During the 2017-2018 school year when Mr. Vizcaino and Ms. Robertson became leaders of UA Global Commerce, we began to investigate why pass rates for regents exams were historically low in our school. Through my role as Science Department Lead, we analyzed regents data and identified reading comprehension and evidence based analysis on Short Response questions to be an area where students consistently struggled. We decided that our focus will be on developing rich discussion to cultivate students’ evidence-based analytical thinking and to enhance their evidence-based analytical writing. Using this information, we have worked to implement strategies to support our students with these skills, including Regents Prep, use of the Writing Revolution strategies and engaging students with authentic and grade level text to encourage evidence based analysis and discussion.

Student Anecdotes:

• Oumou K. - I taught Oumou as a Freshman during my first year. Her original score on the LE Regents was a 62. She retook the exam, without any supports and received the same grade. During her Junior year, she was placed into my Living Environment class and regularly attended after-school regents prep. I continued to encourage her and in June of 2019, she received a 77 exam. I attribute this not only to me improving my pedagogy, but also her commitment and dedication to take advantage of supports such as Regents Prep.
  

• Jesenia S. - Jesenia is a student with an IEP related to Learning Disability as well as a physical health impairment. She was provided with a 1 to 1 para, but still struggled to complete work within the class period. Jesenia met with me daily during her lunch period (after getting her food) to complete classwork, as well as review vocabulary and get assistance with homework. I was also able to get to know her and her family on a more personal level. I began to differentiate assignments, as well as her group in class to help support her. After attending these daily review sessions, Jesenia passed the Regents within her IEP safety net.
  

• Jared C.- Jared transferred to our school as a sophomore along with his younger brother. In 2018 he scored a 63% on the LE Regents Exam. Looking at his ISA data, I noticed that many of the points he lost were due to not completing the short response questions. In Fall 2019, he attended Regents Prep weekly and I provided him with writing strategies from the Writing Revolution, to build his confidence and strengthen his responses using evidence. After attending Regents Prep he retook the exam and received a 71%.
  

• Brianne R. - transferred to our school having failed the Living Environment Regents. Her confidence as well as her interest in science was lacking due to her experience in her previous school. During her first semester, in January 2018, she took the exam and scored a 58%. I reviewed her ISA with her and observed that she lost points in specific topics such as Genetics and Ecology, which are heavily tested. I targeted her prep using this information, provided her with models and practice problems and in June 2019, after being in my class, she received a 75% on the exam.
  

• Edson B. is a student who joined our school from Honduras in 2017. He was classified as an ELL and knew very little English. This served as his main challenge because the Living Environment is very vocabulary heavy, and not all of the vocabulary translates directly into Spanish, his first language. On his first attempt, Edson originally scored a 55% on the exam. I strategically grouped him with other students who were Spanish speakers and began to implement more supports for all of my ELLs, such as visuals, bi-lingual glossaries and providing him with English and Spanish copies of classwork assignments. Edson scored a 68% on the exam.