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'Regents Examinations', or simply 'The Regents', are a set of standardized tests given to high school students through the New York State Education Department, designed and administered under the authority of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. Regents exams are prepared by a conference of selected New York teachers of each test's specific discipline. The conferences meet and design the tests three years before the tests' issuance.
The exams themselves are administered according to strict and specific instructions: printed on the cover of each exam booklet is the date and time when the examination is to begin, and the proctor is required to follow specific regulations for administering the test — e.g., regulations for students leaving the room during the tests, the prohibition of cell phone use by students during a test, and the handling of the test papers. Proctors are required to sign an oath stating that they have followed the regulations, and students also sign an oath stating that they have not received assistance or otherwise cheated on the test. If a students cell phone or any other electronical device makes a noise the student automatically gets a zero. That applies to local examinations too.
To graduate with what is called a "Regents' diploma," students are required to have earned appropriate credits in a number of specific subjects by passing year-long or half-year courses, after which they must earn a score of 65 points or better on the Regents' examination in that subject area. This expectation is in addition to passing the courses themselves, the passing grade of which is based on an individual teacher's or school's own tests and classwork.

Contents

Required Exams

Formats

English Language Arts

Exemptions from the Regents Exams

Regents Competency Test (RCT)

Current Regents Exam List

List of Exams

Regular Regents & Local Diplomas

Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation

IEP Diploma

Promotion

See also

External links

Required Exams

To receive a regular high school diploma. students in New York State must pass, with a score of 65 or better, five Regents Exams: Math A, Global History and Geography, U.S. History and Government, Comprehensive English, and Biology/Living Environment. To receive an Advanced Regents Diploma, students must also pass an additional two science exams, an additional math exam, and two foreign language exams.

Formats

Most Regents examinations are offered every January, June, and August. Most are normally scheduled to be taken in June, but some students do take them earlier in January; others have an extra opportunity to take them after summer school in August, or the following January, to make up for a previous exam failure.
Most Regents exams are three hours long. The exceptions are the Comprehensive English exam, the Earth Science exam, and foreign language exams. Comprehensive English consists of two separate three-hour exam periods over two consecutive days. Earth Science consists of a 41 minute (approximate) laboratory component usually given up to two weeks prior to the three hour written exam. The format of the Earth Science laboratory component is presently changing. Several of the foreign language Regents have oral exams which are administered before the written test and are not part of the three hour time limit.
Most Regents exams are structured in the following format:

★ A ''multiple-choice section'' (Part I), which is usually between 30-50 questions, and,

★ a ''long-answer/essay'' section (Part II), which consists of either a selection of detailed questions for which the work must be shown (for math and physical sciences), or a set of essay topics, of which one or two must be written about in detail (for the social sciences).

★ Foreign language exams include a third section on listening skills (with passages read aloud by a proctor ), and the history exams include a section of short responses (a sentence or two) on primary documents. For both social science exams, two essays are now required and students do not get a choice as to which essay to answer.
In 2005, the Board of Regents began modifying the Mathematics curriculum. An integrated approach that taught topics in geometry and algebra during each of three years, with exams normally taken after a year and a half and again after three years, was replaced by a curriculum that divides topics into Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. Each of these take the form of a one-year course with a Regents Examination at the end of the year. The "Math A" and "Math B" exams are thus being eliminated and replaced by "Integrated Algebra", "Integrated Geometry", and "Integrated Algebra II and Trigonometry".

English Language Arts

The English Regents requires four essays, each structured differently. Combined, they are intended to assess students' abilities to read, write and listen for:

★ information and understanding,

★ literary response and expression,

★ critical analysis and evaluation, and

★ social interaction,
as per the state's standards for English Language Arts.
The exam is administered in two three-hour sessions, usually on different days. There are four separate parts.

★ '''Task I-A''': A passage is read aloud to students twice, from which they may take notes. They must then answer six multiple-choice questions and then write a persuasive essay, following several guidelines for a specific audience based on information in the passage.

★ '''Task II-B''': Students must follow guidelines to write another persuasive essay, and answer 10 multiple-choice questions, incorporating information based on two documents. One is a written passage typically almost two pages in length, the other is a chart or table.

★ '''Task III-A''': Students again develop an essay on a general theme from two different documents, one prose, the other a poem. There are also ten multiple-choice questions.

★ '''Task IV-B''': This final section is known as the "critical lens" essay. Students are provided with a brief quotation, the critical lens, which they must then use as the basis for an essay interpreting two literary works of their choice, often ones they have read in class. There are no multiple-choice questions on this section.

Exemptions from the Regents Exams

During the 1990s, some alternative assessment schools, similar in character to charter schools, were founded in parts of New York in an attempt to provide a way for students to graduate from high school without taking any Regents Exams. Usually, the substitute graduation assessement involved would consist of the review and grading, by a panel of teachers, of an academic portfolio — a collection of the student's best work from all his or her years at the school. From such a "portfolio examination" would be issued a "Regents equivalency" grade for the areas of Math, English, History, and Science, and a "Regents Equivalency" diploma would be awarded to the student at commencement.
However, by the end of the 1990s most, if not all, of these self-labeled "alternative schools" have been forced to adopt some or all of the standard Regents Exam, and can no longer use portfolio examination criteria as the sole basis for graduation from the school. A notable example of this progression from full portfolio-based assessment to nearly-total Regents Exam based assessment is The Beacon School.
Though all public schools are required to follow either the Regents Exam system or some form of alternative assessment, private schools may or may not follow either of these systems. Most private schools actually do use Regents exams and award Regents diplomas, but some especially academically prestigious private schools do not. These schools' argument is that their own diploma requirements exceed Regents standards. High schools run by the Society of Jesus, like Regis High School and Xavier High School in New York City or Canisius High School in Buffalo have not used Regents exams for decades.
Additionally, in some schools, individual students whose native language is not English can sometimes be exempted from taking the Regents Examination in Languages other than English (RE-LOE) if they complete a sequence in Art/Music, Business, and Technology (usually composed of five credits).

Regents Competency Test (RCT)

RCT tests are for identified special education students with Individualized Education Programs or students with a 504 plan specifying RCT options for Regents tests: RCT's can be taken ''before'' a student fails the corresponding Regents exam if this will help them be less stressed when taking the Regents, so they know that graduation does not hinge on a Regents exam. They are available for students until they graduate or when they turn 21. If they still cannot pass one of the RCT exam, an IEP diploma is awarded instead.

Current Regents Exam List

List of Exams

The following New York State Regents Exams are administered:

★ Mathematics (see note below)

★
★ Old Curriclum - now defunct

★
★
★ Sequential 1

★
★
★ Sequential 2

★
★
★ Sequential 3

★
★ Old curriculum - now ending

★
★
★ Math A (Elementary Algebra and Plane Geometry)

★
★
★ Math B (Intermediate Algebra, Trigonometry and Precalculus)

★
★ New curriculum - now phasing in

★
★
★ Integrated Algebra I

★
★
★ Integrated Geometry

★
★
★ Integrated Algebra II and Trigonometry

★ Science

★
★ Earth Science/The Physical Setting

★
★ Biology/Living Environment

★
★ Chemistry/The Physical Setting

★
★ Physics/The Physical Setting - only offered in January and June

★ Languages other than English, only offered every June

★
★ Spanish (Offered every January and June)

★
★ French

★
★ Latin

★
★ German

★
★ Italian

★
★ Modern Hebrew

★
★ Mandarin Chinese

★
★ Japanese

★
★ Russian

★ Social Studies

★
★ Global History and Geography

★
★ US History and Government

★ English Language Arts

★
★ Comprehensive English

Regular Regents & Local Diplomas

Subject	Regents Credits	Required Exam(s)	Grade in which exams are usually taken (may vary, particularly in accelerated programs; most are normally taken in June, unless otherwise noted)
English	4	English Language Arts	Grade 11
Social Studies	4	★ Global History & Geography ★ U.S. History and Government	★ Global - Grade 10 ★ U.S. - Grade 11
Mathematics	3	Math A	★ Grade 9 (if in an accelerated/honors course) ★ Grade 10 ★ Widely taken in January
Science	3	Living Environment	Grade 9 or upon completion of coursework
Foreign Language	1		Some students who have IEPs maybe exempt. Those who are exempt still need 22 credits to graduate.
Art, Music (combined)	1
Health	1/2	The exam is a local exam.	Grade 10 - Some schools throughout the state only allow students to take health in grade 11 and 12.
Physical Education	2
Electives	3 1/2	All finals are local	Grades 9-12

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Required Exams
! Minimum Local Diploma Grades for Graduation
! Minimum Regents Diploma Grades for Graduation
|-
{| Required Exams Grades="wikitable"
| English Regents
| 55
| 65
|-
| Math A Regents
| 55
| 65
|-
| Global History Regents
| 55
| 65
|-
| U.S History Regents
| 55
| 65
|-
| One Science Regents
| 55
| 65
|}
Note: Students who entered 9th grade in 2004 must attain a 65 or above on one of the required Regents exams and a 55-64 on the remaining four regents exams in order to achieve a local dipolma. Students who have entered 9th grade in 2005 must get a 65 or above on two of the required Regents exams and a 55-64 on the remaining three regents exams. The students who have entered 9th grade in 2006 must acquire a 65 or above on three of the required Regents exams and acquire a 55-64 on the remaining two exams. Students who enter 9th grade in 2007 must score 65 on four of the required Regents exams and score a 55-64 on the remaining regents exam. For students entering in 9th grade in 2008 and beyond, local diplomas will no longer be available, so all students must get a 65 or above on all required Regents exams.

Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation

{| class="wikitable"
!Subject
!Regents credits
!Required Exam(s)
!Grade in which exams are most often taken, usually in June unless otherwise noted
|-
|English
|4
|English Language Arts
|Grade 11
|-
|Social Studies
|4
|

★ Global History and Geography

★ U.S. History and Government
|

★ Grade 10

★ Grade 11
|-
|Mathematics
|3
|

★ Math A

★ Math B
|

★ Grade 10

★ Grade 11
|-
|Science
|3
|

★ Living Environment (required)

★ Earth Science or

★ Chemistry or

★ Physics (Students must take Living Environment course, then one of three other courses of their choice.)
|Grade in which they take the course. (''i.e.'' Earth Science, Grade 9 ;Living Environment Grade 10 ; Chemistry Grade 10 or Grade 11; Physics Grade 11 or 12) (In some cases students take Earth Science in 8th grade, Living Environment in Grade 9, Chemistry in Grade 10, and Physics in Grade 11)
|-
|Foreign Language
|3
|Comprehensive Foreign Language of the student's choice.
|Usually Grade 11, or after equivalent of three years of study (example: 1A in Grade 7. 1B in Grade 8, 2 in Grade 9, and 3 in Grade 10. Some students who have IEPs may be exempt. Those who are exempt still need 22 credits to graduate.
|-
|Art & Music (combined)
|1
|
|
|-
|Health
|1/2
|The exam is a local exam.
|Grade 10
|-
|Physical Education
|2
|
|11th and 12th graders who are involved in sports may be exempt from the course during the quarter in which they are playing the sport. The sport they play will count as a credit.
|-
|Electives
|1 1/2
|All exams are local.
|Grades 9-12.
|-
|}
Minimum Grade Required for a Regents w/ Advanced Designation in Order to Graduate: Same grades that are required for a Regents Diploma.

IEP Diploma

This is a certificate for students who can meet all their IEP goals but can't pass all of the required New York States assessments and/or complete any of the required courses. Students must complete 12 years beyond kindergarten or attend high school until 21.

Promotion

Guidelines for grade level classification are based on this table.
5 credits 10th grade standing
11 credits 11th grade standing
16 credits 12th grade standing
__
22 credits

See also

★ Virginia Standards of Learning

★ California Standardized Testing and Reporting

★ Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System

★ Texas Assessment of Academic Skills

★ Washington (State) Assessment of Student Learning

★ Connecticut Academic Performance Test

External links

★ NYS Regents Exams

★ Oswego City School District Regents Exam Prep Center

★ Regents Exam Preparation Video Courses

★ New York Science Teacher: New York State (NYS) Regents Preparation

★ The Jefferson Math Project

★ Opposition to Regents Testing at Scriptovia