New Jersey Science Convention

Analysis of Statewide Assessments in New York: Informing Classroom Practice

Joseph L. Zawicki, Department of Earth Sciences and Science Education, SUNY Buffalo State College

Michael Jabot, Department of Physics, SUNY Fredonia

Assessments are designed for many purposes including: measuring student knowledge, gains, preparation, sorting and benchmarking. The alignment between curriculum assessment and instruction is critical.

Regents examinations in New York State have a long and rich history. The first exams were administer in November 1865. The science topics included in the 1879 administration of Regents exams included physical geography, physiology and hygiene, zoology, astronomy, chemistry, but may, and geology. Current new York state assessments are given at the elementary, intermediate, and commencement levels. Klansman Lovell science exams include living environment biology and the physical setting chemistry earth science and physics.

New York State Regents science exams are constructed by classroom teachers following a test blueprint. Exams are developed over a four year cycle. Items are initially written and then reviewed during year one. Pretest data is used to revise items which are then assembled into field test blocks. These blocks are then reviewed and a final data analysis is completed. Field tests are designated as operational in the fourth year of the process. Student difficulty and discrimination data is used to establish scaled scores for each assessment. The scales scores, based on item response theory, are used to ensure the equity of tests from year to year. The format of each test is multifaceted, including multiple choice, constructed response, extended constructive response, and performance assessment components.

Assessment concepts include difficulty, the percentage of students correctly answering the test item, discrimination, a correlation between student understanding and performance on a particular test item, and reliability, how well the test results can be replicated. Analyses have been performed on fairly large samples student papers from rural, urban and suburban districts. Analysis data may be used for program review additional resources may be found at http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/NJSTA/Fall05.

References:

New York State Education Department. (1987). History of Regents Examinations. Available at: http//www.emsc.nysed.gov. Last accessed on October 4, 2005.

New York State Education Department. (2005). New York State Regents Examinations. Available at: http//www.nysed.gov. Last accessed on October 4, 2005.

Zawicki, J. (2003) An Analysis of New York State Regents Physics Exam Issues. Available at: http//physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/NYRegentsPhysics/. Last accessed on October 4, 2005.

Zawicki, J. (2003). An Analysis of the New York State June 2003 Regents Physics Exam: Prepared for STANYS and the NYS-AAPT. Available at: http//www.nysed.gov. Last accessed on October 4, 2005.