Meteor Strikes Regents: Why NY Students Struggled, and Why Earth Science Teachers Are Vanishing
This June’s Regents exams left many New York students feeling like they’d been blindsided by an unforecasted torrent of space rock on the Earth Science and Biology tests. Reports from across the state suggest that the 2025 exams included off-curriculum material, leaving students, parents, and teachers equally frustrated. These are both subjects I tutor and that I’ve studied and taught for over a decade.
According to the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), educators had prepared students according to approved standards, yet the test asked about topics outside those guidelines. As NYSUT President Melinda Person put it:
“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.”
You can share your own experiences directly with NYSUT here: Report Regents Exam Issues.
Root Cause Issues: Not Enough Qualified Teachers
The uproar over this year’s Regents exams points to a deeper problem: New York has faced a chronic shortage of certified Earth Science teachers since at least 1999 (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). In 2010–11, 39% of NYC Earth Science teachers were uncertified, and turnover in city science classrooms was double the state average (CADREK12, citing NYSED, 2011–2012). To plug the gap, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) launched a special Masters of Arts in Teaching Earth Science residency in 2012. This was later accredited by the NYS Board of Regents through the Richard Gilder Graduate School and was meant to address the state’s chronic shortage of certified Earth Science teachers in high-needs secondary schools. It quickly became such a crucial teacher pipeline that nearly half of all newly certified NYC Earth Science teachers from 2014 to 2022 came through it (AMNH, 2022). At one point, a third of all Earth Science teachers hired by NYC public schools in a single year were AMNH grads (CADREK12, citing NYCDOE).
When Regents exams go off the rails, it’s not just a testing glitch. I argue it’s the symptom of a system already stretched thin by too few Earth Science educators and too little too late curricular investment in the notion of human and planetary sustainability. Chronic shortages of certain subject specialties leaves the whole Earth Science pipeline brittle, more likely to crack under pressure.
The Importance of Earth Science in Particular
Earth Science is not just another subject. Research shows that early instruction in Earth systems builds essential cognitive skills:
Students learn how to reason by proxy and approximation. Because we can’t time travel or go into the Earth’s core or probe the atmosphere and touch the outer limits of our universe, students use models, inference, and indirect evidence (Kurdziel, 2003).
This practice strengthens scientific habits of mind: grappling with uncertainty, connecting observation to theory, and testing models against reality.
The National Research Council (2012) emphasized that middle and high school are THE critical window for developing these habits, and losing trained teachers during this stage undermines students’ ability to think like scientists later on.
A former Earth Science professor of mine, now a tenure-track faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Emmy Smith is a field geologist and sedimentologist whose work explores the co-evolution of life, climate, the ocean, and tectonics during the Neoproterozoic and Cambrian. Her research integrates geological mapping, regional stratigraphy, sedimentology, paleontology, isotope geochemistry, and geochronology across field sites in Mongolia, the American Southwest, Namibia, and South Africa to test hypotheses about the links between environmental change and evolutionary milestones.
She is also the lead investigator on an NSF award that aims to engage and retain a diverse group of Baltimore City high school students in the geosciences so they themselves can become future teachers and practicing geoscientists. Dr. Smith puts it succinctly:
“Early science education isn’t just about memorizing chemical formulas or scoring high marks on state exams—it’s about getting students excited to connect the science concepts they encounter in textbooks with the world around them. Earth science is especially well suited to teaching interdisciplinary ideas in ways that are engaging and directly relevant to students’ lives.”
Without dedicated teachers and mentors, too many students are left unprepared. This underpreparation doesn’t last only the duration of the Regents test, but it lingers and hinders the kind of reasoning they will need for college, careers, and participation in a global community facing climate change and resource challenges.
A Bright Spot: AMNH’s Teaching Residency
Still, there are people working to lay down bedrock, building a more resilient system that can withstand seismic shocks from shifting standards and student learning needs. The American Museum of Natural History runs a fully funded Master of Arts in Teaching Earth Science Residency, a 15-month fellowship that combines coursework, museum resources, and teaching placements in high-need schools. It’s a model for how New York could rebuild a strong teacher pipeline.
Dr. Rosamond (“Ro”) Kinzler, Senior Director of Science Education at the American Museum of Natural History and Co-Director of the MAT Earth Science Residency Program, has long argued that “the dearth of Earth Science teachers in New York State has resulted in fewer students taking the statewide Earth Science Regents Exam” (Kinzler et al., 2013). It was precisely to meet this need that the Museum launched the MAT program, blending intensive science training with immersive classroom experience.
The results are reflected in the careers of graduates like Cynthia Montalvo (MAT class of 2014), who now teaches high school Earth Science in New York City. She recalled:
“The program provided me with two immersive school residency experiences with intensive mentorship from Museum and school staff. First I was placed in a public middle school where I learned about Instructional Support Services for students with learning disabilities. Then I was placed in a public high school where I learned more about the curriculum that I’m currently teaching… The program also provided me with curriculum resources and a strong network of science teachers that helped me build my lessons. I highly encourage qualified candidates to apply to this innovative program full of talented and accomplished faculty. This is an experience like no other!”
Together, Kinzler’s diagnosis of the systemic shortage and Montalvo’s lived experience as a teacher underscore the MAT program’s dual purpose: to repair a fractured pipeline of Earth Science educators and to prepare resilient, well-supported teachers for New York’s most demanding classrooms.
Final Thoughts
Parents and students should know: struggling on this year’s Regents Test in Earth Science is not always a reflection of effort. It’s a systemic issue, a test misaligned with standards, combined with a lack of stable Earth Science instruction in many schools.
We’ll keep doing what we do best: helping students prepare strategically with past exams, targeted review, and confidence-building practice. But long term, New York State needs more than prep: it needs investment in teachers, better communication between standards/test-makers and classroom facilitators, an emphasis on building student critical thinking and self-trust, and cultivating and resourcing learning communities that value all kinds of minds.
Investing in Earth and Space Science education isn’t just about passing a test. It’s about teaching young people how to reason through uncertainty, to observe carefully, and to imagine the Earth and our Universe as a whole. Long after the Regents are behind them (and we teachers are too) these skills will still matter.
If you are planning to retake the Earth Science test, or any other Regents exam, please reach out! We’re happy to help.
