I still think the Alg 2/Trig Regents and course is MUCH more difficult than Course III used to be. I doubt more students will pass this exam than the number that passed Cse III just because of a "low" cut score. Whereas on the old exams you could predict exactly what questions the students would see and focus on studying a few topics, now students need to study ALL the topics and hope that they don't get a test that picks everything they're a little weaker at, not to mention they have to be expert readers.

Does everyone who's upset with the cut score REALLY want half their class to fail because the cut score is too high? Do you really think that your students don't know the material because the cut score is low or because they only got 50% of the small sample of random topics correct? Do you think your students know less now than when they took Course III?

Isn't this "cut point" system similar to the way AP exams are graded? I'm pretty sure it's similar to the way actuarial exams are graded (and they don't decide the cut score until the exams are looked at either). Maybe an AP stats teacher can comment upon the system of standard setting and its validity?

Liz Waite

-----Original Message-----
From: Angela Samul <apcalculusqueen@yahoo.com>
To: nyshsmath@mathforum.org
Sent: Thu, Jun 24, 2010 12:14 pm
Subject: Re: Pathetic

I'm sorry, but shouldn't we know how things are going to be evaluated beforehand? We have to tell our kids what we expect of them in the beginning of the year. Honestly, if we as teachers did things the way NYS does them, none of us would have jobs.

I agree with Sharon...very secretive, very manipulative, and, in my view, very political.

Angela Samul

--- On Thu, 6/24/10, James Burrell <jr.burrell3@gmail.com> wrote:

From: James Burrell <jr.burrell3@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Pathetic
To: nyshsmath@mathforum.org
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2010, 12:00 PM

A technical manual will be published this summer that explains the standard setting process regarding A2T.

On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 10:55 AM, Glenn Clemens <clemens@twcny.rr.com> wrote:

Then perhaps someone should explain it to everyone, clearly and in detail. The fact that the process seems to be (unnecessarily?) secret does not induce a lot of people to have great confidence in it, as attested to by many posts to this forum.

Glenn Clemens

From: owner-nyshsmath@mathforum.org [mailto:owner-nyshsmath@mathforum.org] On Behalf Of James Burrell
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:12 AM
To: nyshsmath@mathforum.org
Subject: Re: Pathetic

Meaning no disrespect, unless one has served on the Standards Setting Committee, one has no clue what goes into the making of a recommendation, from NYS teachers, to the Commissioner regarding the cut points for 65 and 85.