By Scott Cole, History Teacher
Last year, Jason Garnar (our History Department Chair) and I set a goal. We wanted to get the US History Regents scores at The Family Foundation School higher than ever before. We knew we could increase the multiple choice scores and but we needed to figure out a way to help our students score better on the essays.
In June, we created the review sheet for the Regents Exam. It was a list of commonly questions (and answers) and themes that are on the US Regents Exam. We tested it out with some success in June of 2009 but pushed it really hard in the Fall of that year. We also held weekly review sessions on Sundays during lunchtime following the Thanksgiving Holiday Break. For two months, the kids studied and reviewed for the US exam. After the Christmas break, a Tuesday review session was added.
The results speak for themselves. The kids overall average jumped 6 points. This is significant because the January tests tend to be slightly more difficult for students to excel at. Many of the kids hadn’t been in a history class since before the holidays or had taken it at other schools before. Essay writing jumped up a .5 point on the Regents scale (which on the Regents exam is a big leap).
Many of the students who came to the review sessions were kids who struggled mightily with the material. A few had even considered not taking the test. The hard work and effort of the students is to be commended. They gave up a lot of free time to get the best grade that they possibly could. It’s things like this that make us proud to be teachers here at The Family Foundation School.
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