Mineola School District personnel have been studying their data to address the issues that have been raised by published reports containing information on the performance of Mineola students on the 1997-1998 Regents exams.

Sitting in his office, assistant to the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ari Zev Anolic met with Director of Science J. Scott McMullen and Director of Language Arts Karen Lund last Tuesday to discuss the actual performance of the school district.

"Our enrollment and our success is much greater than the published reports," said McMullen.

Problems interpreting the data came from the use of Average Grade Enrollment or AGE, an estimate of how many students are in a given grade, as opposed to using the number of students who took the test, as was the way of the past.

So, the scores that appeared in the published reports were not what they seemed, according to Anolic.

Using the AGE, 33 percent of the students passed the Chemistry test, however 80 percent of the 25 students who actually took the test passed.

Though, the students who take the tests normally do well on the exams, McMullen said he would rather have more students taking the test even if it meant slightly lower scores across the board.

The published reports also indicated that 40 percent of the students passed the Sequential 3 Mathematics Regents Exams. However, this number was calculated using the AGE and did not count those who took the state approved variance exam.

Students who took Applied Math II R, in place of Sequential 3, were still eligible to take the exam. There were 40 such Mineola students. Using the AGE in calculating the percentage, 61 percent of the students passed the exam.

The use of variance exams caused confusion in the interpreting results of several Regents exams performances by the Mineola students.

In 1993-94, the New York State Education Department invited Mineola schools to participate in an experiment to assess the quality of the Regents exams. For all four of the science exams, one part was substituted with a project or lab experiment, the successful completion of which resulted in Regents credit.

Over the years McMullen, who is admittedly not a fan of multiple choice tests, had moved the students away from standard test taking in his classes and had them participate in more labs and projects.

The published reports stated that 24 percent of the Mineola students passed the Biology Regents Exam. However, including those students who took the variance exam, 67 percent of the students who took the exam passed, or 29 percent of the AGE. Combining both the traditional scores with the variance scores, 52 percent of the AGE passed the test.

McMullen does not consider this a success, "This is not a result we are pleased with."

The numbers had been on the rise since the 1993-94 school year, and according to McMullen there is no evident reason for the dip in the scores.

McMullen said he saw no indicators as he monitored the progress of the students that there was trouble. He said there was there a distraction for the students taking the exam and no mistake in calculating the results.

The department, as a whole, is focusing on the many facets of the Regents program including instruction methods, syllabus, tests and midterms and Regents reviews.

"I am never happy unless we have 100 percent passing the exam," said McMullen.

Though moving the students back toward Regents prepping tests, concentrating on the memorization of vocabulary, may improve the percentage of passing students, none of these students will have an appreciation for what the study of, and possibly a career in, biology means, according to McMullen. No variance exam will be given this year.

By the spring of 2001, the students will be taking a new Biology Exam, the preparation for which will begin in the 2000-2001 school year. McMullen said he hopes the new exam will reflect more of the performance end of learning biology.

Another series of published results affected by the use of variance exams was the English Regents exam.

"The variance exam was even more challenging to the students," said language arts director Lund.

The variance exam was broken down into four sections of different value; a portfolio containing six samples of a student's writing (10 percent), listening comprehension (10 percent), literary essay (25 percent) and general composition (30 percent).

There were 198 students enrolled in the 1998 class, 169 students were actually enrolled in an English course and 29 were enrolled in a non-English course.

Of the 169 students in the Regents course, 164 actually sat to take the variance exam. Out of the 164, 153 passed for a percentage of 90 passing the exam, as opposed to the 80 percent that was reported previously.

"The percentage is much higher," said Lund.

Lund sees as a further complication to the recent tabulations the January English Regents exam. This past January, 176 Mineola students took the last "old style" exam.

This June what was once a three hour test, will be taken in two settings of three hours each. Lund described the new exam as more complicated and in depth, but all together a good challenge. Said Lund, "Now we just have to get the kids in sync."

Lund, wishing to take advantage of the type of exam for which she had been preparing her students, had all her students take the exam including those who were enrolled in Regents equivalency courses. If any of the special education students took the January exam and failed they were still eligible for the June exam.

On the January exam; 39 students scored between an 85 and 100, 113 students scored between a 65 and 84, 21 between 55 and 64 and three between zero and 54.

"My department was thrilled with these results," said Lund.

No variance exam will be offered in English or in biology this year. The removal of this option still does not address the issue of preparation for the traditional exam.

Four years ago, in an attempt to prepare all students from the inevitability of taking Regents exams, the Mineola Schools implemented a Regents Plus program to ninth and 10th graders.

Children who would not normally take biology, English, math and social studies Regents exams were grouped together in smaller classes of about 15 who are attended to by teams of teachers, two teams in the ninth grade and two teams in the 10th.

As well as completing a normal school day schedule a student in the Regents Plus Program is afforded an additional support period where teachers representing the different subjects - foreign language teachers rotate - are available to assist the students in ways such as group work and study skills.

It also provides a chance for some interdisciplinary studies and the utilization of alternative teaching methods.

For those in 11th grade for students in danger of not passing the Regents exam, the Mineola schools offer an English Prep which meets every other day to specifically prepare for the Regents exam by drilling them on test taking strategies.

Said Principal Jay Lewis, "We are not happy with the results ... and we are working very hard ... in order to help all kids meet the Regents standards."