Meanwhile, the State Education Department will study performance-based assessment and compare it with the conventional assessment tools of Regents exams. We are losing sight of the desired end product here. Our goal is to produce students who are successful in their communities so they can pursue work, further schooling, raising and supporting a family, and joining the fabric of the community. Schools like ACS provide a model for success. Passing five Regents exams is not the critical issue here.
Exams are only a convenient measuring device.
These may be necessary for schools where the current methods have not been wholly successful. But schools like ACS constantly re-evaluate themselves as part of the essential schools process. For many schools, the Regents exams are forcing everyone involved to address those questions. But the ACS and others in the coalition of essential schools have been asking and answering these questions since inception. Not every school, faculty or student belongs in an alternative or performance-based environment.