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Regent Says Board Favors Setting Aside Math Scores
By SAM DILLON The state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, acknowledged yesterday that the Regents examination in mathematics given last week in high schools across the state was technically flawed, a state assemblyman who spoke with him said. Meanwhile, a member of the Board of Regents said that a consensus had formed among the 16 members that the results of the test should be set aside. The assemblyman, Steven Sanders, chairman of the Education Committee, said in an interview that Mr. Mills told him that he would announce a decision today about the flawed test, which has created a crisis because passing is a graduation requirement for thousands of students. Mr. Mills said last week that he was concerned about reports that many students found the test impossibly hard, but he had not previously characterized the test as flawed. His latest remarks were reported on a day when Education Department officials were frantically trying to assemble enough data about the test from schools around the state to evaluate its validity. "The commissioner concedes that there were problems in the formulation of parts of this exam," Mr. Sanders said. "He felt that on several parts of the test there were questions that they now believe students found confusing." Mr. Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat, and Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat, urged Mr. Mills to set aside the results of the examination for students for whom it posed an obstacle to graduation this week. That would leave the decision about whether individual students are allowed to graduate up to their school principals, who could judge on the basis of their academic performance in math classes throughout the year. Mr. Mills heard similar advice yesterday from at least one member of the Board of Regents, whom he phoned to consult about how to handle the wave of challenges to the validity of the test, known as the Math A Regents examination. The board member, Harry Phillips, said he had urged the commissioner to cancel the results of the test for all high school seniors, adding that that was the consensus of the board. "I told him that we should let the seniors graduate without this exam," Mr. Phillips said of his conversation with Mr. Mills. "I know it would be very unusual for us, but the outcomes on this test have proven that we made a mistake and the kids should not suffer for that." Asked last evening to respond to reports that members of the State Assembly and the Board of Regents were calling for cancellation of the test results, Mr. Mills said through a spokesman that he was looking "with great urgency" for a resolution. He did not say whether it would come today. "I am very concerned about reports that many students had difficulty with this June exam," Mr. Mills said in the statement. "Throughout the weekend we have heard from lots of people. I am calling as many as I can myself. At my request, experts have been collecting and analyzing results." Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the Education Department, said that "tens of thousands" of students took the test last Tuesday. Mr. Dunn said he could not be more precise. The test, in four sections, includes algebra and geometry, along with some questions on probability and statistics. Mr. Sanders estimated that as many as 3,000 seniors with academic records that would otherwise allow them to graduate this week had failed the test. At Tottenville High School on Staten Island, some 300 students took the test, and only 6 percent passed, the principal, John P. Tuminaro, said in an interview. "That's quite shocking," Mr. Tuminaro said. Never in any previous administration of a Regents math test at his high school had fewer than 30 percent of students passed it, he said. Mr. Tuminaro said that even before any of the students' test were graded, several Tottenville teachers had pointed out to him that the test was extraordinarily hard. "We didn't need to wait for the results," he said. "We knew it was going to be a disaster." Mr. Brodsky, who has long campaigned against what he characterized as the state's growing overreliance on standardized tests to assess students, said the challenges to the validity of the Math A test "is the nightmare that we all feared - that the kids would know the stuff but fail the test anyway." |
