State retains January 2011 Regents; other state testing to be cut
Community input encouraged
August 10, 2010 14, 2010—The New York
State Education Department has decided that it will not eliminate the
administration of Regents exams in January, 2011—but
will continue with a plan to do away with assessments in other subject areas
this school year because of state budget cuts.
The following items will be eliminated for the 2010-11 school year:
• Grades 5 and 8 social studies exams
• Grade 8 second language proficiency exams
• Algebra 2/trigonometry and chemistry Regents exams in August (January and June
testing dates will be retained)
• Foreign language Regents exams except for Spanish, French and Italian
• Component retesting in math and English language Arts
• Paper-based scoring materials for Regents exams (all scoring materials and
answer keys will be posted to the State Education Department’s website, and
schools will be responsible for downloading and printing them prior to scoring)
In June, the Board of Regents had considered a number of cost-cutting measures
to make up for an anticipated deficit of approximately $11.5 million in
available funding for 2010-11 for P-12 programs, and a projected $21 million
deficit for 2011-12. One of those measures included eliminating all Regents
exams that would have been administered in January 2011. While Regents exams are
most typically taken by New York's public high school students in June, many
take them in January and August.
After the state budget was adopted in August, the State Education Department
received notice that the legislative and executive budgets restored some
education funding, saving the January Regents exams as well as a the June 2011
Italian Regents.