New York State’s Earth Science Performance Test Is The Same Exact Test Every Year

My first essay here was Guessing C For Every Answer Is Now Enough To Pass the New York State Algebra Exam. I am grateful for the attention that it received, like this Karol Markowicz column. My wife says I seem happier this week, happier than when I just eat watermelon down by the lake and read Lee Child. So, I mean, that must be pretty happy.

“You should write more,” she said. “But is there something else to write about?”

Ha.

Remember that politically incorrect line in Top Gun, when Maverick and Goose walk into a bar with many pretty women, and Tom Cruise says, “This is what I call a target-rich environment?”

That’s the New York State Education Department.

There is a lot I could write about. I could write about NYSED’s letter that ordered teachers not to discuss Regents exam questions “electronically” but also said that we were welcome to discuss the questions on the phone (maybe they think phones are made from string and soup cans and powered by a dinosaur chasing a brontosteak?).

Or I could write about the most memorable district IEP that I ever received. That was for James. On page 1, it said, “Allow James to tap a stapler during class. Self-stimulating behavior relieves his anxiety.” On page 3, it said, “If James becomes agitated, take his stapler. Previously, James has assaulted students and Teaching Assistants with a stapler.”

Or I could write about the union reps who keep telling me not to wear ties to work, or the librarian who told me that “removing books from circulation for the right reasons is not banning books,” or the principal who told me I couldn’t be allowed to see the middle school math tests and curriculum material because I don’t teach in the middle school.

Target. Rich. Environment.

But in my first essay I mentioned the NYSED Earth Science test, and at least one commenter said he was waiting for this with bated breath, so I figured if I covered this topic in the second essay then we could all start breathing easier.

Or, you know, we might end up realizing what NYSED is doing and become so depressed that we need to go to Starbucks and eat a bouquet of cake pops.

Tricksy, Tricksy Regentses

I discovered what was going on with the Earth Science test one hot June morning when my colleague Joe shouted to me in the hall. “Ed! If I don’t get these lab Regents graded today, the faculty booze cruise isn’t going to happen.”

I don’t enjoy booze cruises. But I did like Joe, and who am I to disappoint the faculty?

I walked in to help, and Joe hauled out the rulers, templates, grading keys, and scoring guides from deep in his closet, behind many booze cruise calendars and brochures.

“Don’t you need to get this year’s scoring key from the office?”

“Huh? No, man, it’s the same test every year.”

I didn’t really believe him, but as I graded the lab tests that morning with about as much expression on my face as Joe’s basalt samples, it became obvious that it was true.

But wait, Ed, you’re saying, I’ve looked at the NYSED page for the Earth Science Regents exam and there are different questions for the June 2022 exam and different questions for the June 2021 and just all different questions there, Ed! How can you be saying that they repeat the same exact questions every year?

I can say that because there are actually two Earth Science Regents exams every spring.

Those tricksy Regentses only list one exam on their website. That one is given at the end of June, and it’s a standard NYSED Regents exam, which is to say, it gets a 1 (talc, baby powder) on the Mohs hardness scale.

But the Regents also administer a second Earth Science Regents exam every year at the beginning of June. You can discern a hint of this second test, and see how important it is, here.

This one is called the Regents Earth Science Performance test. You can see it written across the top of the chart; the baby powder test is along the side. Remember that Regents exams matter in New York State for everything from scholarships to “free” college programs to what courses you can take at SUNY universities to university honors programs to what cords you wear at graduation and what asterisk-dagger-double dagger footnotes of glory you get in the graduation program.

What is a performance test? It’s a lab test, or it claims to be. In fact, it’s just another booklet of questions. The only “lab” part of it is –

Wait!

Am I about to divulge a secret?

I mean, presumably the Regents don’t post this test on the internet because they realize that openly publishing a test that will be given again, next year, verbatim, would be what the education professors call a Giant No-No. Those clever kiddos might — gasp — find the test and, I don’t know, memorize the answers? Just imagine.

So am I about to spill the Regents’ top-secret, Earth Science beans?

The Earth Science Performance Test

No, I’m not about to spill any Regents beans. I can’t. They’re already beanless. Too many other people have already spilled them all over the internet.

To Joe’s credit, he didn’t. A couple of days after we were done grading and the shock had worn off, I sat next to Joe on the upper deck of the booze cruise yacht, handed him one of those 8 oz. mini-Coors light cans (his strategy was to keep as much beer as possible chilling in the cooler until moments before it was to be consumed), and asked him about prepping the kids for the test.

“Oh, no, man. I can’t do the exact same questions ahead of time with the kids. That wouldn’t be right.”

True.

And there are a lot of Joes out there. Teachers are, in general, super nice people. But there are a lot of non-Joes too. And they know how to use the internet, and they know how to sell kits on the internet.

Take a look at the Ward’s Earth Science Performance Test package.

Anyone can order this, including students. It contains “everything you need to prepare for administering the test at each station,” and it tells you that there are three different stations with “hands-on” activities. That part is an exaggeration. Despite this being called a laboratory test, students only get their hands on pencils, rulers, paper, magnifying lenses (superfluous), and compasses (the John Donne “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” circle-drawing compasses, not the Moonrise Kingdom north-pointing compasses). If you’re lucky, the teacher will let you touch the rocks and maybe do a scratch or streak test.

Notice the kit says the 2009 Performance Test. That’s because the test hasn’t changed since then. At all.

But what if you want more detail?

The Regents seem to think that it’s ok to give the same test year after year because they don’t publish it online. But that doesn’t stop other people from publishing all the juicy details online.

Try this guy.

Or this guy.

At least this guy uses a slightly different earthquake map. (And is that his school district’s official website?)

These guys, on the other hand, point out some specific aspects of the grading that will lose you points if you’re not careful.

Let’s Be Fair

To be fair to the Regents and the teachers who posted those guides, none of those links take you to pictures of the test. But they are more than close enough. This is not a McDonald’s vs. the food at home situation.

This is more like McDonald’s vs. McDonald’s with only the drive-thru window open. It’s the same thing.

Also to be fair, NYSED will tell you that they have a very good reason for keeping those tests the exact same every year.

What is that very good reason? Go ahead and try to guess. Here’s a hint: NYSED thinks it is such a good reason that they also use it to keep the 8th grade state science lab test the same every single year.

That’s right, they never change that test either. NY puts a lot of faith in the 8th grade test, too. It is the culmination of their 3rd grade-8th grade testing system, and it’s used to inform their high school Regents curriculum. It’s also sent to the federal DOE and used for the “empirically based guidance” that the state loves. And it’s based, at least in part, on a lab test that never changes. Bonus: almost the entire lab test is available online at NYSED’s own website.

Ok, did you guess why NYSED feels justifies in offering the same test year after year?

It’s because they don’t have enough money, of course.

Whenever I have asked principals and superintendents why the lab tests are the same exact test every year, they say it is because a) NYSED can’t afford to develop and field test new tests every year, and b) NYSED doesn’t want to ask school districts to buy new lab equipment every year for a new lab test. Now is the time when you say, But Ed! The only equipment the Earth Science Performance test uses are rocks and common classroom materials like compasses (the pointy weaponizable kind, not the Stranger Things gate-detector kind). I mean, yeah. Rocks are expensive, I guess?

The Importance of the NYSED Science Performance Tests

So how much does all this matter?

I think the answer to that depends on how much you value kids. This isn’t as bad as being able to pass the Algebra test by guessing all Cs, but come on, it’s pretty bad. It’s not like you walk into a college education class and they say, “Hey, you know what’s a good idea? Using the same test questions every year. Especially after people start selling kits online, just keep on using those same questions.”

If you value kids, you want them to be educated.

But using the same test questions every year doesn’t encourage teachers to educate the kids. As always, it’s important to look at the incentives. If teachers do not know what the state test questions will be, they have an incentive to educate their students to a point of mastery. They will want their students to understand the material fully, so that the students are prepared for any sort of question.

If, on the other hand, teachers know exactly what questions will be coming on the state test, the teachers have an incentive to prepare the students only for those questions. After all, it’s much easier to help the students master a few questions instead of getting them to master the entire curriculum. And if a teacher is evaluated on the basis of her students’ state test scores — and most are — then she might even see time spent on questions other than what appear on the state tests as wasted time.

Solution

It’s been great the last few days of summer here. In addition to enjoying watermelon down by the lake, I’ve been enjoying my emails and DMs, which have been stuffed with kind comments and internet high-fives.

So I’m happy to have written this second piece, too. Unfortunately, the solution to this Performance Test problem, while obvious — make new tests — is once again difficult to implement. Budget obstinacy and institutional inertia are large obstacles to overcome.

The first step is publicity.

We need to focus as much attention as we can on the “areas of improvement” in the education system’s report card. True, NYSED is a behemoth, and it would be easy to get overwhelmed and give up.

But this is a target-rich environment. I’ll keep giving it my best shot.

PS My wife says to make it clear that I have been changing names and minor details to protect people’s privacy. So, yes, be aware that I have done that.