The Board of Regents adopted the New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework at their April 2014 meeting. Since then, the K-12 Social Studies Resource Toolkit project has begun and the creation of a field guide to provide guidance on the instructional impacts of the Framework is underway.
In addition to this work, the State Education Department (SED) is also thinking about how best to restructure the Global History and Geography and United States History and Government Regents examinations. In tackling this task, SED is looking for help informing their decision making. In order to gain the valuable feedback educators in the field can provide, four questions are being asked:
As you look at the current Regents Exams in social studies, what do you like about the exam? Are there particular types of questions that you think are important to maintain in the future?
As you consider the exams and the new framework, what should be changed on Regents Exams?
Are there specific types of items that you would like to see on a future exam? (We will always have multiple choice items, but these can take a variety of forms–look at old exams and see what you like/don’t like) Thematic essay? DBQ as written now? Constructed response items? New items that we haven’t seen?
Do you think there should be a “performance” requirement for examination admission, similar to the science lab requirement? (Research paper? Other activities that can’t be assessed in a test setting?)
Take a moment to formulate answers to these questions and send your feedback directly to the Social Studies Associate in Instructional Services in the New York State Department of Education Office of Curriculum and Instruction, Patricia Polan, at firstname.lastname@example.org. Let them know you heard about it at The New York History Blog.