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NY School Big-wigs in Regents Clash

Ohanian Comment: Don't miss Mills' commentn on portfolios. He sure is singing a different tune than when he was Vermont education czar.

A war over standardized Regents exams exploded yesterday between state Education Commissioner Richard Mills and his predecessor, Thomas Sobol.

Mills strongly defended the requirement that high-school students pass five Regents exam in order to obtain a diploma, arguing that students are rising to the new standards.

"Children in New York are learning more now than a decade ago. Testing is one part of the system that made it happen," Mills told a state Senate hearing.

"The vast majority pass the required Regents exams. Many of those who did not pass did not take the exams."

This year's graduating class must pass five Regents exams - English, math, science and American and global history - with a grade of at least 55. The Board of Regents will decide whether to raise the passing mark to 65 next year, as now planned.

But Sobol called the high-stakes tests "unwise" and "heretical" and charged they've led to a "dumbing down" of the curriculum that includes too much test preparation - precisely the claims made by parents, teachers and other critics of the Regents.

"We are dumbing down the curriculum where we should be enriching it. We are imposing one uniform style of curriculum and teaching, whether it fits all teachers and students or not. And we have failed to provide the resources, training and time such an ambitious undertaking requires," said Sobol, now a professor at Columbia.



Sobol suggested the results of Regents should account for one-third of the final grade determining whether a student graduates, with class grade-point average and classroom projects such as term papers accounting for the other two-thirds.

But Mills said such "portfolios" are "subjective" and don't measure up.



— Carl Campanile
New York Post
2003-09-24
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/40645.htm

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