Schools

Bellmore-Merrick Central District making big changes to Regents plan

Posted

In the past, only Advanced Placement English students in the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District took the English Regents in January of 11th grade. The feeling was that they should be ready at that point to pass the exam with a high mark, giving them greater time to concentrate on the A.P. exam in May.

Now all juniors will take the English Regents in January, said John DeTommaso, the Central District superintendent, at the Feb. 3 Board of Education meeting. Giving the Regents early allows teachers to assess students’ ability levels to prepare them for the June exam, should they fail the test in January.

Last month was the first time that the district tried the plan, and nearly all students passed the English Regents at Calhoun, Kennedy and Mepham high schools, as well as the Meadowbrook Alternative Program. The breakdown is:

n Calhoun High School: 95 percent passing rate, 80 percent mastery. (A mastery score is 85 percent or above.)
n Kennedy: 97 percent passing, 73 percent mastery.
n Mepham: 97 percent passing, 73 percent mastery.
n MAP: 100 percent passing.

At the same time, the district is moving to decrease the weight of a Regents exam when factored into a student’s year-end grade. Traditionally, Regents exams have counted for 20 percent of a student’s final course grade, and each of the four quarters have also counted for 20 percent.

The weight given to a three-hour Regents exam, compared to 10 weeks of study and multiple exams in a quarter, seemed arbitrary, DeTomasso said.

“There is value in a kid taking an exam at the end” of the year, he said. “The question is, how much [should it count] in comparison to what they’re doing in 40 weeks in school?”

After months of meetings with school administrators and teachers, it was decided that, in the immediate future, each quarter will count for 21 percent of a student’s final grade, while the Regents exam will count for 16 percent. The plan does not apply to non-Regents courses, such as electives.

Page 1 / 2