Requirements announced for Ukrainian Regents exam (03/05/00)

Requirements announced for Ukrainian Regents exam

by Oksana Bakum

HIGHLAND, N.Y. - As announced last year by the Committee for Preparation of the Sample Comprehensive Examination in Ukrainian, in the State of New York students may continue to earn three credits toward their high school Regents requirement by taking an accredited exam in the Ukrainian language. The procedure, however, differs in a major way from that of the past years.

The directive regarding this change was sent to high school principals in October 1998, in February 1999 and again recently. Beginning with last year, exams in the languages not usually taught at American high schools (i.e., Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Ukrainian, Polish and Russian) must be given outside of the regular high schools, where they were previously administered. Special teachers' committees, which up to now have worked under the aegis of the State Education Department in setting up such exams in the above-mentioned six languages, still function and continue to be responsible for devising and issuing these exams every year.

Students must be aware of the following mandatory conditions: their high school level cannot be lower than grade 11 or 12; their course requirements for obtaining their high school diploma must be met; in view of this, the Ukrainian language exam cannot serve as a substitute for any test in a required subject. All the decisions on the above considerations, are made by the high school authorities.

In their Ukrainian studies, students need to complete three years on the upper level, and the weekly language sessions - which may include classes in literature, history and/or culture - should be no less than three hours.

Therefore, the new procedure is as follows: a student should obtain from his/her high school office two forms: the application for Regents Credit for Foreign Language Studied Outside of the Regular High School and the Student Profile (N.Y. State Education Department Guidelines for Regents Credit). These forms must be filled by the Ukrainian studies teacher and mailed to the high school which the student is attending.

All language exams are given in the middle of June, but formalities must be completed well in advance. Should these forms be unavailable, a high school may order them from the New York State Education Department.

Applicants for this exam should demonstrate the level of competency in the Ukrainian language that is comparable to the state's intermediate language standard, so-called, Checkpoint B. Those who successfully completed the upper level in Ukrainian studies should pass it. In its format, the Ukrainian exam corresponds to all the Regents exams in foreign languages.

Ukrainian studies teachers are obliged to take care of the initial formalities. The Ukrainian exam committee will continue to prepare the Ukrainian exam, according to all State requirements. Upon request from these teachers, the committee will mail them the complete and certified exam to be administered at their school. The review and certification of exams is provided by the Language Immersion Institute at the State University of New York College at New Paltz.

Also according to the new Education Department directive, community schools (Ukrainian studies schools) have two choices: they may use the exam prepared yearly by the Ukrainian exam committee, or they can construct it themselves, observing all the State standards, i.e., modeling it precisely on the Regents foreign languages tests. Their exam must then be evaluated by an independent, qualified languages expert and the certification submitted to the students' school office. Evaluation forms are available at schools. The Education Department will mail interested teachers the Ukrainian exam of 1998, to be used as a model for their own test of this year (parts 2, 3 and 4). Also, the Oral Test Topics of past years should be ordered. The instructions are in English, applicable to all the Regents. Only the topics of previous years may be used.

Teachers should write to the Office of Testing and Assessment, R.760 EBA, The State Education Department, Albany, NY 12234 and ask for the Sample Comprehensive Examination in Ukrainian and for the Oral Test Topics.

Requests for this year's exam, prepared by the Committee for Preparation of the Sample Comprehensieve Examination in Ukrainian with $5 enclosed for printing and mailing, should be addressed to the committee's coordinator: Oksana Bakum, 18 Orchard Lane, Highland, NY 12528.

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