CHENANGO COUNTY – Most students welcome a snow day, but that wasn’t necessarily the case on Jan. 28 when weather related closures at eight out of the nine local schools meant students couldn’t sit for the state-required Regents examinations.
Hardest hit were students who had already completed the first part of the two-day Comprehensive English Regents and those who had already completed the lab practical for the Earth Science examination. But now there is good news from the New York State Education Department.
“Only half the test may need to be retaken,” explained Norwich Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan. A recent announcement by SED will allow students who had completed the first segment of the tests to either use the work they have already done, or re-sit the full exam in June. And it gets better.
“Students will have the option to retake the entire test if they want and then take the higher of the two scores,” said O’Sullivan. According to the superintendent the first half of the exams administered in January were kept in the district and have already been scored.
The announcement has come as welcome news to other districts as well, including Unadilla Valley, where 57 juniors missed taking the second part of the English Regents last semester.
“The change from SED is great. It is student-centered and makes complete sense,” said Unadilla Valley Superintendent Bob Mackey. “Actually, it is better than I had expected ... This is really an opportunity for these kids.”
Greene Superintendent Gary Smith said his district “will encourage students to take advantage of the options that SED offers.” But what the administrator is really looking for is long-term change to the Regents system.
“I hope one result of the January snow day is that the English Regents goes back to a three-hour exam,” said Smith. “We don’t need a six-hour exam to tell how well a student writes.”