BED STUY 4th GRADERS PASS REGENT EXAM
By Art McFarland

They've passed a high school regents test. So how did they do it? Education reporter Art McFarland spoke to them to find out.
Ebony Kennedy and members of her class are among 21 4th graders from their Bedford-Stuyvesant school who took and passed the 9th grade Regents Biology test in life sciences.
They took the test as a project, based on an idea from George Leonard, the principal of Beacon Academy High School.
Mr. Leonard had run a similar program with grade school students back in the late 1980's. This time, he enlisted students from nearby P.S. 21, which is headed by his friend, Harold Anderson, who says it's all about how you teach the kids.
The 9 and 10-year-olds spent many hours after school and on weekends preparing for the test.
And the test was far from easy. One of the multiple choice questions asked students to identify the laboratory technique for identifying DNA. Another question asked them to analyze data, with the instruction: "State whether the data supports or fails to support your hypothesis and justify your answer."
The educators would like to expand the program to include more students, but for now it is still considered experimental. The next experiment will be to prepare the same group of students for the Regents algebra test, with the ultimate goal of having the kids take all the Regents tests before they get to high school.