The State Standardized Testing Movement: A Critique of the New York Global History Exam

As of June 2000, the expectation has been that every high school student in New York State would take and pass the Global History and Geography Regents exam as a requirement for graduation from high school.  Consisting of 50 multiple-choice questions, a thematic essay, and a document based question, this examination is currently used as a cumulative assessment to gauge student content knowledge and performance throughout the first two years of their high school experience. 

           Having taught both the 9^th and 10^th grade sections of this course, I have struggled with creating meaningful, differentiated lessons that inspire critical thinking skills, interdisciplinary connections, and connections to the world in which they live, all the while balancing this with wrote review to prepare students for this standardized examination.  Test preparation, while necessary, takes away from time that could be used toward more authentic assessments and classroom experiences.

The ambitious curriculum of the NYS global history and geography course and the culminating state assessment only compound the issue of “depth vs. breadth” which every teacher of history faces in a survey course.  Even stretched across two years, it is difficult to address every aspect of the curriculum that is subject to the state assessment in any depth, making it impossible to engage students in the many facets of historical inquiry because we are forced to merely skim the surface.

Teachers of social studies at the secondary level have found ways of addressing the challenges and constraints posed by the state assessment.  This paper will explore both the NYS Global History and Geography Regents and the means by which teachers of history approach this exam, as well as consider possible alternatives to a formal state assessment.