said.