The purpose of this page is to show you what your childs Earth Science class is all about. How they are assessed all year, what they will learn and what the regents exam is like in Earth Science.

This is a year long class ending with a NYS Regents Exam. In order to even take the regents all students must pass 1200 minutes of lab work by NYS education law. All labs are pass / fail and stay in my room for potential state audit. The regents exam score is seperate from the class grade.

Each unit your child will take 3 small tests composed of regents question for that topi, CFA 1, CFA 2 and CFA 3. The first is a pre-test and does not effect their GPA. The second is measuring progress half way through the unit and also does not count against their GPA. The CFA 3 does count toward their GPA and is fairly reflective of how they will score on the Regents Exam. Your should see the CFA 3 as a red flag if the scores are below passing.

To help increase students chance of passing the class (course credit) we have built in a 10 point a week curve system. All students start with 10 points a week for being engaged with classwork and basically doing what they should do anyway. This allows us to give credit for students who are trying even if their work is incorrect, because we dont want to penalize a student for trying but being confused. This also allows us to differentiate expectation according to ability level and learning conditions. There is a certified special education teacher in the room and we use a tally mark system to scan the class each day and assess who is on/off task. At the end of the week that percent is applied to the 10 points. 

In general 10 means your child is always doing what they should. 7-9 means they are doing ok, but could do better. 6 or less is a red flag and reason for concern as your child is very off task on a regular basis (that week).

In general students average is HIGHER than what they are likely to score on the regents because of the built in curve. Look to the CFA 3 score to indicate what they are headed for on the regents.

The number one factor leading to course failure is definintely CLASS ABSENCE.