NYC Students Beg Administrators: "Let Us Take Our Exams!"

In the weeks before they were supposed to take their Regent's Exam, Jeremy Heyman's chemistry students were staying until 7 o'clock in the evening, studying for the test. But when January 27 came, they were greeted with an unwelcome surprise - an unexpected snowfall meant the city canceled school, and with it, the Regent's exams.

Rather than being excited about a snow day, Heyman's students, and hundreds of others scheduled to take the test that day, were frustrated.

"After all of that effort that I put to get prepared for this test, it is not fair that at the end they decide to cancel the test and all of the effort that we put in was in vain. That is injustice," said Luis Diaz, one of Heyman's students at English Language Learners and International Support Preparatory Academy in the Bronx. "My future is in those tests, and I must get them out of my way."

That's why high school history teacher Rosie Frascella started a petition on Change.org to get the state to schedule a makeup day for the Regent's exam. If they don't, the kids will have to wait until June to take the test, knocking out an opportunity for them to pass the exam and putting their chance at graduating in danger.

"No one enjoys these exams, but these kids want to take them," says Frascella, who teaches at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn.  "They want to graduate."

Frascella's petition already has over 400 signatures, many from teachers, students and parents who know just how important these exams can be. To graduate from high school in New York and get a Regents endorsed diploma, students need to pass 5 Regents exams at a certain score. They prepare for months, hoping that each test will get them one step closer to graduating. One of Frascella's students, a fifth year senior, just needs one more to graduate. A young mother, she drops her daughter off with a babysitter every day to come into school for Frascella's class.

"It's making them continue to prepare for the exam, where they could spend the time preparing for another exam," said Frascella. "It also eliminates a chance to get accustomed to the test. Just by not having this exam, I'm estimating that our graduation rate will go down 5 percent."

The state has said it will give a diploma to any student who is passing the class in the Regents exam they were scheduled to take, if they needed that class to graduate. But that doesn't help all the others who missed an opportunity that the rest of the state's students received.

"It brings the stakes up even higher for these kids," says Frascella. "Especially for kids who are struggling."

Wilssy Martinez, one of Jeremy Heyman's students at ELLIS, agrees with Frascella.

"By sending students to take the exams in June, the state is stealing an opportunity from the students," says Martinez. "I ask to the state government to please think about accommodating the Regents that many students, including me, were supposed to take on January 27, 2011."

Join their fight to allow hundreds  New York City students to take the Regent's Exams. Sign Frascella's petition - Ensure Fair Testing Opportunities For All New York State Students.

Photo credit: comedy_nose