I couldn't think of anyone who could have been left out if the purpose is to see that all students achieve at a high level. P.S. 69 on Staten Island showed Regent McGivern and me what a really hot writing program looks like in an elementary school. The hallways and class walls were papered over with student art work and writing. The rough versions were full of spelling, grammar, and style errors. Right beside those drafts were flawless final copies.
Good writing is hard work and there is no excuse for spelling and grammar errors.
P.S. 69 is on the right track. Assemblyman Vito Lopez invited me to a community meeting in Brooklyn. The mostly Latino audience relied on an interpreter as I talked about the Regents exams and the need for high standards. I might have expected questions about the pace of these changes, or the difficulty of the standards but that's not what they had in mind. The audience projected an intense demand for high standards for their children and a school system capable of delivering the goods.