Do you think graduation requirements should change?

The Lynbrook school district has been grappling with its Regents grading policy for years — and a Board of Education special work session on the topic last week didn’t move the needle strongly in either direction.

Educators, parents, students and a panel of college admissions representatives all weighed in at the Sep. 27 meeting at Lynbrook High School. The discussion grew heated at times, as the attendees debated whether to institute Do No Harm, a policy in which Regents grades would not be figured into a student’s class average if it would bring that average down. Regents have accounted for 10 percent of class averages since 2019, down from Lynbrook’s previous policy of 20 percent.

“I do have concerns about the optics of instituting a Do No Harm policy,” Matthew Sarosy, principal of the high school, said. “I’m concerned that students will look at other challenges they face as potentially being harmful if they don’t get the result that they worked for.”

“While for some individuals, one or two points might feel trivial, that is just not the case for all of the stakeholders in this district,” parent Courtney Knacke said. “I want my kid to not be the 88 from Lynbrook versus the 90 applying from Hewlett for the same spot at Penn State, per se.”

A number of area school districts have instituted Do No Harm in recent years, including Bellmore-Merrick, Hewlett-Woodmere, Syosset and others. Supporters of the policy emphasized that a student who underperforms on a Regents exam may see his or her class average tick down, while a student who lives a few blocks away, in a district with Do No Harm, could earn the same grades in class but end up with a higher average. In a world of competitive college admissions, supporters said, every point matters.

“Acceptance rates at top universities are lower than half of what they were 10 years ago,” school board Trustee Andrew Lewner said. “We have a system in place where the kid who goes to Hewlett only needs eight yards to make the first down, but the kid in Lynbrook needs 10. They have a different set of rules.”

A panel of college admissions counselors from Hofstra University, Farmingdale State College, Penn State University and Marist College joined the meeting on Zoom to share their perspectives.

Ashley Hettinger, of Farmingdale, said that its admissions staff looks at applicants holistically, and evaluates them based on their essays and extracurriculars in addition to the grades on their transcripts. Laurie Wax, of Penn State, said that she and her colleagues focus on applicants’ grade point averages and transcripts, and that they plays a large role in whether a student will be considered. All of the panelists acknowledged that there is no way for them to determine whether a Regents score factored into an applicant’s class average, and that they only see the final number.

Under the Do No Harm policy, Regents grades still appear on students’ transcript, whether or not they weigh into their class averages.

Sarosy presented an alternative option to the board, proposing that Lynbrook not factor Regents exams into class averages at all, regardless of whether they bring those averages up or down. Instead, students whose Regents scores were higher than their class averages would be given an additional point. Students would still have an incentive to perform well on the Regents, Sarosy reasoned, and high-performing students would have just as much potential for gain as students with lower averages.

The idea seemed to pique the board’s interest, and trustees said they would discuss it further.

Perhaps inevitably, the policy debate turned to larger issues. Is the ultimate goal of public education to help students get into college, or to help them learn and grow? Is it the district’s responsibility to remove hurdles that may affect students’ success?

“I personally don’t think the point is to squeeze every point out of school that you can,” board Vice President Ellen Marcus said. “As a parent and as a school board member, it’s our job to have our students be well-rounded and deal with obstacles. If we take away all obstacles, what happens when they go away to college or get a job?”

“It’s OK — not your whole existence is based off what your grades are,” Marcus added.

“I’d love to see anyone come here with the research that says high-stakes testings are valid for measuring student learning,” board Trustee Sean Murray said. “There is a valid responsibility by this district, by this board, to examine whether or not any of our students should be put in a position to take a single high-weight exam to be a measure of their full learning of a course.”

The board said it would continue to discuss the policy, and take a vote at its next session, on Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m., in the high school cafeteria.