April 27, 2004 | By RICK KARLIN | Albany Times-Union

Top Senate and Assembly lawmakers are considering a push for alternatives to the five Regents exams needed for high school graduation.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, and Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steven Sanders, D-Manhattan, both stressed they have not yet written legislation that would force alternatives to the exams. But both said they have been discussing the possibility.

Taking that step could be seen as a retreat from the nearly decadelong effort to raise academic standards in New York's K-12 system.

It would also mark one of the few times that lawmakers imposed their wishes on the Board of Regents, the appointed body that sets education policy.

Saland and Sanders stressed they have long had concerns about the requirements.

"It's not a secret that for many years both Stephen Saland and I have had reservations about an assessment criteria in which the only thing that matters is how you do on a given exam on a given day," Sanders said.

Both lawmakers last fall conducted hearings across the state, and a variety of groups and individuals said relying strictly on the five exams is unrealistic.

"There are concerns about the one-size-fits-all (approach) and teaching to the test," Saland said.

The Regents decided a decade ago that the way to improve education would be to have all students take the exams, which traditionally were reserved for college-bound kids. Now, all high school students must pass standardized statewide tests in English, math, U.S. history, global studies and science to get a diploma.

Members of the Board of Regents and Education Commissioner Richard Mills have defended the system, saying it's better than the old practice of allowing alternative "local exams" at about an eighth-grade level for students in lower academic tracks.

But anti-testing groups claim the Regents exams have forced many poor and minority students to simply drop out.

Acknowledging that the tests were difficult for many kids, the Board of Regents last fall agreed to extend what was supposed to be a phase-in period in which students could pass the exams with a grade of 55, rather than the traditional 65.

Some major players in education are split on the five-exam issue.

"We have supported the exams as a measure of how students are doing," said Carl Korn, spokesman for the New York State United Teachers, the state's largest teachers union. "Right now, we have a standard that's working."

"The system shouldn't be one-size-fits-all," countered Barbara Bradley, spokeswoman for the state School Boards Association.

Still others note the Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by the Legislature, not the governor, should continue to set education policy.

"We as an organization would prefer to see the Regents make those changes," said Robert Lowry, associated director of the state Council of School Superintendents, which has also criticized the five-exam system.

"That said, we as an organization feel there should be greater flexibility in the graduation requirements and Regents have shown some openness to that," he added.

Lowry and others noted the Board of Regents has at least broached a number of topics that could lead to alternatives. Board members recently discussed the possibility of an appeals system, similar to that in Massachusetts, or setting up an "on-demand" system in which students would have more opportunities to try to pass the tests. Currently, students can retake the exams at given times during the year.

Board of Regents members had no immediate comment, but they have over the past year discussed at least what could be viewed as alternatives, including using an average score from the five tests, or allowing students to pass four exams.

Moreover, talk that the lawmakers might force a change in the exam system could be viewed as a way to prod the Board of Regents to take back the issue by making changes on their own.