BY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER RICHARD P. MILLS
December 1998
BY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER
RICHARD P. MILLS
Charter school legislation is too important to be considered as a trade item in a quick December session of the Legislature. Proponents of charter schools have some arguments to make but they should make them in the rough and tumble of the regular session. There are answering arguments to be heard, also.
An argument for charters is the need to rescue students caught in low performing schools. The best response to that is a credible effort to improve or close low performing schools. Consider the data. In the last four years, 63 schools came off the SURR list statewide, mostly because they met performance targets. (Three schools came off the list because New York City closed them.) Last month, 21 were added to the list and 18 removed. Clearly, the pressure is on and it works.
An important argument against charters is the need to focus on the hard work before us to improve the public schools. That one is hard to answer. New York is in the midst of just such a reform, and is moving at so urgent a pace that even many supporters are anxious.
The fact is that charter schools could be made to work in New York, but at a cost. Starting and operating a new school is very hard work. It is unlikely that more than a few such schools could start and succeed in the short term. The strategy that is most likely to succeed is continued hard pressure and support to improve the public schools. That path is clear: high standards, stronger curriculum and instruction, more help for students who need it, focused investment, and accountability with predictable consequences for low performance.
The focus of a productive charter school discussion should be student performance and how to improve it. A workable charter school would have to meet Regents standards and the measure of performance would be Regents exams. There would have to be a strong curriculum, competent teachers, and instructional practices that reflect sensible research. If the schools didn’t meet student performance standards, the Regents would close them. And the Regents should be the only body to issue charters.
Fourth graders will take the new English test next month and results will appear in April. I’d like to be able to reach into all the classrooms and urge everyone to keep reading and writing, but also to relax a bit. The results will surely be low in the first few years. It would be unrealistic to expect anything else. Most people know that because sample test questions have been on television and in newspapers. The point is that we have to start the climb to higher standards. What really matters is where we go from the first results. Given the hard work of all concerned, there is no doubt that results will improve.
The Trustees of Adelphi and the Attorney General have won a judgment that will return nearly $4 million to the University. The Regents provided the platform for this action in the findings that led to the Regents removing all but one of the former board members and their immediate appointment of an exceptionally able Board of Trustees who have rapidly set Adelphi on the path to distinction. Congratulations to the Adelphi Trustees, the Regents, the Regents committee in the matter of Adelphi, and to State Education Department Counsel Kathy Ahearn for her brilliant legal work in crafting the original Regents findings.
The Advisory Council on Higher Education will meet for the first time this month. The meeting comes as the Regents Higher Education Committee has begun a data tour of several months duration through each sector of higher education. Last month, Deputy Commissioner Gerald Patton presented some disturbing data about graduation patterns in higher education.
While New York has become a national leader in providing access to higher education – over 70 percent of our high school graduates go on to college – college completion rates are not impressive. New York’s graduation rates for two and four-year institutions vary from a low of 10 percent to a high of 96 percent. Twenty-five percent of all institutions have graduation rates under 26 percent. (These figures are based on a four-year interval for two-year colleges and six years for the four-year institutions.) Knowledgeable observers point out that since students are older now than in former times and more likely to be working while going to school, these statistics may present a distorted picture. Some argue that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to graduate. I don’t share that view. Time in higher education is time when debts mount and enhanced earning capacity is delayed. We should care a lot about these statistics and the reality behind them.
There are now 100 Schools Under Registration Review (SURR). Last month, I applied the same Regents policies as in prior years to remove 18 New York City schools from the list because of improved performance, and added 21 schools that are now farthest from the state standards. In addition, one more school was removed from the list in Buffalo. Regents have a detailed report on the implementation of their policy on these schools.
The cycle of ten regional Leadership Forums concluded early this month with two final meetings in Syracuse and the North Country. There were more than 3000 participants and they will expect results soon. The Regents Committee on Leadership will consider the rich yield from these meetings and will recommend major policy action to the Regents. Meanwhile, the need is desperate in some communities and some actions are appropriate within policy that exists now.
For example, it is clear that we can create a recruiting campaign to bring able candidates into the field. We can sharpen our recruiting speeches and start tapping promising candidates. It is also obvious that the relationship between boards and superintendents is not healthy in some communities, and just as obvious that other districts have found the formula for success in this area, and even have training packages to share. As the policy work begins in earnest, we already know enough to make the current situation better.
Education Law (sec. 6512 and 6513) prevents business corporations from hiring licensees to provide professional services. These provisions protect the public from business relationships that could constrain independent professional judgment, unduly limit the provision of professional services, compromise professional integrity, or enable business corporations to make professional decisions.
The business environment is changing rapidly, however, and the relationships between business corporations and professions are becoming more complex. The Regents are responsible for protecting the public, and ensuring the quality of professional service in a new time. The Regents must grapple anew with the issue of corporate practice and the professions so that the quality of service provision and public protection is ensured.
I have asked Deputy Commissioner Johanna Duncan-Poitier to advise us and to bring the matter in detail before the Regents Professional Practice committee, and then the full Board.
One of the central policy decisions as a consequence of the Regents Task Force on Teaching was that there will be a new Professional Standards and Practices Board. At the December meeting of the Regents, I will recommend the membership of that Board for decision by the Regents. The recommended members of the Board are persons of distinction and are broadly representative of New York’s diverse communities. They know how hard the work ahead will be and how much we depend on their success.
For almost three years, all significant actions in the State Education Department and the Regents have flowed from the mission, vision, and goals defined in the brief pamphlet, which is our Strategic Plan. We renewed that plan this year. To be ready for the year 2000, we must prepare yet another renewal of that Strategic Plan. We will begin this month with a full Board discussion of the values that should drive the plan.
Some people might wonder if a discussion of values isn’t a bit soft. Those who think so haven’t talked to the right people. They should ask an old time AT&T Longlines person if the word "Service" means anything to them. Or perhaps James Burke, former CEO of Johnson and Johnson during the Tylenol crisis would tell about the importance of the J&J Credo. Or just ask a former Marine to explain "Semper Fi." Values give heft to an organization and keep it moving on course in confused and dangerous times. Times like these, for instance.
The current version of our Strategic Plan enumerates these values: persistence in the pursuit of our goals, integrity, high productivity, responsiveness, being a good place to work. As we prepare for the next century, the right place to start is our fundamental values.
In concept, our draft State Aid proposal has stood up well in four regional meetings and many informal discussions. This month the Regents put numbers to the concept. Over the last few years, the results show the strong influence these recommendations have had. Not only have we seen longer lists of concepts adopted by the Legislature from the Regents state aid proposal each year, but also the Regents aid figures have led to large increases in adopted aid.
This year, the cost of current law is much higher than in former years. The Regents proposal should address the needs of districts that lack the local resources to meet the standards. It should also reflect a level that while aggressive, is not so unreasonably high as to exclude the Regents from their role as players in the budget fight. My recommendation to the Regents recognizes the cost of current law, but proposes a reallocation of current law funds to enable a larger increase for the standards than otherwise would be possible. This is, of course, a policy matter for the Regents to decide.
Partnerships with the private sector are helping us put cultural resources in the hands of many more people. One example that I see all the time is the kiosks on the Thruway rest stops. These are totally supported by private funds. Now there are new examples.
Last month, Fleet Bank presented the State Museum with $450,000 to bring at least six major art exhibits to the Museum. The first will open in late winter and will feature "Pop Art" from the Museum of Modern Art. Other exhibits in the Fleet Great Art series will come from the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney Museum.
A partnership between Syracuse University Press, the State Library and the State Archives will produce The Encyclopedia of New York State and will put copies in all public libraries. Our Cultural Education Center will provide a home and research support for this ambitious work.
And there is more. Our invited proposal to the Gates foundation, on behalf of New York public libraries serving populations in poverty was one of the six successful state applications. The grant will provide up to $5 million in grants to libraries in low-income New York communities. We partnered with the New York Library Association and with public library leadership to attract this support.
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