Thursday, October 1, 2026
When an assessment becomes the story instead of student learning, it’s time to pause, listen, and make it right.
Throughout my career, previously as an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and now as a superintendent, I have helped lead school districts through a number of instructional transitions. We have adopted new learning standards, implemented new curricula and prepared teachers and students for revised Regents exams in nearly every subject area. While change hasn’t always been met with universal agreement, I have rarely seen the level of consensus that emerged following the first administration of New York’s new Earth and Space Science Regents. The concerns expressed by educators across the state were immediate, widespread and remarkably consistent.
School districts statewide spent years preparing for this transition. Teachers took part in professional development, revised lessons, developed new instructional materials and adjusted classroom practices to reflect the new standards. Students invested countless hours learning the revised content and preparing for an exam that was expected to measure their understanding of those standards.
Instead, many educators walked away from the June exam with the same conclusion: The assessment did not accurately reflect the curriculum students had been taught.
While it isn’t unusual for educators to debate individual test questions or discuss the level of difficulty of an exam, what occurred this time was different. Teachers, administrators and science professionals from districts large and small, urban and suburban, reached similar conclusions about the quality and alignment of the exam.
That kind of consensus deserves attention.
Creating a high-quality assessment is one of the most challenging tasks in education. Every question must accurately measure the intended learning standard. The language must be clear and accessible. The exam should distinguish between students who have mastered the content and those who have not, not between students who interpret ambiguous questions differently or those who understand the content but struggle with reading comprehension.
Students should not be placed in the position of having to overcome the shortcomings of a new assessment.
This is not an argument against accountability or high expectations. New York has long maintained rigorous graduation standards, and those standards have helped ensure that a Regents diploma continues to carry value. Maintaining high expectations and acknowledging when an assessment falls short are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are complementary. Strong educational systems recognize when improvements are needed and respond accordingly.
Additionally, the state has struggled to fully restore public confidence in its assessment system for grades three through eight following the troubled implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards and the Annual Professional Performance Review. The problems associated with this test administration only further erode public trust in assessments, which are a critical component of a strong educational system.
As the state moves away from traditional Regents exams as graduation requirements through the New York Inspires initiative, public confidence in our educational system will become more important than ever. Families, colleges, employers and the broader community must have faith that the new graduation requirements will continue to uphold the value and integrity of a state diploma.
Many educators have expressed understandable concern about what will replace an assessment system that has provided a strong educational framework for over a century. Public confidence is not lost simply because challenges arise. It is strengthened or diminished by how those challenges are acknowledged and addressed. How the state responds to concerns about the first Earth and Space Science Regents will send an important message about its commitment to fairness, accountability and continuous improvement.
The true measure of accountability is not insisting that every assessment is beyond criticism. It is being willing to acknowledge when concerns are legitimate, and taking appropriate action to protect students while improvements are made.
The concerns about this exam present an opportunity for the State Education Department to demonstrate that commitment. Listening to the consistent feedback from educators, carefully reviewing the test and providing appropriate relief for students who were unsuccessful would reinforce public confidence in both the assessment process and the department’s commitment to fairness.
Todd Winch is superintendent of the Levittown school district.
