October 1997
Cultural institutions inflame our curiosity and restore our sense of wonder. Parents know this. During Saturday visits to the State Museum I have seen families using the exhibits to teach their children. This month, the Regents will visit many cultural institutions, including the State Museum, Archives, and Library, as well as local schools that are using these resources in imaginative ways.
During my earliest days as Commissioner, I toured the state collections and was astonished. There were Verplank Colvin's field notes from his Adirondack survey - and I saw immediately a favorite canoe route. There was a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. There were trays of butterflies beyond counting and the evocative replica of a Mohawk long house. How I wished that I could have taken my students to see that all those years ago. In the months and years since, no request for a book or a journal article, no matter how obscure, has gone unfilled. Often, books arrive without my asking. They know what interests me. But school libraries do the same thing for the children.
Do you get the sense that cultural institutions are actually visiting us before we visit them? Cultural institutions are rethinking their mission and work and it's exciting to watch this unfold. In some of the Thruway rest stops, large kiosks present detailed accounts of the history in the region. Libraries, museums, and archives are knocking down doors and walls to connect to schools. They are engaging teachers in strategies to help students meet the standards, not only in the arts, but also in all parts of the curriculum. Our partnership with the New York Council of the Arts produced a terrific professional development experience for teachers last summer.
Cultural institutions bridge the generations, they enlighten us about the diversity around us, they put the natural world on display and then put up signs that say "please touch." As Deputy Commissioner Carole Huxley said, "These institutions teach students how to learn when the teachers are no longer there - the way they will learn during most of their lives."
The discussions continue about the meaning of a high school diploma in New York. Some local educators have wondered whether or not the graduation requirement proposal for a core of courses is consistent with the Compact for Learning adopted by the Regents in 1991. Actually, the proposal is entirely consistent with the Compact. For example, the Compact states that "High school graduation will be contingent upon satisfactory completion of a secondary-school assessment, as well as upon the number of course completed.") (Compact for Learning, page 6) Nowhere in the Compact is there any mention of eliminating or reducing the course requirements. On page 4, there is this statement:
Some people have asked if there is enough flexibility in the course requirements. The proposal offers a lot of flexibility. For example, schools would have flexibility in the pacing of courses, the methodology, and in the use of applied approaches to mathematics and science. The proposal includes these significant sentences on page 4:
Finally, some have suggested that education must be either standards based or about "seat time" - that it can't be both. Actually, youngsters need both clear expectations in the form of standards and the structure provided by content-rich core courses. James Collins and Jerry Porras have a useful perspective on this in their book, Built to Last. They examined many high performance, visionary companies and compared them with less successful counterparts in the same industries. Commonplace organizations are often trapped by the "tyranny of the OR." For example, they think they can have "change OR stability... [and be] idealistic OR pragmatic." In contrast, one of the marks of high performance organizations is the ability to be both - to "do very well in the short term and very well in the long-term"...and to hold tight to an unchanging core of values and commit to bold, risky moves when the opportunity appears. District Superintendent Ann Myers Nepo captured the idea neatly when she pointed out that the twin demands for more structure and more flexibility which emerged so clearly in the regional hearings are indeed a paradox. And, she said, that is precisely why we need strong local school leaders - to lead in grappling with the paradoxical demand for structure and flexibility. I think that we have the team out there that can do it.
As the discussions continue, we must show that the proposal to improve graduation requirements speaks to all students in a very diverse state - those who are capable of advanced work and those who don't yet know English. It must advance the interests of students who want strong technical and occupational preparation and those who are headed toward further academic education. And the proposal must support the students who have disabilities and the students who feel that they are just getting by with the standards as they now exist.
As we struggle with adjusting our system of special education services so that all children have access to quality education based on high standards, we have to keep in mind why. One of the principal reasons is that these youngsters will grow to be adults and need to be able to compete in the workforce. I'm proud to say that through VESID's vocational rehabilitation program, 16,487 people were employed in this federal fiscal year. That's a new record - for the sixth consecutive year. These people earned $187 million and their need for public assistance was reduced by $22 million. These results help us stay focused on why we are raising standards, as we face the challenge of how.
Rarely has there been such an opportunity to unite all the people and groups focused on children and families. I'm referring to the legislation creating Universal Pre-kindergarten. This is the planning year. Between now and the end of November, the State Education Department will offer nineteen regional information sessions on how to plan and implement the pre-kindergarten programs. We have a lot of partners in this. Over thirty organizations have agreed to serve on a work group to help with the planning and dissemination of information. I will present draft regulations to ensure program quality this month, with a discussion in November and approval in December.
Rockland County leaders showed me the unifying potential of pre-school recently. After two hard years of planning, they had gathered to launch a concept that linked all districts in the county around four powerful elements: pre-school, high standards elementary schools, parents who promote learning at home and stay involved in school, and community services. The power lies in the connections. Imagine what it will be like to have all the children arrive at kindergarten ready to read because they had a great pre-school experience. Imagine how a principal with a rapidly developing problem will feel when a call to the community service agency results in a fast response. And consider what it means to a parent to know that everyone is working together. The Rockland County effort is far more than a school initiative. The superintendents, boards, and principals are involved, and so are county legislators, the county executive, parents groups, and many community organizations. This is an impressive example.
I visited a powerhouse of a school that was improving in several directions at once. The school had put great effort into reading - a banner announced that they were off the SURR list -- and then did the same in mathematics when math teachers said they had plans to make the same gains. The children were just as bright as could be. The Y was investing heavily in an after school program that amounted to a gift of 15 hours a week more for students in the early grades. A sign just inside the door of the school proclaimed the location of the parents' room and invited all comers. On the run, the principal explained how it was all connected.
In many ways all of New York is going through this improvement. And all of us in leadership positions can follow that principal's example and explain the connections.
The story starts with why we are making the effort. In plain words, we want all children to be happy as children, and then to grow to become competent, caring, productive citizens and individuals. They need to know a lot to be able to live as free people, to bear their share of the burden of citizenship, to work, and live rich and meaningful lives.
Last year you adopted standards as statements of what students would know and be able to do. This is the heart of the effort. You then made the standards very concrete by voting to require all students to pass at least five Regents Exams in order to graduate. And we are making the elementary and middle school tests more challenging and tying them to the standards and the Regents Exams.
Now the discussion is about the graduation requirements, which are designed to help ensure students get the quality education - curriculum, teaching, and time - they need to reach the higher standards.
The School Report Card focused attention on results and accountability. It asked: how well are students doing in meeting high standards? It also backed the efforts of boards and educators everywhere as they strengthened basic programs in math and literacy.
Many who have listened to the debate about high school graduation have pointed to the challenges in the early grades, and that of course is why the legislative actions on universal pre-kindergarten are so important. A good launch for pre-kindergarten plus strong follow-through in the budget over the next few years, will help all children learn to read.
The state aid proposal this year will be about paying for the greater capacity that the high standards imply. We will show the cost of follow through on great ideas such as universal pre-kindergarten and lower class sizes, while at the same time driving investments to specific problems such as low reading ability. While all that goes forward, the aid proposal must also strengthen the backbone of basic operating aid.
At the heart of the state aid proposal last year, and again this year, is special education. We want to see the funds in place to enable schools to educate children with disabilities to much higher standards also. Those children are in special education programs now, but soon they will be citizens, workers, and heads of families and will need to have the best education possible, just like all their neighbors.
We need the work of the Regents Task Force on Teaching for obvious reasons. With student standards now higher, teacher preparation and professional development will have to keep pace.
There are a lot of elements to this effort to improve schools. However, when someone says that New York has too many school initiatives, I push back. There is only one initiative and it's about giving every child a first quality education. At this stage, the reform looks messy, but then so did that terrific school. Hard work raises the dust. But it is to good purpose, the right people are engaged, and it's going to succeed.
Does your calendar feel crowded this fall? The Regents and the State Education Department are conducting an extraordinary number of regional meetings. The topics include school facilities, museum standards, pre-kindergarten, special education, the E-rate provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, school and community collaboration, state aid, and teaching. These discussions are in addition to uncounted community meetings involving individual Regents and Department staff. It's a tough schedule but worth it. Real change depends on real involvement with those most affected.
We can be most effective in the coming legislative session when our priorities are few and powerful. At the October Regents meeting, we will consider six important legislative priorities:
These priorities reflect our strategic plan, the Regents goals, and our work over the last year.
