Regents Exam Training 101

1. Regents Exam Training 101 A guide to proctoring and scoring Regents exams

2. Proctoring • Before continuing, please be sure to have a copy of the Directions for Administering Regents Examinations: January Administration in front of you.

3. Proctoring • Preparing the testing room: • Clear all desks and tables of books, papers, and other materials. • Make arrangements in advance to seat the students so that there will be no opportunity for any unobserved communication between students.

4. Proctoring • Materials: • Inform students before each examination that they are expected to provide their own pens, pencils, erasers, and rulers. • Seals on the examination materials must be broken by the Director of Academics or Vice Commandant. All non-secure materials can be distributed before students arrive to the testing room. • Maritime will provide ruled answer paper, scrap paper, and graph paper, as well as calculators. • Additional pens and pencils should be available for students in need.

5. Proctoring • Use of Calculators: • Science Regents Exams: For Science Regents Exams, all students must have a scientific calculator. The lead proctor will provide them to each student. • Math Regents Exams: Students taking the Integrated Algebra and Geometry exams must have a graphing calculator. Again, the lead proctor will provide them to each student.

6. Proctoring • Time Regulations: • Morning exams will commence at 8:00 AM, while afternoon exams will begin at 12:15. • No students are allowed to turn in their materials and/or leave the examination site prior to Uniform Statewide Admission Deadlines of 10:00 AM for morning exams or 2:15 PM for afternoon exams. • All students who arrive before the Uniform Statewide Admission Deadlines must be admitted into the examination room.

7. Proctoring • Time Regulations: • Students should be allowed into the examination area 15 minutes prior to the start of exams. • Proctors should arrive to the exam no less than 20 minutes before the start of the exam: • 7:40 AM for morning exams • 11:55 AM for afternoon exams

8. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Identification of Students: Proctors must keep accurate records of the students who take each examination so that it will be possible to confirm the presence or absence of a student for each examination. • Checking for Unauthorized Materials: Proctors should provide close supervision of students who are taking Regents Examinations. All unauthorized materials should be removed from the examination area.

9. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Obtaining Information from or Giving Information to Other Students: • Do not permit students to obtain information from or give information to other students in any way during the examination. • If you suspect that such an attempt has occurred, warn the students that any further attempts will result in the termination of their exams. • If necessary, move the students to another location.

10. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Obtaining Information from or Giving Information to Other Students: • If these steps fail to end attempts to obtain or gain information, notify the Director of Academics or the Vice Commandant immediately and terminate the students’ examinations. • At the conclusion of the examination, all suspected acts of fraud must be reported to the Director of Academics or Vice Commandant. • No score may be earned by a student who has attempted to obtain aid from or give aid to another student or has otherwise committed fraud during the examination.

11. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Student Use of Communication Devices: • At the beginning of each examination, proctors must read the statement included in the Directions for Administering Regents Examination, located on page 6. • All devices surrendered by students must be kept at the front of the testing room. Each device should be labeled with the student’s name.

12. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Student Use of Communication Devices: • Any student observed to be using any communication device while taking State Examination must be directed to turn it off and place it at the front of the testing room immediately. • In order to allow for all possible outcomes of procedural due process, the student should be allowed to complete the examination. The incident must be reported promptly to the Director of Academics or Vice Commandant. • If it is determined that the student was using the communications device during the exam, the student’s test must be invalidated. This will be determined by the Director of Academics or the Vice Commandant.

13. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Aid to Students: • No one, under any circumstances, may interpret or explain examination questions to students, nor may anyone review or comment on the answer paper of a student while an examination is in progress. • In response to inquiries by students concerning the meaning or interpretation of questions, proctors should advise students to use their best judgment.

14. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Temporary Absence for Examination Room: • Do not permit any student to leave the examination room during the first hour of the examination. • After the first hour, proctors must accompany students to the bathroom. Only one student is permitted to leave the examination room at a time. • Any examination paper that is removed from the examination room must be invalidated.

15. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Emergency Evacuation of the School: • In the event that the school must be evacuated, please direct all students to remain silent. Proctors will then escort students out of the building and remain with them until further instructions are given.

16. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Check In of Student Answer Papers: • When a student has completed a Regents Examination, all the student’s answer material (both used and unused, including scrap paper) must be collected and checked in by logging the material into a list of examinees. This should be done before the student is permitted to leave the testing room. The list will be provided by the Director of Administration prior to the examination.

17. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Preserving Integrity of Students’ Responses: • No one, under any circumstances, including the student, may alter the responses on the test once the student has handed in his or her test materials.

18. Proctoring • Supervision of Students: • Student Declaration: • Each student taking a Regents Examination is required to sign the declaration located on the examination answer sheet at the completion of the exam. • When checking over the answer sheet, proctors must confirm that the declaration has been signed. This must be done in pen! Students must sign before leaving the testing room.

19. Proctoring • Directions to Students: • Please be sure to read aloud the “Directions to Students” located on page 8 in the Directions for Administering Regents Examination before the beginning of each examination. Allow students to ask questions regarding these directions prior to beginning the examination. • General Ed. students are given 3 hours to complete their examination. The beginning time is noted by the lead proctor on the log sheet for the exam.

20. Proctoring • Directions for Specific Examinations: • Please make sure you read the specific directions for the examinations you will be proctoring prior to arrival to that exam. These directions are located in the Directions for Administering Regents Examination booklet beginning on page 8.

21. Proctoring • Fraud: • Please be sure to read the section on fraud located on page 7 in the Directions for Administering Regents Examination. • Any questions or concerns regarding fraud should be directed to the Director of Academics or the Vice Commandant prior to proctoring the examination. • All suspicions of fraud should be reported to the Director of Academics or the Vice Commandant immediately.

22. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • General information: • At least 2 teachers must rate the answer papers for all Regents Examinations, with the exception of the Integrated Algebra and Geometry Exams, which will require 3 raters. • Raters must also follow the procedures described in the appropriate Information Booklet. These booklets have been provided to the Head of each department.

23. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Rating Procedures: • At the end of the testing period, the completed exams and all associated materials must be submitted to the Director of Academics for storage. If the Director is not available, the materials are to be given to the Vice Commandant. A “Chain of Custody” form will be used to track exams. • The Director of Academics will deliver the completed exams to the designated rating site when all raters are ready to begin scoring.

24. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Rating Procedures: • Do not leave exams unattended. In the event that scorers are leaving the rating site, please return all materials to the Director of Academics. • Raters must use red pen or red pencil. When scoring student responses to multiple-choice questions, teachers should mark distinctly all incorrect and omitted answers. The teachers rating each page must write their initials clearly on the paper.

25. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Rating Procedures: • Teachers must rate strictly according to the key provided by the Department Head. • Raters may allow credit for other answers to open-ended questions only if those answers are clearly equivalent to the answer key. • A teacher may not give credit for answers that the teacher considers merely “possible” or “reasonable”. • For students with disabilities must be scored according to the same standards used to score answer papers for all students, unless indicated by their IEP or 504 plan.

26. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Rating Procedures: • Teachers must be thoroughly familiar with the rating instructions for each examination. • For all Regents Examinations in foreign languages, in mathematics, or in the sciences, all student answer papers that receive a scaled score 60 through 64 or 50 through 54 must be scored a second time. No teacher is permitted to rescore any open-ended questions during this second-scoring event.

27. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Recording Procedures: • Upon completion of grading, raters will make sure that every cadet eligible to take the examination has a graded answer sheet. Graders will complete a speadsheet of cadets with their exam grade. Students who did not take the exam will be logged with an NG for their grade. • Department heads will check the spreadsheet and the graded exams to make sure the grades are accurately recorded.

28. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Recording Procedures: • Department heads will return all materials, including the student grades spreadsheet to the Director of Academics. The Director will then forward the exam results to the Guidance Counselor for entering into Eschool.

29. Scoring (Rating) Regents Examinations • Passing Scores: • The minimum passing score on a Regents Examination taken to satisfy the testing requirements for a Regents diploma is 65.