Whether it be the new fourth- or eighth-grade tests or the new requirements for a high school diploma, students from Long Island, Binghamton, Syracuse, Queens, and every other region of the state are being affected by the decisions that the Board of Regents and the Commissioner of Education are making.

Fourth graders are crying themselves to sleep because they are so worried about the new tests that they have to pass. So much pressure has been put on these students because the State Education Department has yet to tell school districts what will be done with these tests. Will a fourth-grader who fails the tests be put into special education? Will they have to repeat the year? Nobody seems to know the answers to these questions.

What will happen to the high school senior who has passed four of the required Regents exams and has finished all the coursework required to graduate but freezes on the last exam or is dealing with a personal problem and just cannot pass the exam on the day it is given? Will this student be expected to repeat the entire year in order to graduate from high school? Now the question of component testing has been raised. Apparently the commissioner is considering having those students just retake the part of the exam they failed, which they may be able to do the same year. It seems as though the rules that are coming from the Board of Regents are changing every time the educators have resigned themselves to the new mandates.

How long before a final decision on the new standards are made? Nobody is complaining about higher standards, it is the implementation of these higher standards that educators, parents and legislators alike are concerned with. Will the Board of Regents suddenly change things back to the way they were if the drop-out rates increase because special education students, who would have been able to graduate with a local diploma discover that that option is no longer open to them, or students who just can't pass that final Regents decide it is not worth it for them to retake the test? But what about the students who were lost in the system during this shuffle, what will happen to them? These are questions that the education community has been struggling with for over two years now.

Even if the State Education Department returns to the former standards or adjusts the new standards to better fit all students, those who are currently in high school will have already had to abide by the standards that are now being phased in. As more and more parts of the new standards are phased in more questions will be raised and hopefully some will be answered about how the new Regents standards and new testing will affect the current generation of students. While raising standards parents and educators must continue to fight to make sure that these students are not lost in the shuffle.

-Susie Trenkle