More than 20 percent of last year’s high school seniors in the city failed a Regents math exam that next June will be required to graduate, state figures showed yesterday.
Of last year’s 28,933 seniors, 79 percent passed the math Regents, while 95 percent passed the English exam – a requirement to graduate last summer.
But those numbers don’t take into account the 17,937 kids who started high school in 1996 and weren’t seniors last year because they had dropped out or were left back.
When dropouts and non-test takers are factored in, the passing rate is only 61 percent for English and 48 percent for math, said Schools Chancellor Harold Levy.
And that’s with a temporary passing threshold of 55 or higher. The passing rate will rise to 65 for this year’s freshman class.
“Those children who enter ninth grade in 2001 will also need to pass the mathematics Regents,” Levy warned.
This school year, public school students will have to pass both the Regents tests in English and math to graduate. Three other exams will be required by 2003.
The results have left many parents and government officials fearful that students are not adequately prepared to meet the new graduation requirements that are being phased in.
State Education Commissioner Richard Mills and Board of Regents Chancellor Carl Hayden yesterday acknowledged there are problems.
Many students need extra help, Mills said. And elementary schools are not preparing kids properly for high school, he said.
But Mills and Hayden say there are also signals that the new standards are working. Statewide, 87 percent of students who entered high school in 1996 took the math Regents and passed, while 97 percent passed the English exam.
Even in New York City, they said, there are positive signs.
Levy noted that the same percentage of students who passed the old Regents minimum competency tests are now passing the much more difficult Regents exams.
The Board of Education released rankings showing six city high schools with a 100 percent passing rate on the math Regents: Stuyvesant, the Upper Lab and Chancellor’s Model School in Manhattan; Townsend Harris and Academy of American Studies in Queens; and Staten Island Tech.
Stuyvesant, Staten Island Tech and Choir Academy also had 100 percent passing the English Regents.
But fewer than 10 percent of students passed the math exams at four schools: Goodman, Schwerner and Cheney; School of Public Service and HS for Legal Studies in Brooklyn; and Thurgood Marshall Academy in Manhattan.
At John Jay HS in Brooklyn, only 44 percent of the graduating class passed the English Regents – the lowest rate in the city.