Students at Hunters Point Community Middle School in Long Island City have to retake their Regents exam due to “clerical error.”
Regents Examinations are mandatory standardized achievement tests for students in New York State. Passing these exams is not required for students to graduate middle school, but they will be required to graduate high school until the 2027-28 school year.
Hunters Point’s principal sent parents an email on Thursday, June 26 saying the test results of the Algebra 1 Regents exam were invalidated. According to the email, a copy of which Epicenter has seen, the error stemmed from “the school not following New York state mandates regarding scheduling regulations for the exam.”
All students at the school taking the exam administered at Hunters Point on the afternoon of June 18 were supposed to stay in the classroom until 2 p.m., according to the email. However, some students were dismissed “as they finished” the exam before 2 p.m., which violated state regulations.
The NYC Department of Education did not immediately respond to Epicenter’s calls and emails for comment.
Now the students will have to retake the Algebra 1 exam later in August. The email said the school is offering the affected students resources to help them study for the retake.
Not all families are miffed. Anne Florsheim, a parent of an eighth grader who recently graduated from the school, told Epicenter she received the email about the “clerical error.”
It might actually be “good luck” for her child who wanted to retake the exam for a higher score, said Florsheim, but she also added that many other students are upset about needing to retake the exam.“It’s a huge inconvenience,” Florsheim said.
“The school goes above and beyond to do what they can for families,” Florsheim added, saying she had a more positive attitude about the situation.
