NEW YORK – The Direct Archdiocesan District Office of Education is pleased to announce that the Comprehensive Examination in Modern Greek will be administered on Wednesday, June 22,  9:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Please be informed that beginning in the 2011-12 school year, there will be changes to the New York State Testing Program. In an effort to cover an $8 million funding gap, the Board of Regents has voted to eliminate the Regents Exams in the Languages other than English (LOTE), starting this year with the German, Hebrew and Latin exams and eliminating the Italian, French, and Spanish exams next year.

The State Education Department, however, will continue to require that students complete at least two units of study in LOTE at some time during the grades K– 9.   In addition, high school students are encouraged to pursue a sequence in LOTE, in order to earn a Regents diploma with advanced designation. And in December 2010, the Board approved amendments to the Regulations CR 100.5(b)(7), allowing students to meet the assessment requirement in those languages for which no Regents exam is available by passing a locally developed exam aligned to the Checkpoint B learning standards for LOTE.

The Comprehensive Examination in Modern Greek has always been “a locally prepared foreign language examination” aligned to the Checkpoint B learning standards for LOTE and, therefore, it is not affected by the NYS Regents decision to eliminate the Regents examinations in foreign languages.

The Comprehensive Examination in Modern Greek is widely accepted by the public school principals in the State of New York and elsewhere in the country and has benefited thousands of students since 1973. In order to qualify for the Greek Examination, students must be in the eighth grade or higher.

For more information on the Comprehensive Examination in Modern Greek, please contact Mrs. Maria Makedon, Director, Direct Archdiocesan District Office of Education at (212) 570-3553 or visit the Office’s web site www.education.goarch.org.