New York Students Irate Over ‘Unfair’ Science Regents Exam

Students throughout New York state are crying foul, claiming this year's Earth Science Regents exam included nothing that they learned.

New York is one of the few states remaining that requires standardized testing of High School students, although that will soon change as the state's Regents Exams are being phased out starting in 2027.

For now, however, students who want to graduate with a Regents diploma need to take and pass at least four of the tests, which measure proficiency in subjects including Math, Science, English and History.

Students Frustrated Over New York Earth Science Regents Exam

On June 10, students throughout New York took the Earth Science Regents Exam, but when they saw the questions, they soon realized they were not as prepared as they thought.

Many students report spending much of the year learning about topics such as rocks and weather, but they never appeared on the exam. According to Fox 5, students in Long Island even showed up at a school board meeting to raise their concerns.

One claimed that instead of questions about topics their teacher spent months covering, they were asked unrelated questions about things like economics and biology. Likewise, Biology students are now complaining that their Regents Exam included too much Earth Science.

New York Education Department Responds to Concerns Over Science Regents

A spokesperson for the Department of Education says that they are "very confident" that the Regents Exam in question was aligned with the curriculum. They say that materials were given to teachers so they could teach the new standards, but some schools may have failed to follow them.

Some educators who have seen the test agree that it was an accurate assessment of the current Earth Science requirements, but also noted that many of the questions required critical thinking, not just regurgitation of facts, which is a better way of judging how much knowledge has been learned and not simply memorized.

Students who didn't pass the New York State Regents exam will have another chance to take it in January.