Board Shaving Minutes Off Time to Finish Regents Exam

ALBANY

Reacting to criticism of the lengthy Regents test, the New York State Board of Regents moved this week to trim the amount of time students have to complete the standardized test, shaving 20 minutes off the math test and 10 minutes off the language arts test.

In a related decision, the board agreed to release yeshivah students from having to take an updated Regents algebra exam that was scheduled for Erev Shavuos this year, June 3. They informed Agudath Israel and the Jewish Education Project that yeshivah students will only be required to take the older version of the exam, called the Integrated Algebra exam, which will be given two weeks later, on June 20.

Another Regents exam that was scheduled for the first day of Shavuos was rescheduled and no longer poses a problem for Orthodox Jews. But officials said they could not change the date for the algebra test.

Deborah Zachai, director of education affairs for the Agudah, and Rabbi Martin Schloss, director of government relations at JEP, took a head poll of many New York yeshivos and reported to the state that the majority of them would be closed on Erev Shavuos.

The board then made the newer test voluntary, with the option of taking it in August 2014 or January 2015, or taking the older version on June 20.

Ken Wagner, a board deputy commissioner, promised to work with yeshivah organizations to ensure that such conflicts do not occur in the future.

At a Regents board meeting Monday, they announced that they were shortening the time that students will have to take next spring’s tests, but the tests themselves will remain the same, Newsday reported. That will minimize the amount of time students are forced to remain in their seats after finishing the exam since the vast majority of them finish it before the time allotted.

However, some educators and parents are criticizing the move as counterproductive, saying that it will cause more anxiety for students who must now complete the test in a shorter time span.

“I think it’s a meaningless response,” said Roberta Gerold, president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association. “Shortening the tests or lengthening the tests — they’re still tests that cause anxiety.”

Students taking the math test in April 2014 will now have 20 minutes less to complete it, while some English language arts tests will be trimmed by 10 minutes. Until now, it took students about 150 to 170 minutes to complete all the tests, spread over three days.

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