Its employment seems also to be limited pretty much
to two of the schools, because for most of the subjects the Regents'
examinations tend to displace it in the schools of the New York State
and City systems. As only the successes were sure of being recorded in
these tests we do not know the percentage of success attributable to
this plan of removing failures. It probably deserves to be credited
with a fairly high degree of success, for relatively few pupils (less
than 200) utilize it, and then frequently after some extra preparation
or study--such as summer school courses or tutoring. These two forms of
school examinations jointly yield 37.5 per cent of successes on the
number attempted, so far as such are recorded.
4. THE SERVICE RENDERED BY THE REGENTS' EXAMINATIONS IN NEW YORK STATE
Whatever may be the merits or demerits of the Regents' examination
system in general for academic school subjects, these tests certainly
perform a saving function for the failing pupils, by promptly
rectifying so many of their school failures and thus rescuing them from
the burden of expensive repetition. A pupil's success in the Regents'
examination has the immediate effect of satisfying the school failure
charged to him. At the same time, it is possible, as is sometimes
asserted, that the anticipation of these tests inclines some teachers
to a more gratuitous distribution of failing marks as a spur to their
pupils to brace up and perform well in reference to the Regents'
questions.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124