A blogger has posted part 1 of Néw York state’s Regents test in algebra. The test has been aligned with the Common Core. Students must pass this test to graduate high school.
How many of the questions could you answer? How many do you think the members if the Néw York Boardof Regents could answer? How many could members of the State Legislature answer? How many could the editorial writers of the nation answer? How many could Arne Duncan answer?
I wish all those who love tests like this would take it and publish their scores.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
i would be very surprised if more than 20% pass this test.
Here is the dirty little secret. If you attend a private school, you NEVER have to master this material. You can skate through Algebra through ‘private school calculus’ — which means only the top 30% or so take AP level and the rest are never tested against any minimum standard.
THEN you go to a college that doesn’t have a placement exam for math! Guess what? Those happen to be the expensive private liberal arts colleges and Ivy League type universities where private school students are steered to — presumed to be “better” because they don’t test any students coming in! Meanwhile, if you can only afford a community college or most state colleges, you have to prove you know this high level math all over again through a placement exam.
I challenge any so-called “tt” private school to give this exam to ALL its 9th graders. Certainly the ones who are advanced at math can do this work, but a surprisingly high number would struggle and fail, especially if they were not told that they should skip 2/3 of the harder questions to pass. So the poor kids are stuck not being “college ready”, while all the rich kids in private schools never have to be tested! Shame on people who support this double standard.
One cannot take the test as the alternative answers are missing.
I looked at this test and I would do well, with multiple choice maybe 100 percent. But I’m a software engineer doing scientific programming for a living for 25 years. I “should” get 100 percent. Is this for high school 9 th graders? Now, it would be great if a majority of 9 th graders – or any grade actually – could ace this test. But I would think that would be a big stretch. The compound interest question ( or whatever it was) is really beginning calculus- rate of change etc- , it’s not exactly algebra, again, nice if they can understand all these things but I would consider this a test only for “advanced”, highly motivated students. Given the extremes in poverty, family life, I would say that it’s highly likely that the grades on a test like this will be all over the map – a few high, a lot low, depending on affluence and family stability. Can anyone provide me with links to discussions about this test? My kids are grown and I’m very out of touch with math curriculum and expectations.
http://www.nysedregents.org/algebraone/
They don’t want too many people going to college or feeling “entitled” to a good job They are moving to a more German-type of school system. In Germany the top 30% go to college, and the rest go into the workplace at varying degrees. The real truth is that there aren’t enough good jobs, even if everyone went to college. The elites want people to accept their lot in life like in the Victorian times. Yes, college has been dumbed down, but this will also change, mark my words. This system will be more reality based. Now, we are talking about a fantasy of sending all kids to college. There is a bell curve of human intelligence. Not everyone is capable. Everyone today want to be a chief and no one an indian. This is what the elites want to change. Most of our “smart” kids wouldn’t make it through a German Gymnasium, let’s be honest. In reality, maybe only the top 10% are really capable of rigorous academic work at grad school and beyond.
“There is a bell curve of human intelligence.”
No there isn’t!
The difference being that the schooling in Germany for non-college bound students is at a much higher level than it is here. Because it is not assumed that everyone will go to college, they make sure that the other 70% have real skills that can be used in the workplace. The differences in equipment, mentoring and apprenticeship opportunities for students going into something like car mechanics is 100 times better than the pitiful second thought stuff we give our kids in the US.
Germany also limits outsourcing. We encourage it. Germany wants to retain good jobs.
Very well put by Steve and Ted411.
I’m still puzzled by the scale. Why is it necessary to drop the scores of the students who scored between 81% and 99% by at least 1 point? (i.e. 80/86 yields a scaled score of 92, although it’s 93%).
I think it would be a great and humble gesture if high profile adults in policy and government and lobbying circles would start taking these tests and posting their results.
We’re (supposedly) teaching kids to take risks, right? To try and fail?
Let’s see some bold adult risk-taking. I need to measure the “skills gap” among people with prestigious jobs in my generation who have made it their mission to scold 14 year olds on “grit”. We need their data.
I would love to see Cuomo, Tisch and the Board of Regents take this test. They need a reality check.
I’m serious. That’s what leaders do. They go first.
I thought it was great when the ed journalist (USA Today?) took the CC test. Brava! She’s not afraid to take a risk.
It’s not even high stakes for them, other than ego.
I went thru the CC math test with my 6th grader. The one they posted online. I was curious and if he’s to be ranked on these scores I want to know how difficult it is. He got some right and I got some right. He’s faster than I am. I think he liked that I tried.
I think Arne Duncan and Tom Friedman should take the lead on this. Go first.
They’d cheat and have the answers already. Paraphrasing Coleman “They don’t give a shit about what they’d do on that test.”
I have taught algebra and algebra II. The questions are all reasonable but they seem more aligned with the rigor expected in Algebra II. It is not likely that 14 years-old students are going to do well on this exam, but isn’t that the point? Clearly CC$$ was never about good pedagogy. It was always about setting a national standard that could be used for control and profit. It was always about improving the system of sorting winners from losers.
Why should 100% of all students pass this exam in order to graduate high school? I took two years of algebra in high school and I could not answer most of the questions. Also, I have never used algebra since I left high school. That was 60 years ago.
When my math students ask when will I ever use this stuff, I answer them honestly and tell them probably never, but it is a good exercise in learning how to learn. What chaps my hide is making this stuff a high school graduation requirement. It is just needlessly destroying kids that have a lot to contribute to society.
It is only a high school graduation requirement for public school students. You can go right from your $50,000/year private school to an Ivy League college on your writing talents and decent scores on the math section of the SATs (which requires far less knowledge than doing well on this exam) and never have to take anything but the equivalent of “rocks for jocks” in college. If you are rich, you are just presumed to be “college ready” — no need for testing!
Diane, Now that’s the kind of meaty response that I like. Let’s end the reign of the
charlatans, and tell it like it is. Direct those teachers who follow your blog to express themselves with outrage, and paint those who demean teachers as the tyrants that they are. We need to attack the level of arrogance that they exhibit by putting them to the test. Let’s end the charade, and eliminate all administrative titles and change the school culture, and rename those positions to be called support personnel who are subservient to the teachers. Let teachers regain their status in society. They will listen to you Diane.
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Not giving a high school diploma simply because someone does not pass such a test would be cruel and unusual punishment, banned by the eighth amendment to the Constitution.
But Andrew Cuomo, Meryl Tisch and others on the NY Regents obviously like torturing and punishing children — and teachers, with their VAMs. These people are just sick.
It’s certainly not the NY State I grew up in.
You could not pay me enough to move back in the current climate.
What’s next?
Making kids pass a test on Einstein’s General Relativity field equations as a requirement for high school graduation?
The basic rule of “reform” is that no matter how absurd it is today, it will get even absurder (is that a word?) tomorrow.
I will leave expressing “reform absurdity as a function of time” as an equation as an exercise for the reader.
TAGO! on the last two sentences!
In my state, students now have to pass the U.S. Citizenship test in order to graduate. It’s effective starting with the class of 2016, but none of us have seen the test yet.
It looks like this is going to be mandated in Wisconsin too. Here are the questions.
Click to access 100q.pdf
Are there any states where students are not required to take U.S. History? We are also required to take and pass tests on both the state and national constitutions in Illinois, I believe. This redundant jumping through hoops seems counterproductive.
Utah requires U.S. History in 5th, 8th, and 11th grades, as well as a civics class in 11th or 12th grade, but the kids now still have to take the citizenship test. VERY redundant.
“College ready or college already?”
“College ready”?
or “College already”?
Reformster high school goal
Algebraic?
Or all gibber-wayick?
Takes a terrible toll
Are you kidding me? It’s simple algebra. It’s not ridiculous at all.
Let’s ensure that more students don’t receive a high school diploma. Then, they can take the newly-designed, CC-aligned, “rigorous” GED and – in all likelihood – fail that as well. More profits for the College Board whose president David Coleman was hired specifically to raise its declining marketshare. Profitability is the corporate mantra, and it pervades all that we do in education today. And, as an added benefit, how else can we limit the opportunities of those less fortunate and less privileged and prevent them from finding success and fulfillment as they strive – against huge odds – to attain “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
If I may add to your sentence: “Then, they can PAY FOR AND take the newly-designed, CC-aligned, “rigorous” GED and – in all likelihood – fail that as well.
As a math teacher of twenty years, I would say the test is generally fair–if it were an Algebra TWO exam. Way too advanced for beginning algebra, in my opinion.
This seems to be the theme of the tests aligned with the CCSS. They are asking students to take a test that is a year or two above where they are in either academics or development in the lower levels. What is terrible about this test is that it is a gateway test that must be passed to get a diploma. I got this post from a friend stating that they will be grading on a curve so they don’t have a parents’ revolt. http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/2015/06/19/answering-little-more-than-one-out-of-three-questions-correctly-still-gets-a-passing-grade/29008025/
I heard that the passing score is 30 out of 86 points. The NYSED has assured everyone that this score aligns the passing rate with the non-CC passing rates of previous years.
Uh-huh.
Click to access algone62015-cc.pdf
Is that 6 pts an anomaly? In other words are the rest of the questions of lower value? If so, it’s pure bullshit. Then I’d be teaching my students (if I taught AP and/or other subjects where the students are subjected to this crap) to look through the whole test, find the highest point ones (perhaps after finding and doing a few preliminary easy questions) and do them first.
The whole exercise/test is a crock anyway. Who the f. . . are the people that do this sort of deception, joke, chicanery, deceit, dishonesty, scam, shell game, stunt, cheat, cheating, chicane, con, double-dealing, dupery, flimflam, fraud, guile, hoax, quackery, shenanigans, sting, bait and switch, double-cross, hanky panky, fast shuffle, fourberie, funny business, snow job, swindling, underhandedness and there are many more. (Thanks to thesaurus.com)
If I may correct your last sentence “This should NOT be happening AT ALL”!
Thanks for the info, Ted411!
That is just sick, but a great example of the insanities that make up standardized testing.
“The whole exercise/test is a crock anyway. Who the f. . . are the people that do this sort of deception, joke….snow job, swindling, underhandedness and there are many more. (Thanks to thesaurus.com)
Is that your short response to the 6 point short response question?
“0”
If the little turdies, I mean toadies, I mean kiddies can’t pass this simple math test then why should they be allowed to graduate. Keep them in school until they pass it (hell, it’s cheaper than prison.)
Is this comment meant to be humorous or mock the test?
I don’t appreciate students being spoken of with such a lack of respect.
Duane, you have to add a snark alert to your posts. The old timers know where you are coming from, but the newer folk…don’t. Next time I forget, you can remind me. 🙂
In a sane world, Duane would not need to add a snark alert.
That’s only necessary in Wonderland and Reformerland, where a snark is lurking under every Bush.
I think they want to end the practice of accelerated middle school kids taking the Algebra Regents so they can get them to take the 8th grade Common Core math test.
This may be true, about middle school. I think what’s definitely at play is the state wants to be able to use this test for many years to come and has set the passing score 30/85 (!!) very low so that over the course of 4-5 years they can raise the passing score over time and show that progress has been made as teachers begin to teach to a harder test than before. At the end of that time when a passing score is 50/85 or something like that, only then will it be the case that a student actually has to answer any significant portion of the open-ended questions to pass.
That, to a bureacrat, is called progress.
The passing score is set to be raised to 75% for the class of 2020 (current 5th graders). The number of points out of the 85 possible has not been established yet. The passing rate for the ELA is going to be increased to 80%. NYSED has labeled these new more “rigorous” passing rates as “aspirational levels”
I remember taking a test to teach in California, back in the 80’s. I never studied for the essays , there were 2, nor the reading. I got the highest scores on both. I studied for one month, all day every day for the math and barely passed. When I taught 4th grade math kids would slip into my room at recess and lunch because being math challenged i knew how to get rid of the horrid , complicated explanations of division etc and just show them how to do it. Like Diane I never have used any of the math I studied so hard for, not once. I have used the writing and reading a thousand times or more. It would seem to me I would flunk the new York test, and not go to college. And yet my iq is 146 and I graduated from uc Berkeley. I can think, reason, write, etc. But I simply hate math. Why then do I have to be a math whiz to graduate. Basic math I see. Percentages, division, etc. But why algebra? Unless I want to go into tech industries or research I just don’t need it. I wonder how many really bright, math challenged people are being held back from graduating and higher education by the math snobs who wrote this test ?
One of the best math materials I ever saw was “Math Their Way,” which was written by a woman that struggled with math her whole life. She created materials that would have helped her make better connection to some of the basic concepts using manipulatives. It helped many young students get a firm foundation before doing problems in the abstract.
Please tell me this is an exam for Asian students sitting out for national college entrance admission. The way questions are described (in English) tells me that this is even more difficult than Japan’s annual National Central Examination held every January. I’m not sure how many 3rd-year high school students are able to get the right answers, even though all questions are translated into their language.
NY state regents would be so dumb and stupid if this is mandatory to all ELL students.
I taught college algebra and remedial math for the better part of a decade. I don’t see why this is so controversial. The questions mostly look like algebra questions as they existed well before Common Core. A few were slanted to CGI type learning but those where the easy ones where you didn’t have to crunch any numbers. If “pass” means 60% then I guess I don’t see much of a problem with this…I’ll be sure to check out Part 2 when it gets posted.
knight427,
This may be a good algebra test, but do you think it should be a requirement for high school graduation? Why must every student master algebra? I agree that the ability to read, write, and do basic mathematics is crucial, as is a fundamental understanding of American government and history for citizenship. I don’t see the case for algebra as a necessity for all.
Diane, I’m a math teacher in California.
Algebra is basic literacy in math and science. Without it, you cannot read high school science textbooks or any of the rest of high school or college level math. It is the basis for how computers are programmed, including even simple things like putting together a spreadsheet. Although there are examples of teachers using it as an unnecessary prerequisite to weed out students who don’t have good study skills, it is legitimately a prerequisite for anything the least bit technical. The important parts of algebra have been around for thousands of years, and it’s taught at the age it’s taught because of the near universal agreement among math teachers across cultures and eras that it is that important for making sense of the world and further studies in math. If you are going to suggest that there is math other than algebra that young people should study in high school, you have to say what that is, because what we teach now really is more or less the consensus of hundreds of years of civilization.
At the same time, many students are entering high school with credit for algebra and study math for four more years. The students who wouldn’t even expected to learn algebra–and you know they would be poor and minorities–would be second class citizens, even more than from trying to learn algebra and failing.
If you really want to make algebra optional, at what age do you propose making this decision? That’s saying to a student, “We don’t think you can understand math, so we are closing off the possibility of you understanding the modern world or pursuing a career that involves technology or numbers.” This seems to me to go against everything you stand for. We could do a much better job of supporting students who struggle with algebra, but we certainly ought to be able to get everybody through it by the end of high school–right now, most schools just make them repeat it over and over even if the problem is that they didn’t learn middle school math very well.
This particular test covers what I would consider second year algebra, which I think all students should take, but which I don’t think should be required to get a high school diploma. But it’s a very different thing to say that students shouldn’t have to know two years’ worth of algebra than that they shouldn’t have to take even the basic version of the class.
Ridiculing math by asking how many adults could pass a test decades after they took the class is a cheap rhetorical trick, and I expect better of you. I have an engineering degree. There are plenty of classes I did well in whose exams I would not pass right now, but that doesn’t mean that the class wasn’t valuable or that the test was unfair. I would also not pass my college history exam right now, either. In math and history, we are trying to teach students patterns of thought, but we cannot do that without also giving them details and facts to work with. We know the details get forgotten, but we hope that they know how to remember lost details and research new ones long after the class is over.
Please reconsider what you said.
Brian, I am in favor of making algebra a required course in high school. I oppose requiring students to pass a test in algebra as a condition of graduating from high school.
Thanks. Fair enough. I agree that everything that goes into my students’ final grades is enough to know if they know algebra and they don’t need another test.
The California graduation test easier than this Regent’s test.
I don’t have anything to add since Brian and you seem to have reached a consensus that I agree with…and no one even brought up Hitler…This blog is awesome.
Here is the same blogger’s post on Part 2: http://mrburkemath.blogspot.com/2015/06/new-york-state-algebra-i-common-core_20.html
I’m waiting to see specific problems identified as precalculus level (as someone claimed about Part 1). I see something about residuals, which technically is a statistics topic, but there’s nothing radically new about having some basic statistics scattered throughout K-12. And from what I see of this particular question, it doesn’t take much to get it right: just knowing one basic fact about residual plots.
There’s one question about the transformation about an absolute value inequality graph. It merely requires describing the horizontal shift rather than what I would ask my students: explain why the relationship between the inequality and the graph: why does that horizontal shift occur? That would be some indication of thinking/understanding (maybe).
As to Diane’s question, should every kid need to pass this test or one like it to graduate? Well, that goes back to my questions in the previous comment I left. Those are political questions about the fundamental assumptions that gave us the system we had even before the education deform crowd gained momentum starting with Reagan and peaking with GWB/BHO. They have to do with the nature and purposes/aims of public education in this country. As things stood before Wall Street began to take over in earnest, children and education weren’t high on the list and assessment played an insidious role even then.
I’ll say this much: mandatory algebra hasn’t given us a numerate nation, not even close. That should tell people a lot but thus far we’re still operating in 19th century Prussia, not 21st century America. Seems to be what the people want, as is evident almost every time something better is offered.
If you’re gonna spend 10K to 20K on a basic education, it better not be all book knowledge. How many practical skills are required for graduation? Cook an omlette, sweat a copper pipe, install a toilet? Just like Algebra 2, even if you never use that skill in your job, the practice is good cross training.
Excuse me mam, but I can’t give you a price on this new rug you selected unless you can tell me the square footage of your living room.
Hold on a minute, I wrote it down somewhere.
[Customer searches her purse]
Oh here it is.
My living room is x4 – 9y^2 square feet.
Rug salesman: Sorry, Ma’m, but I never passed the NY algebra regents test, which is why I work here, cuz I never graduated from high school and couldn’t get into college as a result. You’ll have to dumb it down to a simple number of square feet for me.
Well I did pass the NYS Common Core Regents algebra test, and i must say I’m embarrassed to admit that I can’t help you. We weren’t required to calculate the area of a rectangle in actual square units, just this convoluted representation that still has no meaning to me.
Rug salesman:
In that case, no deal.
We accept dollars, personal checks and credit cards but no x’s and y’s here.
You might try our competitor across the street.
Do you know if they accept contorted algorithms?
Rug salesman:
You’ll have to ask the manager.
His name is David Coleman.
And now that you mention it, I think he does accept contorted algorithms.
He also sells Common Core mattresses , but a word of caution: he doesn’t give a $%@! what you feel or think so don’t bother telling him how much you like his rugs or how comfortable his mattresses are.
Coleman? Isn’t he the guy who lies like his rugs?
Ha ha ha ha!
Yeah, that’s the guy, all right.
And watch out for his pal, too — I think his name is Bill — who likes to hang around.
He’ll try to sell you a VAMcuum for your rug, which really sucks — and not in a good way.
Touche
We are looking at piloting NY’s math curriculum. Hasn’t my district looked at the disaster that has already been created? Why do they want to jump into that burning building? I heard they even have to pay to pilot this ridiculous curriculum. Then they have to pay to test them and watch many fail. When will the madness stop?
You can pilot it for free if you want to print the materials yourself (math at least). Go to eureka math on the web and register for free and you can download the entire set of materials.
These materials are reviewed on Gary Rubinstein’s site. He was not kind in his assessment, to put it mildly.
Isn’t that like piloting the Titanic?
I teach Algebra in NY ….stay away from engageNY and those poorly written modules……you want a decent curriculum go to emathinstruction.com, written by a real teacher. It’s free also…but you have to pay for the answer key….FAR more useable in the classroom .
The CC Algebra curriculum has too much Algebra 2 dumped into it and Algebra 2 is getting pre-calc ….trig as we used to know it seems to be disappearing into Geometry. Also way too much time has to be spent on statistics….I did not even see residuals until college and now it’s on the algebra 1 Regents as a graduation requirement.
In my opinion, probability and statistics should be a separate course and not intertwined in every math course.
There is some small amount of published evidence that integrated math may lead to better outcomes than A1-Geo-A2. Nonetheless, the engageNY materials have now been field tested and I guess there out to be wider scale evidence one way or another, if you could get an honest evaluation of the data.
Still, the progression has to make sense, as everyone on this thread has noted already. In my opinion what Wyoming has done in terms of splitting up the material appears to make more sense than what NY is currently doing in practice (and which several other states appear to be doing as well).
I think there’s a definitely possible way for statistics to build as a slowly growing thread through imath 1-2-3 in an intelligent way. It’s just that, as you say, residuals is not for a first course.
Diane,
I think your point about why every student should have to pass this algebra test to graduate lends itself to a broader discussion of what a good education for pre-K -12 really should consist of. If we’re going to go down the road of algebra not being important for every student, what about reading Shakespeare or learning about Ancient Greek culture? Surely, not every student needs this. Students can’t learn everything in a 12 year span. No one in this world is really ready for college and career (or LIFE for that matter) when they graduate high school. We all know that. We are all finding our way and learning at every point in our lives. I think the most important aspect of school should be that it teaches students HOW to learn and helps them to discover how they learn best. It should encourage curiosity and enjoyment of learning. It should help students QUESTION and debate and discuss and how to reason and make cogent arguments. It should teach students to be organized and require self-discipline. A good education should teach students to be empathetic and civic minded. It should teach students to love and care for the environment and their own bodies and to effectively deal with emotions and failure and problems. I am so glad I have a Liberal Arts education. Since I was exposed to a variety of subjects and learned many of those skills that I listed above, I can learn to do almost any job if I choose. I can teach myself anything. So, I think a good education is less about the specific facts and subjects that one learns, but more importantly, the PERSPECTIVE or philosophy one has about their educational experience. But schools can’t do it alone. The family has a larger influence on children. My mother always said that school was just a jumping off point and that I could learn anything if I knew HOW to learn and had the curiosity and determination to do so. So, I guess, we really also need more discussion on what a basic education for all should look like keeping in mind that variety is always better than a narrow perspective.
Yes
Tago!
Spot on!
Well stated.
First, it’s impossible to evaluate this test as presented and I’m a bit miffed that people are claiming to be able to do so. We don’t have the test as given: just the questions and the answers the blogger says are correct with some reasoning as to why (and he made at least one mistake that his readers corrected). How does anyone judge a (mostly) multiple-choice test without seeing all the choices? Answer: you don’t, at least not definitively.
Second: I find the artificial constructs “Algebra I” and “Algebra 2” rather suspect at best. Mathematics doesn’t work like that. There’s no line of demarcation. Is this really at the so-called “Algebra 2” level? I’ve not taught in NY State, but the problems here really don’t strike me as terribly advanced or challenging from a certain perspective (the one in which kids in high school can read and do 9th grade algebra). Will every kid knock this out of the park? Of course not. But if I’d just finished a one-year class in high school algebra, I’d hope I could do reasonably well on this even without being a highly-motivated mathematics student. It’s just not that hard.
If you want to challenge the politics of the Regents, or of high school exit exams, or of the Common Core, or high-stakes tests, or summative assessment, etc., etc., that’s fine. But let’s not start claiming that every instance of such tests is a terrible test qua test when it’s simply not. What’s specifically wrong with this? Again, absent the scope of answer choices, we really can’t discuss it intelligently, and unless you’ve found errors or material that is GROSSLY misaligned, I’d say it’s a fool’s errand to getting too much into item analysis here.
Could the average NY State regent or legislator pass this? Probably not. I’ve made that point about high stakes tests for about 20 years. I’ve challenged politicians and the rest to take tests like this and publish their results. Of course, I’m not too sure we’d want to have NY State/City high school teachers taking these tests out of their areas of specialization, either. A lot of English and history teachers would flunk this test (full disclosure: I’m certified in secondary English and mathematics, with the latter certification coming about 20 years after the former, and I’ve been helping kids and adults with standardized tests for the last 36 years).
I know in the current era of anti- and pro-Common Core hysteria, it’s hard to find people who are willing to look at these issues calmly. Too many bloggers and commenters on both sides of the debate don’t really care as much about the truth as they do about winning by any means necessary. In the long haul, that’s not going to get us too far, regardless of which side “wins.” Because the fundamental assumptions about public school won’t change once the dust settles and kids will still be stuck in deadly-dull classrooms with deadly-dull teachers and textbooks, wondering why they aren’t allowed to be doing something interesting instead.
For the most part, if we’re honest, school sucks. Teachers are often amongst the worst judges of that reality because they’ve become so utterly intertwined with and invested in the system. Fights over policy and curriculum are important, but they tend to miss the bigger picture: who in his/her right mind, given reasonable options, would sit still for this nonsense for thirteen years?
The problem is that it IS a hard test for students who aren’t mathematically inclined. It is not a difficult test for those who are. It is not just that politicians can’t pass this test — it is that many 9th grade students at expensive private schools wouldn’t pass this test and yet they will have no problem being admitted to so-called top colleges without ever having to pass this test. And once the SAT changes to look more like this exam, I am certain more of those private colleges will make standardized exams optional. They don’t want to lose all those wealthy students who would not be considered “college-ready” if they attended public schools and yet if their parents can buy a $40,000/year education they are considered ready for good liberal arts colleges.
There is only ONE way to make sure these exams are fair — make sure ALL students in the United States of America who want to go to college take it. Not just the ones in public schools. Then we can see what “college ready” really means and whether these exams are embraced by the elites who want higher standards only for other people’s children and not their own.
The other sensible solution would allow students to learn this material more slowly. Rushing a struggling math student through what used to be 2 or 3 years of math education 30 years ago in 1 year is absurd. If we think students need Algebra 1 to go to college, let the ones who struggle spend 2, 3 or 4 years in high school learning this material. And stop making the students who aren’t learning it all at age 14 feel like failures.
This is the problem with “one size fits all” assessment. Non-traditional students, those that are classified, along with many recent ELLs, especially those that are SIFE (students with interrupted formal education) will be deemed failures. Should we just tell them that this country is all about success for the lucky few that happen to have upper middle class parents, or for those that are not disabled? Do we really understand the implications of rejecting on third to one half of our students? We already have the largest incarcerated population on the planet that is costing us a fortune. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have options for those that don’t fit the mold? They can still contribute to the economy, even if they are not superstars in algebra. Why would we want to be more like Europe? I knew a teacher from England that missed his A levels by one point so his family moved to America where he went to college and became a wonderful, effective teacher. America should be about access and opportunity, not rating, ranking and closing doors on people.
Should it be a graduation requirement for self-contained special education students with severe “intellectual disabilities?It is.
NY Teacher, the SPED students will not graduate. What a hateful stupid policy
SPED students can graduate without passing all required Regents exams via the “IEP Diploma” which credits students for meeting their
IEP goals.
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/part100/pages/1009.html
However, NYSED warns school personnel and parents in this memo:
“Most students with disabilities, given the opportunity and appropriate supports and services, have the ability to earn a regular high school diploma. Yet, data shows far too many students with disabilities are exiting high school with an IEP diploma in lieu of a regular high school diploma. While an IEP ‘diploma’ is recognition of an individual student’s achievement of his or her educational goals based on the appropriate level of the learning standards as specified in the student’s current IEP, it is not a standards-based diploma and not recognized in this State as equivalent to a regular high school diploma. Therefore, a student who exits school with an IEP diploma, and not a regular diploma, is likely to be significantly limited in his/her post-secondary education opportunities, employability and earning potential.”
The IEP diploma also comes with a sign that recipients can tape to their back. It reads, “Kick Me”.
How is the cut-off determined?
And ELLs? Do we just kick them to the curb? Maybe we can make reservations at Sing Sing for them.
In Ohio, there is one diploma for all, including IEP students. IEP students must take the statewide tests required for graduation but can be excused from the consequences of failing them.
I used to think it was cruel making students who were obviously not going to pass the tests to take them but now, after reading about NY, Ohio seems positively progressive in having only one type of diploma I should add that it is possible to graduate with honors, but it is still the same diploma.
The problem is not with the algebra test, per se, but with making it a graduation requirement.
How about making portrait painting a requirement for graduation? If the likeness is poor, you fail. As the soup guy in Seinfeld said, “No diploma for you!”
Or how about making playing the trombone a graduation requirement? — and no, clarinet, piano, trumpet, drums, violin etc do not count. No trombone playing (and it must be good), no diploma for you!
Or how about making details of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets a requirement? If you can’t say which play Horatio was in and why he was important and quote sonnets from memory (and other such things), you fail. So sorry, no diploma for you!
Making passing such an algebra test a requirement for high school graduation is just absurd. Completely unreasonable.
Then again
Reason only works
With reasonable folks
It doesn’t work with jerks
And doesn’t work with jokes
It doesn’t work on those
With evil moneyvations
Unreasonable to suppose
That reason rules relations
And PS No, I’m not “anti-math” I got a degree in physics and spent a good part of my career working as a scientific programmer, but myself never used most of the algebra I learned beyond the very basic.
Ironically, it is ONLY a graduation requirement for public school students. If you attend a private school, you can do whatever level Algebra I your school offers — even the most basic — and have no problem graduating and going on to a private college and studying literature or music or law or countless other majors they don’t require this knowledge. As long as your parents can afford $40,000 year for private high school and $60,000 year for private college, you will be considered “highly educated” and get to tell other people what their children need to know to be “college ready”, while your own privately-educated kids get a pass.
I’m sorry I keep repeating myself on this, but I believe the point of these kinds of exams are not about being “college ready”, but about trying to move the privatization of public schools into middle class and upper middle class communities. They are desperate to convince parents that their children aren’t learning because their teachers/schools are just not good. And in fact, many students in those “good” public schools will not do well on this exam. But many students in private schools would not do well on this exam either. Fortunately for them, they will never have to take it, but the privatizers want public school parents to believe that of course, in another type of non-public school their student would breeze through this test.
“The problem is not with the algebra test. . . ”
Yes, SDP the test itself is part of the problem in that it suffers all the errors and falsehoods identified by Wilson that render any conclusions drawn, as he states “vain and illusory”, or as I state COMPLETELY INVALID.
Looking at all the comments on this thread it certainly appears no overall consensus whatsoever on what should or shouldn’t be on the test, how the supposed results are interpreted, who should take the test, etc. . . .
Personally I think every student should have to take at least four years of a second language preferably starting early in his/her schooling so as to enjoy all the benefits that one gets from learning a second language (but obviously not take any silly one time test to determine whether or not he/she will graduate).
I have taught algebra for years and this seems like a very reasonable test of students ability in algebra.
Absolutely amazing amount of closed thinking in ed reform:
“According to Chingos, it might be “district administrators encouraging opt-outs in order to cover up poor performance, districts focusing on non-tested subjects to satisfy parents who care less about standardized tests, and parents becoming more skeptical of the value of tests when their children do not score well.”
There is no possible reason that parents might opt out other than dishonest public school employees and skepticism when their “children don’t score well”?
This is why we get Arne Duncan’s insulting appraisal of opt out parents. These are the only people he listens to- “movement” people.
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2015/06/table-smaller-lower-scoring-districts-had-higher-opt-out-rates-in-ny.html#.VYcBCkbxeSp
Closed as is “close the wagon circle”
“Circle the wagons”
Circle the Wagons
Keep heads low
Opt-out dragons
Are on the go
Dragons led
By teacher unions
Housed and fed
By hooligoonians
i agree that the private schools should be required to administer the commom core of exams to their students. I also believe charter schools and public schools should not be judged on current attendees but also on kids they counsel out to dis course the process of eliminating the process of dumping kids to make them look bad.
That said, I think that we are all missing the real problem which is the the concept of the exit exams especially the concept of difficult exams that will bar children, especially minority and children with disabilities, from graduating.
I took the regents 45 years ago. They were developed by teachers and much more aligned to the curriculum and hence fairer. we also got the results the last day of school. the goal was to make sure kids had absorbed a reasonable amount of knowledge.
i have a dyslexic daughter with Adhd and memory problems. a fair way to test her would be combination of written and oral. Oral to encourage her to write more where she has written short answers to ask her questions to help her to retrieve information she knows and figure out answers. Another fair way to test her would to have her create power points on every unit and having all of them count as the test. With that system that requires her to show what she learns in a user friendly way, she could easily pass. And graduate.
Instead, we have this requirements that all kids take the regents and kids wit special needs get to pass at 55. Instead of 65. They used to have the regents competency exams with an 6th instead of an 8th grade reading level which resulted in a local diploma. (A real diploma) The regents changed it for a lower pass because they thought that kids were just being allowed to take rct’s.
I am really worried about my daughter being able to get a high school diploma. I have hired tutors , she attends a state paid private school for kids with learning problems. I am fearful she will not get her diploma which will bar her from most jobs, lock her into lower paying jobs and bar her from community and 4 year colleges.
I would opt out except the regents is an exit exam and there are penalties for skipping it.Is there grounds for a civil rights case because the case seem to discriminate against minority children and children with disabilities?
These exams are not just “exit” exams. Now community colleges in California are giving Algebra exams as “entrance” exams, too. So students who may have passed Algebra in 9th grade have to take another exam and are often placed into remedial Algebra again! Meanwhile, if you are rich enough to go to a private school without a placement exam, you don’t even have to take a real math class and can graduate college summa cum laude.
Lenore,
I am not an attorney and I am not in New York. In my view, all standardized tests discriminate against Special Needs students and ELLs. In addition, they discriminate against children living in poverty. In my cynical opinion, the tests are designed to limit the opportunities of all of those who are not affluent. As mentioned above, the children of the wealthy are spared exposure to the Common Core and the endless testing nightmare.
It should be a civil rights lawsuit, but nobody seems to care about civil rights anymore. All we have are corporate rights.
I have heard students talking about the suggested strategy for passing this test.
1) Hope to score half of the “easier” 24 MC items correct; earning 24 points out of the required 30 points for passing. That’s 50% correct on MC items
2) Pick up a random 6 points out of the possible 38 point maximum on the constructed response sections. That’s 16% correct on CR items.
3) Mission accomplished! 30/86 points = 65% in the rigorous world of Common Core testing.
Only this will not work for many more years, as the target score will be raised a little at a time. Eventually, a student will need to do more. That’s the design. It’s what the beancounters consider to be forward movement. In reality, it will look an awful lot like teaching to a different test.
It’s not a fair test for a simple reason. The questions go well beyond the samples posted on NYSED’s own website (branded as EngageNY). See the samples here and decide for yourself:
https://www.engageny.org/resource/regents-exams-mathematics-algebra-i-sample-items
To understand the unfairness, think of the samples posted for any other publicly-administered test (e.g., a drivers license) or certification exam (e.g., CPA). Of course the questions that appear on the actual test will differ from the samples; they must differ to encourage real thinking and to prevent “teaching to the test”. Nevertheless, the samples should be representative of the difficulty and breadth of coverage. Otherwise the agency which administers the test is asking the test-taker to aim at a moving target.
As many math teachers in NYS and elsewhere have pointed out, a good portion of the test just administered is Algebra Two level, if not from an advanced statistics or pre-calculus class. There’s no excuse for this, even if the scores are adjusted to fit some magical curve or the passing rate is set in accordance with some fuzzy idea of “college and career readiness” (what college and what career, pray tell?). The Algebra One CC test just administered in NY is a high-stakes test by any normal reckoning of “high stakes”. That’s makes conformity to the published course specifications and samples even more important. It’s no wonder there’s so much outrage by teachers, parents and students. There should be when a state agency acts in such a ham-handed or deceptive manner.
If those samples are all one relies upon to prepare for the test, they’re not really studying.
. . . and, yes, my child just took this test.
The content of the test was based on the new Common Core standards for Algebra 1. It is honestly, not that complicated. My child’s nightly homework was on par with this test and occasionally more difficult. Please take a moment to look at the standards. Then go on to a website like Learnzillion and watch the free videos explaining the concepts. The content and wording of the test may seem overwhelming to us, but the students spent nearly 10 months learning this material. This test was very similar to the Common Core Algebra Regents from June 14, August 14 and January 15. There were no major surprises.
@Ted …the last question was not a surprise and did not even require a dollar store calculator, let alone a graphing calculator, for students who knew basic math facts and one very simple formula. This same type of question was assigned almost weekly in my son’s class. Our poverty level exceeds 75% and our teachers are nearing retirement age. We are not an elite school.( I am actually really curious to know what was being taught in other schools during this past year.)
Is the material in Algebra 1 appropriate for all students? Absolutely not, there should be another pathway. It is a huge waste of resources to attempt to teach much of the high school curriculum to a significant portion of our population. More time should be spent on skills necessary for independent and productive lives. However it makes absolutely no sense to lower the bar in a college pathway course for those who will never seek higher education.
The technology and resources available now make it possible for the vast majority of our kids achieve so much more. Why on Earth, as a parent and an educator, would you ever want to hold them back?
For those readers outside of NY, Regents testing allows multiple re-takes. Regents tests are offered in August, January, and June. So the students who failed do get a second, third, fourth chances.
Why should my 14 year old advanced A student who worked extremely hard all year, have to retake a test that she did poorly on because she was not prepared by a teacher (system) that never saw the test, a test which had problems she never had the tools to solve? Retake and devote valuable time and money (if we decide to use a tutor!)? Highest score in our district was a 79, which I understand was curved up from failing. most children ( who are the brightest from their class), scored around 74. Really?
For those who are interested in retaking the test, there are resources available: EngageNY, Learnzillion and IXL, just to name a few. Our school used a book that was aligned to the Common Core. I really feel that our kids were well prepared for this test. We had many kids achieve 85 or better. We live in a district with a high rate of poverty, but our teachers took the time to align their curriculum.
The course is much more demanding than the Algebra course I took 35 years ago. I have an older son who was taking Calculus and Physics this year. I was shocked to see the similarity in their homework problems. This is not a bad thing.
Our kids have enormous capacity to learn. This is not just about a test, it’s about teaching your kids to face challenges, to learn independently and to have a strong work ethic.
That just sounds like forcing underachieving students to waste their years into college entrance examination system in Japan, China or South Korea. What NY regent is trying to do with this Algebra math resonates with an outdated exam system I saw in my home country from the late 1980s to early 1990s.
Ted411
How does this year’s 73% pass rate compare to previous years passing percentages under the “old” algebra Regents exam?
That is drop that NYED did not expect. Twenty+ points is very significant and will jeopardize HS graduation for a lot of struggling students.
They better put down their shovels soon or it will take a generation to climb out of the hole they’re digging. This is Cuomo’s Mess and he needs to be called on the carpet by more than a few dozen bloggers.
Can you tell me where you found the information on your district? I want to look up my district.