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Legal Action

Legislative Agenda

Censorship: The ELA Exposed

The Legislative Agenda

State Senate Bill: March 9, 2005
Bill #: A06286
Title of Bill: An act to amend the education law, in relation to directing the commissioner of education to develop alternative assessments for regents exams.
Purpose of Bill: The purpose of this bill is to provide schools with the choice to use a portfolio performance-based alternative assessment as a substitute for certain Regents exams.
Read complete bill | Read summary


There is growing concern that the New York State Education Department is manipulating test scores to get its desired results.

For example, "to meet state standards" in math last year, 8th graders had to achieve a much higher minimum score on the 8th grade test than 4th graders had to achieve on the 4th grade test, and Commissioner Mills admitted that the bar was deliberately set high for the 8th grade
(NY Times, October 24, 2001).

In high school, however, students only needed to answer correctly 45% of the question on the June 2001 Math A Regents exam to receive passing grades
(Buffalo News, July 17, 2001).