Sch’dy teachers raise concerns with history Regents exam

PHOTOGRAPHER: Zachary Matson

The question on the June American History Regents exam asked students to choose two major American reform movements and describe their historical context and how successfully they achieved their goals.

But students who chose to write about the civil rights movement — or any reform movement of the past 80 years — lost points, because the question also limited students to choose movements between 1820 and 1933, a time period that precluded students from focusing on the major civil rights achievements of the 1950s and 1960s.

When Schenectady High School history teachers Chris Ognibene, the school’s department head, and Mike Silvestri saw that question, they thought: Not again. Coupled with a 2014 question, the teachers said they see a disturbing pattern emerge of essay questions that excluded the topic that minority students most connect to.

“The exclusion of the civil rights movement didn’t hurt kids in Niskayuna, it didn’t hurt kids in Guilderland; it hurt kids in Troy and Albany and Schenectady,” Ognibene said.

The teachers were also upset by a question on the 2014 exam that asked students to describe the historical context and impacts of two Supreme Court cases throughout American history, but the question explicitly prohibited the use of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education — the seminal 1954 school desegregation case.

The case was singled out for exclusion from student answers, because students could have used information from a document-based question that referenced an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” according to a score sheet. But to the Schenectady teachers, that explanation fell short.

“Anyone who knows U.S. history understands that school desegregation and King’s letter from Birmingham were two unrelated events,” Ognibene said. “There is no reason to cross-contaminate an exam; you write a better question.”

The thematic essay questions, which ask students to demonstrate deep knowledge of subjects, touch on 20 recurring themes — including foreign policy, reform movements, major courts cases and technological developments. But the questions rarely constrain the time periods that students have to choose from, though it’s not unprecedented.

Since the January 2010 exam — 20 exams total — at least four thematic essay questions have asked students to choose from within a constricted time period, Cold War-era policies, 19th and 20th century Latin American foreign policies, and post-Civil War industrialization issues, for example.

It is also not unprecedented for students to be explicitly restricted from writing about a specific topic because it was referenced on a different essay question. But the thematic essays on the past 20 exams have more often than not given students broad latitude in choosing topics to write about within the particular theme of the essay question.

A June 2015 question, for example, asked students to write about two organizations that pressed reform efforts at any point in American history. And students on past exams are regularly asked to choose any two court cases, pieces of legislation, technological advancements, reform efforts or presidential actions “throughout United States history.”

The exam questions are developed by social studies teachers across the state “through a rigorous process to ensure clarity and content accuracy,” state Education Department spokeswoman Jeanne Beattie said Wednesday. Questions are tested prior to use on the statewide exam and ones that “are too hard or that confuse students” are not used.

The June essay question was expanded from one that had concentrated on the 19th century to include 20th century topics as well, according to the Education Department. And even though the reform movements had to be situated in the 1800-1933 time period, information from before or after that period could have been used to support a student’s answer.

But Ognibene and Silvestri said the time constraint was arbitrary and unnecessary. They were also upset that the Education Department hadn’t responded to their questions about the June exam as of earlier last week. Rather than limiting the time period that students could choose reform movements from, they suggested exam makers create test questions that asked student to make deeper connections within the topic they chose.

“A good thematic essay would cover every era of U.S. history with a common theme,” Ognibene said. “Write a better question that digs deeper into the theme.”

The teachers, who grade the essays, said some of their students had written about the civil rights movement anyway. (The school still improved its overall test scores on the exam, Ognibene said.)

“There is something about that era that resonates with students. It is a more real period to them; they can connect to it,” Silvestri said. “The essay should be where kids show they understand a theme using things they can connect to — that to me is the best part of U.S. history.”