Just terrible… dumbing down the standards on the alter of equity… This is the classic Left.

It is true that the people in charge shouldn’t try to make it better. What they call better is real stupidity. Just gender stuff proves that they have no brains. But now if they make it to be up to the school and teacher, a teacher who uses his brains can teach what is supposed to be taught.

I think this is the result of several years of lazy teachers not doing their job… No student left behind has allowed teachers to just pass the problem off to the next teacher and on and on until the student falls so far behind they drop out, and now this will mean teachers will be held less accountable for teaching. Kids today are not taught how to write or read cursive and are taught a twisted take on American history. Kids are being forced to learn that boys can be girls and vice versa. My 16 yr old gave up on NY schools when he learned more about American history from a video game and was being force fed the concept that he “owes the black people” because he’s not black… This idea is a very bad idea and will dumb down our kids even more than they are now and teachers will have less accountability…

Absolutely!

It’s about time! What really defines a student is their work ethic throughout the school year not a single exam.

Why not seriously reform and improve it — do the hard work of making it GOOD? Why should we believe a new program will be better than Regents? And will the new program be run by the same cronies doing the same shtick with a new label or will there be a shake-up in the education dept, returning power to parents/schools?

I don’t know the answers to any of this!

“Science”? Not sure that’s the right word. Half its Regents curriculum is political propaganda.

Thanks for your years of service and your to the point response. As a teacher, you probably had to figure out how to teach for the Regent and simultaneously teach the truth about the actual subject. I looked up the incident where a Regent was post facto taken to task regarding Israel. It was not that Israel wasn’t included in a map of the Middle East, which has happened in other “educational” settings. It was an issue of much more subtle ways maps and “facts” were presented and omitted regarding Israel, which indicates how the very complicated curriculums have been being taught in schools that we pay tax dollars towards. In science, history and English, the Regents and curriculums have so much political and world view bias that is often not compatible with faith based communities. And it’s not good for youngsters and society. Mathematics also became corrupted and difficult to teach and learn with “Common Core.” The removal of Regent is common sense and will be better for everyone.

I can confirm that we learned about the KKK and it’s history and ideology complete with a full film documentary, R”L!

For those of us who believe the subjects in and of themselves are useful, the huge problem has been how they have been presented in order to get the right answers on the Regent Exams. None of those subjects need to be taught in the ways they often are. In fact, the way they’re taught for the Regents, especially mathematics, is confusing and disempowering. Even if one didn’t have religious objections (which shouldn’t be so lightly brushed off) questions are often politically biased. I’ve heard of a government official having been motivated and fought against something like a map of the Middle East on a Regent Exam not having included Israel, but it was after the fact. There are many examples, and it is extremely hard to keep up with them. Let’s keep all the good in English, Math, Science and History as they are taught in the states and countries that don’t have Regent Exams, and, iyH, youngsters in all schools will be able to learn more successfully. They will have a much better chance of staying in school and achieving basic diplomas with chances towards employment, higher education, and military service. It will also open the doors for more people who will be able to have jobs we need them to take, like joining the police force and fire departments, become EMTs, electricians etc. As a side note, I very often pray that a lot of the inflated educational requirements which don’t have to do with the skill or work ethic are removed from many jobs. Also importantly:
Removing the Regents pressure can help free everyone up for effective instruction and learning, and probably help reduce desperate cultures of cheating. Sending blessings and awaiting more good news, especially that of Moshiach and the Geulah.

Yes certainly! Many topics in science are very questionable, as is the entire approach of the scientific method from a Torah perspective. Much of the information can also be seen as useless for the average student, much like almost all of social studies. In addition, social studies for the Regents required students to learn about the different branches of Xantianity. This was being studied in a Mesivta in Crown Heights!

In addition, once a child knows basic math and English skills, I don’t see the value in requiring them to learn advanced calculus when there are many more crucial subjects they need to be learning, in Kodesh certainly. Even in Chol, specifically for girls who have no issue of Bittul Torah, there are much more important life skills that could be learned from other subjects.

Yes, yes

Parent, the regents subjects are Math, Science, English, and Social Studies. Are you deeming these questionable or useless for attendees of the Jewish school?