FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, JUNE 24, 2003

For More Information, Contact:
Jonathan Burman, Tom Dunn or Bill Hirschen at (518) 474-1201
Internet: http://www.nysed.gov

Children are our first concern. We express that concern by providing the very best education we can. Fair exams are part of that education. This exam doesn’t seem fair. I think we made some mistakes with this exam and it’s up to us to identify and correct them. This situation is unacceptable and we are taking action now to protect the children. That done, we will turn immediately to the most rigorous, independent, public accounting of the test itself.

Some students are preparing to graduate this year and go on to college or work. Others will begin their senior year in September and are considering whether to go to summer school or to retake math in the fall. Still others are nearer the beginning of high school and are taking the test for the first or second time. We are concerned about all of these students and their special circumstances.

At my request, during the past few days experts have reviewed the exam and the results available so far. Here is what we have concluded at this point:

Preliminary data indicate a very low success rate on the June Math A Regents Exam. Yet this exam should have been comparable in difficulty with the January exam and previous Math A exams. Therefore, success rates should have been generally consistent, but they were not.

It will take some time to get enough data and do a complete analysis, but we have enough information to say one thing clearly: Performance on the June Math A exam is not consistent with performance on previous Math A exams. The inconsistency indicates there was a problem in the process of creating this exam. Finding that problem and fixing it will take time and study. Students cannot wait while we do that, and they must not be penalized.

We must and will always take steps that are in the best interests of the students. Therefore, we will:

1. Give districts the option to use the local course grade in place of an exam score for juniors and seniors to determine achievement of the mathematics standards.

Freshmen and sophomores (that is, students who entered 9^th grade in 2001 or later) already are required to take at least another year of math (for a total of three years of math during high school), and they can take a Regents math exam again after another year of study. In addition, our analysis may result in adjustments to the scoring on this current exam.

2. Assemble an independent panel of mathematicians, educators, testing experts and citizens to review all information on this exam to determine what happened and why. They will also advise whether or not an adjustment should be made to scores of the freshmen and sophomores. Their work will help us prepare future Regents Math exams without the problems we see in this one. The results of that independent panel will be public, and will advise the Regents and the State Education Department. We will also continue to conduct our own internal review and make the analysis public.
   
3. Suspend the administration of the August Math A exam to provide time for any adjustments to the test content or scoring that may be indicated by the review. The next administration will be in January.

We already ask schools for extensive information on each student, and we have speeded up that effort. We are taking several major steps to determine exactly what has happened with the June Math A exam:

• Gather data and analyze the difficulty of individual test questions and the cumulative difficulty of the questions. This includes how well students performed on each question, to see if some questions were harder than they appeared in the field-testing that was done in creating this test. Field-testing involves giving all test questions first to a representative sample of students across the State; this helps us determine their level of difficulty and therefore the scoring.
• Gather and analyze data on:

• How many times each student in each grade has taken a Regents Math exam.
• How much preparation in math each student has had.
• Each student’s score, to find out several things, including how close each student is to passing.
• Gather and analyze data to compare student performance on the June 2003 exam with previous Math A exams.

During the past few days we have heard from lots of people. I have called as many as I could myself. Whenever we make a mistake, criticism and suggestions can help in arriving at a solution to the problem. I have discussed this with Chancellor Bennett and together we have consulted the members of the Board of Regents. I am especially grateful for the different perspectives of Tom Rogers of the New York State Council of Superintendents, Toni Cortese of New York State United Teachers, New York City Chancellor Joel Klein, Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers, Tim Kremer of the New York School Boards Association and many others.

Standards and good tests are indispensable to any effort to improve student achievement. They help protect the educational welfare of children. New York has high standards and highly regarded exams to measure achievement of those standards. Student achievement has improved in recent years in part because the Regents linked standards and assessments and the schools responded. We will find and fix whatever problems exist in this June math exam so that New York can continue to improve the education of all its children.

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