The teachers’ union criticizes New York State Regents exams for not aligning with approved curriculum.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The union representing teachers across New York State issued a statement criticizing the June 2025 Biology and Earth Science Regents exams.
There were concerns from teachers that the exams, held in mid-June that “contained topics and questions that were not properly aligned with approved curriculum materials.”
NYSUT President Melinda Person released this statement on Thursday.
“We heard many reports from our members that this year’s Biology and Earth Science exams contained topics and questions with unforeseen, off-curriculum material. Educators work tirelessly to prepare students for success in accordance with state-approved standards. When tests don’t align with these standards, it creates confusion, undermines confidence, and is unfair to students and educators alike.
“NYSUT stands firmly behind our educators and students. Watching students who have worked hard and prepared throughout the year struggle with off-topic materials is disappointing and frustrating for our educators. We are actively working with SED to ensure this doesn’t happen again and to create better alignment moving forward so every student has the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned.”
2 On Your Side reached out to the New York State Education Department. JP O’Hare, New York State Education Department Spokesperson issued this statement in response.
“Through the New York State Education Department’s extensive, industry-standard test development processes—carried out in collaboration with hundreds of NYS teachers—we are confident that the Regents Exams are well-aligned with the state’s learning standards. Unfortunately, not all schools implement new standards with fidelity or at the same pace, and in some cases, they do not shift their instruction at all from prior learning standards. This has been the main source of concern we have heard this year – parents who say that their children did not learn about the topics covered on the Regents Exam, despite these topics being plainly in the learning standards.
As always, the questions on the Regents Exams were written, reviewed, and selected for inclusion by NYS teachers. Like we do with every Regents Exam, we will post the entire test publicly in the next few weeks. In addition, we include an alignment chart with the scoring materials, which shows the learning standard measured by each question on the test. Teachers already have access to this as they are scoring the exams, and we always post that for the public as well.
Although these were new assessments this year, extensive information and materials have been released to support teachers and students in preparing for this content since the adoption of the new standards in 2016 and 2017. The Department has released more information and materials for these Regents Exams than for any other assessment in the past 15 years.”