Published: July 21, 2005 | By Dan Drmacich | Democrat and Chronicle

In June, a growing number of New York state students failed to graduate as a direct result of high-stakes Regents exam requirements.

New York state is ranked 46th nationally in the percentage of students graduating, and 50th for African Americans and Hispanics, according to the Manhattan Institute. The Rochester School District's dropout rate has increased more than 60 percent since the inception of the Regents exam reform plan in 2001.

Given this evidence, it is small wonder why Rochester Schools Superintendent Manuel Rivera expressed disappointment that the Board of Regents had failed to approve any significant alternatives to Regents exams (story, Democrat and Chronicle, June 15).

Ironically, in late May, the state Senate passed a bill that would have:

# Directed state Education Commissioner Richard Mills to develop an exam system based on portfolios, oral dissertations and projects, and allow individual school districts a choice of using traditional Regents exams, the newly developed performance-based system or a combination of both.

# Extended until 2009 the variance of 28 schools using performance-based assessments as an alternative to Regents exams.

The following scenarios, shared with Senate members, may shed light on why a growing number of legislators support this bill:

# Shayla (not her real name) a hard-working RSD senior in special education, passed American history and maintained a C+ average for the school year. Her work clearly showed that she knew the material and understood historical concepts.

However, despite tutoring, she failed the Regents exam three times and then the Regents substitute exam. Shayla will not receive a state-endorsed diploma because she is not a good test-taker. Is this fair?

An alternative, performance-based assessment system could have allowed Shayla to earn her diploma and move on, with her head held high. An alternative to high-stakes Regents exams would mean that standards would be measured differently, not lowered.

# Maurice (not his real name), a junior at School Without Walls, took a non-Regents biology class in which he completed several individual projects, demonstrating that he could conduct college-level research, perform original lab experiments, and defend his position on genetics through oral arguments to a committee of students, teachers, and a college instructor. Certainly, it is difficult to argue that Maurice was not held accountable for standards that were equal to or exceeded the Regents.

# David (not his real name), a ninth-grader, decides he does not want to attend a Regents-exam-driven high school. With the blessing of his parents, who have the means to support his choice, David decides to attend Charles Finney, a private school that does not give Regents exams. He does quite well on his school-developed, performance-based portfolios and projects, and enters a good college.

His counterpart, Louis, a ninth-grader, from a poor family in Rochester, has limited choices. Frustrated by the test-prep factory atmosphere he experiences in high school, Louis could drop out. Are there two standards operating here, one for children of the wealthy, and another for the poor? Don't Louis and David both deserve a choice in education?

The Assembly bill was held up by politics, the education commissioner's intensive lobbying and fear by Assembly leadership that passing the bill would imply that their appointees, the Board of Regents, were incompetent.

Consequently, a deal was struck between the Assembly leadership and the Board of Regents that would allow schools, such as School Without Walls in Rochester, that use alternative assessments to continue to do so — except in math and English — until 2010.

The second part of the bill that directed the commissioner to design alternatives to Regents exams for all New York state school districts was dropped.

Should we continue to support a one-size-fits-all educational agenda that is leaving more students behind every year? Please write to your state legislator, demanding that further legislation be enacted to give all state school districts the flexibility to help all students become competent, successful citizens.

Drmacich is principal, School Without Walls, Rochester School District.