<p>Sybbie- I did see an article in Newsday about the Math B Regent. We were out of town this week-end- so when I was going through week-end newspapers to throw out for recycling- I noticed a story in Newsday about the Math B Regent- that said it had to be rescored as too many kids failed it. As we got no phone calls etc. I'm assuming my d passed both Math B and Chem. On LI, we get report cards in the mail about a week after school closes- so we do not have the scores yet- But I was wondering if anyone else heard about the Math B Regent. What is June in NY without another Regent fiasco?</p>
<p>Hi Marny,</p>
<p>I found the articles:</p>
<p>You're right, what's June without a regents fiasco.</p>
<p>June 24, 2005, 5:37 PM EDT</p>
<p>ALBANY, N.Y. -- The state Education Department on Friday ordered that a new math Regents exam be re-graded after teachers scoring the test said it was too hard. </p>
<p>Under the new grading, a student who got a "raw score" of 48 on the math B test would pass with a minimum passing grade of 65 after the re-grading, according to the state Education Department. Without the new scoring, a raw score of 53 was required to get a grade of 65. </p>
<p>State rescores Regents math exams</p>
<p>BY OLIVIA WINSLOW
STAFF WRITER</p>
<p>June 25, 2005</p>
<p>High school students who failed the Math B Regents Exam this week can look forward to higher scores, after the state Education Department announced yesterday afternoon they were rescoring the test following complaints of its difficulty.</p>
<p>"We're correcting it," said Tom Dunn, a department spokesman.
The department said in a statement that after a review of the "difficulty level" of the exam, it will issue a "conversion chart" that will lead to a new scaled score for students.</p>
<p>Leslie Speed of Huntington, a parent of a 10th-grader at Harborfields High School, was elated. "Kudos to the state," Speed said. "They are taking care of this in a timely manner ... This has just made my summer."</p>
<p>She said her daughter, Shannon, 16, studied hard for the test and was upset over her 60 score, below the 65 passing score. According to the conversion chart, a raw score of 60 would be converted into a 76.</p>
<p>Earlier, Speed was among those who had contacted Newsday complaining about the test. She said her daughter had "worked so hard on the math. They made it impossible for her to pass." She said she heard similar complaints from others.</p>
<p>And a few school administrators reached yesterday, the last day of school for most districts, acknowledged higher than normal failure rates on the exam.</p>
<p>If Speed's daughter had failed, she would have had to go to summer school and retake the test in August.</p>
<p>Harborfields Schools Superintendent Raymond McCloat said failure rates on the test, which covers such areas as Algebra II and advanced geometry, were "higher than the norm," though he would not say how much. "They're up from last year, that's for sure ... I don't know why." </p>
<p>Test takers thrown a curve -State adjusts passing grade for Math Regents after educators say exam 'harder than usual</p>
<p>BY OLIVIA WINSLOW
STAFF WRITER</p>
<p>June 28, 2005</p>
<p>The Math B Regents exam given statewide Thursday to high school students resulted in unexpectedly high failure rates, some Long Island educators say, and a new grading chart the state Education Department issued afterward will not significantly raise the scores of many students who failed.</p>
<p>"I don't know the exact rate, but I know the failure rate was higher than normal," said David Bennardo, principal of Harborfields High School in Greenlawn. "And we're not used to that."</p>
<p>Bennardo said the school's passing rate on the exam last year was 90 percent. He said the "anecdotal information" he has received suggested this year's test was "unnecessarily tricky, rather than testing course material," leading him to wonder whether "there's a disconnect between what teachers are teaching and what the test is on." But he said his teachers "leave no stone unturned" to make sure students are prepared for the exam. "Maybe they're not getting a clear direction from the state."</p>
<p>The exam, which tests abilities in geometry, trigonometry and advanced algebra, is taken primarily by high school juniors and seniors and passage is required for a Regents diploma.</p>
<p>Caryl Lorandini, president of the Nassau County Mathematics Teachers Association and a math teacher at Carle Place Middle School, said "the math teachers themselves thought the Math B Regents Exam was harder than usual." She added many teachers "didn't feel it was representative of the curriculum enough."</p>
<p>Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the state Education Department, said the Math B curriculum "was pretty broad and it covers a year and a half of work." He said all the topics covered on the exam were part of the curriculum.</p>
<p>Dunn added that the department had listened to teacher concerns about the test's difficulty and produced a new grade conversion chart Friday as a result.</p>
<p>He said failure rates won't be known until the fall.</p>
<p>David Seinfeld, principal of Calhoun High School in the Bellmore-Merrick School District and a former math teacher, said he was "pretty confident" that most schools were experiencing a higher than normal failure rate, as his school was. "The exam was more difficult than it has been in the past," Seinfeld said.</p>
<p>Seinfeld said the new conversion chart "represents maybe a three- or four- or five-point swing in score. ... It won't change things dramatically. ... I just don't want parents to get the wrong idea that their children's exams are being greatly changed."</p>
<p>For instance, a student with a previously scaled score of 60 would see that score jump only to 64 under the new conversion chart, one point shy of the 65 scaled score needed to pass.</p>
<p>From NY Times</p>
<p>June 25, 2005
State Lowers Passing Score for a Regents Math Exam
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
New York State education officials yesterday lowered the score needed to pass this year's Math B Regents exam, even as teachers were still grading the tests. The exam was given on Thursday.</p>
<p>Officials said that this year's test was actually easier than last year's, but teachers complained that too many students were going to fail because officials had raised the passing score too high to adjust for the easier exam. </p>
<p>Math B is the second part of the state's three-year mathematics curriculum for high school students and it includes advanced algebra and trigonometry among other topics. </p>
<p>Last June, students needed a raw score of 45 out of a total possible 88 points to get a converted score of 65, the passing mark on the exam. On this month's test, the state initially said students needed 53 out of 88 points to pass. Yesterday, however, the State Education Department changed the scoring chart so that only 48 points were needed to pass.</p>
<p>Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the Education Department, said officials did not yet know how many students had taken the exam or how many would have failed without the change in scores. "We consulted with math teachers around the state and responded quickly to the situation and corrected," he said. "We were directed by veteran teachers," he added. "They said it did not perform like other tests."</p>
<p>The problem with the Math B exam is the latest in a string of troubles with the state's Regents exams and seemed certain to provide new ammunition to critics of New York's standardized testing system who believe it is unreliable and harmful to children.</p>
<p>In June 2003, 63 percent of those who took the Math A exam failed it, prompting an outcry that the test, one of the five Regents exams that students must pass to graduate, had been too difficult. </p>
<p>At the time, the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, acknowledged flaws and set aside the results for juniors and seniors. There were similar complaints that year about the physics exam. Officials initially defended the test, but in January 2004 they adjusted the scores for the two previous year's exams lifting the rate of students passing the test to 81 percent from 53 percent.</p>
<p>K21,</p>
<p>Since it seems that this most likely will not be straightened out until the fall, you GC will probably take care of it. I know at my D's friend's school, the year in 2003 when they messed up the physics and the math regents, the school the opted not to place the score on the transcript and just sent a letter to the colleges. Maybe you will just have to wait to see how this plays out.</p>
<p>I got a 96 in the class...but did badly on the regents itself but still passed...my school allows us to take regents over again...so im probably going to hire a tutor and study...should i also take a math sat 2 so its looks better because my math score is really low...and thats not the type of student I am...</p>
<p>Maybe you should look into taking the ACT as some students do better on that exam than they do on the SAT. The ACT also is supposed to be more aligned with what has been learned in the classroom. If you get a chance, go to the parents forum and read Xiggi's SAT tips. Many parents have attested that his process did work for their students.</p>
<p>100 on the physics regents biddies thats right woot woot</p>
<p>did they post the curve and answers online yet for the physics regents???</p>
<p>who cares biotch 100 woot woot i gots a perfect grade so a curve dont matter watttzup</p>
<p>I got into college so it really doesnt matter to me. just wanted to know if i passed or not</p>
<p>which is the hardest regents to get a 100 on just curious</p>