Lots of education news out of New York the last few weeks, stemming from a large proficiency illusion on state elementary reading assessments. An article in the City Journal ?Fix the Regents Exams, Too,? calls for the state to take a closer look at the ?once-vaunted' New York regent's exams as well.
Consider the contents of this year's Regents exams. The Global History and Geography Regents require the students to answer a series of questions in essay form, after reading various handouts. As has become usual, no prior knowledge of history or geography was necessary? Simply put, the Regents exams have been bent completely out of shape. The correlation between increased passing rates and the increasingly content-free nature of the exams is hard to miss.
The lack of knowledge necessary to take these exams is troubling. But why did the state feel the need to lessen requirements in the first place? According to our 2004 report ?A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks? it might stem from a severe lack of quality textbooks.
The books reviewed in this report range from serviceable to abysmal. None is distinguished or even very good. The best are merely adequate. In the hands of a competent teacher, they could get the job done, but not much more than that. No textbook scored better than 78 percent overall ? the rough equivalent of a C+ grade. Five of the twelve earned failing marks. Despite their glitzy graphics and vivid pictures, they all suffer from dull prose and the absence of a ?story.? Is it any wonder that most students rank history or social studies among their least favorite subjects in school? What a crashing bore it must be to try to learn something from tomes like these.
-Saul Spady, Fordham Intern