Albany Times Union education reporter Scott Waldman writes this morning
A quarter of New York's college students in two- and four-year schools need extra academic help, according to the Education Department. And though nearly three-quarters of students have passed the core Regents exams for the last three school years, just a third of them scored over 85, the bar set by SUNY schools.
This is another in a depressingly long line of reports about the dumbing down of American education.? (See The Proficiency Illusion, Empire State Edition.)? ?In New York, the Regents exams were ?once touted as a gold standard of evaluation,? Waldman writes, but are now ?so hard to fail they have become meaningless.?
New York high schoolers must pass (with a score of 65) five Regents exams to graduate. And getting that 65 ain't real difficult. ?According to a Queens social studies teacher that Waldman quotes, on one test a student can miss 15 of 50 multiple-choice questions and ?still pull off a raw score of 90 on the exam.?
New Education Commissioner David Steiner has his work cut out for him.
?Peter Meyer
