October 1996
Divided Within; Besieged from Without was the title of a Public Agenda Foundation report on American education a year or so ago. It described an enterprise at once disconnected from the public demand for performance and squabbling with itself about how to achieve that performance. Are we like that in New York today? No, we are not. We like a fight as much as anyone, and there is still plenty to fight about. If it comes to a rough and tumble, we like to think that we are better at it than anyone else. And yet we are finding ways to get together for our children. Consider these recent examples.
Settlement on special education. The Regents, the State Education Department, and the School Boards Association together crafted a settlement in a lawsuit that held $180 million in federal special education funds at risk. We had an innovative idea that snagged on federal interpretation of the regulations. The crucial moment came when we worked through the final points in a meeting with Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Tarry Shipley, Lou Grumet, Carl Hayden, and I made New York s case together. With help from Secretary Riley and Senator Moynihan, everyone won.
Special education and rehabilitation. Recently the special education and rehabilitation communities assembled for a joint conference in Albany. Until now, these have been distinctly separate efforts but that hardly makes sense because they work with the same people at different points in their school and work lives. Both special education and rehabilitation have had to change rapidly and they have startling results. Special education must move toward inclusion of students with disabilities into general programs and those students need to be prepared for higher standards like everyone else. In four years, they moved from 7.5 percent of the students in general classes to nearly 40 percent. Rehabilitation has had to shift from sheltered workshops for those with disabilities to supported and competitive employment. Last year, they put more than 15,000 people into jobs, and those workers put more than $200 million in payroll in their communities. Now just consider what can happen if students with disabilities can move directly from a solid education program into a productive job program.
Getting all children ready for school. The level of knowledge and skill demanded of virtually all students is increasing rapidly. At the same time, the condition of childhood is declining in New York State.
A year ago we were ranked 37th in the nation by the Kids Count report; this year we are 38th. Kids Count indicators include poverty, child abuse, low birth weight babies, family income, and the like. All of these indicators can be improved by good public policy. And failure to improve them impinges on the ability of a community to educate its children. This realization is driving several actions. The Council on Children and Families assembles commissioners of all the state agencies involved with education and human services to agree on common results, share training opportunities and build joint budget proposals.
And there is more. The United Way and the Regents signed a partnership to support the collocation of human services in schools where this makes sense, to highlight good models, and to drive those indicators of quality upward. Expect to see some other partners joining us soon.
Speaking with one voice on a few issues. High standards require a comprehensive strategy. Everyone knows that. We cannot do everything at once, and we cannot expect to earn support from political leaders and budget makers if we do not speak with a powerful, united voice. Chancellor Hayden and I have met twice with representatives of all the educational associations to look for common ground on policy and budget. And we are finding it. This fall expect to see a short agenda to unite us all in the drive for high performance.
There is a lot at stake. New York faces at least two more tough budget years. The demand for higher performance is powerful from all sides. There is no time for missed steps or wasted energy. We must get together for the common good of our children. And we are doing just that.
In 1998 expect to see performance reports on New York's higher education system. Higher education is too important to our economy, our civility, and the improvement of the elementary and secondary schools for the matter of quality to go unexamined. How to do that in a responsible way is complex as we saw in the September meeting of the Regents Higher Education committee. Our advisory panel met for the first time in October and the State Education Department presentation began with these questions: Are too many students underprepared? What is the effectiveness of remedial education? What is the quality of undergraduate education in New York? What do students know? In a time of limited resources and rising costs, these questions raise anxieties, but they are unavoidable.
We are considering five categories of performance information:
Other states already have well developed performance reports and we shared these with the panel. Particularly striking to me were the reports of some of our economic competitors. Other states compete for jobs by talking about education. When they have the test scores, they don't hesitate to tout them. When they don't, they talk about their educational futures and their vigorous reform efforts. New York must do the same.
An effective shared services system and strong District Superintendent leadership is essential to support New York's educational improvement. It's decision time for the BOCES system. In the last budget session there was a serious attempt to reduce funding and administration and legislative leaders questioned BOCES cost effectiveness and mission. We won support in the session to resolve these matters through a Task Force that I established in September. The pressure for action is still there and more powerful. We had better have a good proposal by the time the Legislature reconvenes in January. There have been many studies of BOCES in recent years. This one must produce dramatic, effective action.
In the meanwhile, we began a vigorous audit program that will include every BOCES on a three year cycle. Our audits will help ensure the effective expenditure of more than a $ billion in school expenditures. Among the objectives of the audit are these: To determine if the cost allocations are accurate and reasonable, to determine if BOCES services comply with Department specifications and provide measurable cost savings to school districts, to verify that the BOCES only incur costs that are reasonable and necessary to carry out their responsibilities, and to verify internal financial controls.
On October 2, I met with the District Superintendents and the chairs of the BOCES boards to review my letter of expectations for District Superintendent leadership and to discuss the vital nature of our work together in support of higher performance schools. It was a very productive meeting.
The opening day statewide faculty meeting had its counterpart this month in a teleconference for parents. The message was basic: parents set standards for their children. It was a call-in program and the phones started ringing before the program started and rang continuously throughout the program and afterwards. A studio audience of parents and other citizens examined the need for high standards for all students. We also used many short video clips to enable parents to show how they set educational standards for their own children. The next teleconference will be about the use of time in school and we will tell that story with the help of a remarkable group of parents, students, and teachers in Dover Plains.
Two recent school visits illustrated the power of sound technology investments in schools. I visited Gilboa because principal Matthew Clark disagreed with a comment I made at the National Education Summit to the effect that New York was far behind in this area. My opinion is unchanged, but Gilboa is certainly a place that is pointing the way to others. An English teacher in that school has all of his lesson plans on the computer and continually builds new ones using "craft tools" of his own invention. The material was exceptionally thoughtful, linked to the standards, and just cried out to be shared with colleagues around the state. The library no longer uses the card catalog but a computer instead. The primary grade students were building writing portfolios with the computer. Work in the business occupations class began immediately as students logged on to complete a graphic design assignment -- no one waited for the bell or for directions. There is nothing at all flashy about this technology. However, the school is impressive because the technology tools are integrated so thoroughly into good instruction.
A visit to Split-Rock Elementary School in Camillus showed what happens when a community treats technology as a routine line item in the budget that requires steady attention year after year. Each day starts with a student run television news program. Every classroom has five computers and teachers can call up videodisc material using the keypad on their telephones -- yes, they all have telephones. And the call is not to someone to bring the material to the room; they call up what they want electronically. Students showed complex projects they had completed in science and social studies using the computer.
Both schools pursued long term strategies, trained everyone, and made the tools subordinate to the instructional purpose. And the leadership in both schools came from strong principals who were clearly supported by board members and the superintendent. Good examples are more important than ever as the Regents continue to advocate for prudent investments in technology.
