March 1999
Report to the State Board of Regents
BY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER RICHARD P. MILLS


We Can Do This. Press On.

Statewide scores improved in the English and Math Regents Exams. More than 73 percent of all seniors in 1998 would have passed the English Regents Exam at a score of at least 55. That is two years before the graduation requirement takes effect.

Achievement of Regents English Performance Standards: Grade 12
Students Passing the English Regents at 55 or an Alternate Exam

Total State: 73.3%

Includes general education students and students with disabilities

More students are taking Regents exams in English and Mathematics and presumably are also taking more rigorous course work. For example, 92 percent took the Math Regents Exam in 1998.

Regents English and Math
Number tested as Percent of Average Grade Enrollment

Average Enrollment
1996 = 177,404
1997 = 180,458
1998 = 185,038

More students are passing these exams. 65 percent would have passed English at a 55 last year – up two percentage points. 70 percent passed Regents Math, which is a four point increase.

Regents Comprehensive English
Percentage of Average Enrollment Passing

* Data available for 1997 and 1998 only.

Average Enrollment
1996 = 177,404
1997 = 180,458
1998 = 185,038

Regents Sequential Mathematics I
Percentage of Average Enrollment Passing

 

* Data available for 1997 and 1998 only.

Average Enrollment
1996 = 177,404
1997 = 180,458
1998 = 185,038

These results, while encouraging, are clearly not good enough yet, especially in the high need schools. There is very hard work ahead. In the coming months, we must focus – on students who are not yet meeting the standards, on high need schools, on reading and writing, and on improved instruction at every level. Students are getting extra help in the form of summer school, extra classes, and tutoring. That’s what it will take. And that is what we will do.

Third and sixth grade reading scores are down a little. We must improve that performance by ensuring that all children get the basic skills.

Elementary Performance
Students in General Education
Percentage Performing Above the SRP

PEP Tests

The statewide results appearing this month are the beginning of series of reports about school performance that will grow in intensity. In a few weeks, individual school results will appear in School Report Cards. In April we plan to release the 4th grade English test results. In May we expect to have the January Regents exam results. When the new school year begins we will see the 8th grade English and Mathematics test scores.


National reading scores underscore need for focused effort

New York’s National Assessment of Educational Progress results overall show we have to do better. We made a four-point gain on the fourth grade reading test between 1994 and 1998, but it is not considered statistically significant. Also, a comparison with 1992 results shows no significant improvement, either in New York or the nation.

According to the eighth grade NAEP reading test results, New York is above the national average. There were no state-by-state results for the eighth grade in 1994, so we can’t make a comparison with previous results.

Overall we need to continue to work harder. The NAEP results indicate many students need to read and write much more if they are to succeed in meeting the State’s higher academic standards. More positively, as students and schools prepared for this year’s fourth grade State test, we saw a greatly increased emphasis on reading and writing. This intense focus on literacy must continue.

Asking the right questions about Higher Education

Higher education has encountered extraordinary changes over the last few decades. It needs a strategic review – and strategic direction. The quality of higher education has been largely unexamined, but that’s changing fast. The discussion is about the quality of higher education, about readiness for college, criteria for admission, and affordability.

On March 18, higher education leaders will assemble in New York City for the Summit on Higher Education. Our Advisory Council, consisting of two dozen distinguished college presidents from SUNY, CUNY, and the independent sector boiled down the issues facing higher education to a critical few:

The Education Summit will develop these ideas. People who care about higher education can help by addressing some key questions.


First question: How can the whole continuum of education from K through 16 work more effectively for students?


For example, the City University is linked to the City school system. The City schools provide most of the CUNY undergraduates. CUNY provides most of the City’s teachers. For good or ill, the University and the City public schools enforce each other’s standards. That’s a fact. With hard work we could also make it a strategic advantage.

We can’t afford to think of K-12 on the one hand and college on the other. A recent survey of the nation’s Governors found very strong interest in rethinking education in a K-16 context. Families already see education this way. They navigate the whole maze of school, college, and technical program on the way to jobs and between jobs. Educational institutions can act from a larger perspective, too.


Second question: Who makes it through college?


New York ranks first in the percentage of high school graduates going to higher education, and it’s a diverse group: about 80 percent across racial and ethnic groups. The CUNY student population reflects this diversity.

Access looks good, but completion is another story. We must improve completion rates for all students and especially for ethnic and racial minorities. Why don’t more students graduate? There are many factors: Better preparation in school will give students a better chance to perform well in college. Remediation alone won’t be enough for some students. We must surround students with the help they need to meet the standards and succeed. The Higher Education Opportunity Program, overseen by the State Education Department, points the way.

Another factor that affects opportunity is cost. New York students face higher than average "sticker" prices – the amounts they need to cover tuition, fees, board, and other expenses before student aid. And we spend more on state grant aid per full time student than any other state.


Third question: What do graduates know? Is that enough?


It is not enough that colleges increase their graduation rates. While it is important, it is equally important that students demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in our increasingly competitive economy. Neither New York nor the nation can now answer the question of what college graduates know.

Starting last month, a new task force will guide the design and launch of a Higher Education Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness system. I am turning to a broadly representative advisory group to develop the framework and build consensus.

Most of these issues demand a K-16 perspective rather than one limited to higher education. It is vital that all the parties work together.

Most states have to create a table for the parties to even discuss K-16. In New York, that table already exists: the Regents working with the public school leaders and with Trustees of CUNY, SUNY, the independents, and the proprietary institutions.

Nonpublic schools and state standards

Department staff continue to engage in discussions with nonpublic school leaders to seek a solution to maintaining the autonomy of nonpublic schools, while assuring that all students attending nonpublic schools achieve the State standards. These conversations have generated a proposal in which nonpublic schools would have three possible options. The first is voluntary compliance. The second is using a system of State-approved third-party accreditation to evaluate whether the total school curriculum and assessment program meets or exceeds the State standards. And the third option: Schools not complying with either of these options would be unregistered high schools.

There is considerable interest in these options; however, several questions and issues still need to be resolved. We are confident we are making progress toward a solution that staff will present to the Board this spring.

The Catholic Superintendents have proclaimed their intent to meet or exceed Regents standards in testimony before the joint finance committees of the Legislature.

Professional development and student achievement

Helping teachers develop their knowledge and skills is a good strategy to help students achieve more. But it’s not always obvious that professional development springs from reflection on what students know. "How do you know that your training programs are good?" is a question I have asked many training providers. The usual answer points to "good evaluations from teachers."

Asking the customer is an important way to keep tabs on quality, but we should also ask if practice changes and student results improve. That was a key concept at the Professional Development Providers Forum in late February. Schools that show rising performance tend to be the ones that train relentlessly for that result.

Three deputy commissioners spoke to the group – James Kadamus, Gerald Patton, and Larry Gloeckler – to underscore the Department-wide investment in professional development that drives directly toward higher achievement.

Leadership training

Leaders need training. That has been a consistent theme in our Forums on school leadership. That was also a theme for the State Education Department in our annual staff surveys and in the Rockefeller Institute studies we commissioned. We turned to the Maxwell School at Syracuse University for a three-day leadership training course for all managers in the State Education Department. All of us have now completed that first course. State Education Department managers will apply the new skills to the latest staff survey results and find solutions. We are planning a second round of training for supervisors.

Parent Night on PBS: Getting ready for the English exam

For the third time this school year, parents and others had a chance to participate in Parents Night on PBS. The subject was the Regents English Exam. Several of us read sample test questions, discussed how to prepare, and showed short video clips of how schools are preparing students for the examination. We took many calls from viewers, and most of them were students.

Three budgets

The day after I presented the Regents budget proposal for 1999-2000, senior staff met to discuss the budget for 2001. It shouldn’t surprise anyone. An organization that is engaged in quality for the long term must become comfortable with thinking simultaneously about at least three budgets. They are the budget we are managing right now, the one we are advocating to the Legislature for the year ahead, and the budget we are building for the year after that. All of our budget work follows from the six goals of our Strategic Plan. And all of it is about focusing resources on strategies to buy higher performance.

The 2000 Budget

This is the season for endless re-enforcement of the basic message. On the Regents behalf, I have talked about our budget proposals to legislative finance committees, education committees, and the Senate Higher Education committee, and also met with the chairs individually. Regents and I have talked about the budget to editorial boards and business groups. I convened the education advocacy groups to compare notes about what we are doing to communicate the financial priorities. The most important contacts, however, come from local educators, VESID clients, librarians, school board members, university presidents, union leaders, school board members, and the many thousands of others who can speak most directly to the need for focused investment in higher performance. We encourage them to speak out now.

Pop Art at the State Museum

The Fleet Great Art Series at the State Museum began this month with the opening marked by a reception to honor those who made this possible, and an elegant dinner at the Executive Mansion hosted by Governor Pataki and Mrs. Pataki. Senator Roy Goodman, Fleet Bank, and the Museum of Modern Art worked with the State Museum to create this first in a series of exhibitions over the next three years.

Pop Art was outrageous in 1962 in the best sense of that word. And it still is. I visited the exhibition on a recent Saturday to see the 28 works by some of the very best of the genre, and also to watch the museum visitors interact with the art.

Small children wanted to step over the barriers to greet the work up close. Parents tried to explain the art to their children and to each other. One lady said "I’m not into Pop Art," but she came anyway, and I think got some of the message.

As any visitor can see, Pop Art just challenges, irritates, unsettles, tweaks – it bugs you! Art will do that. The world that I knew in 1962 appeared to be a very orderly place. Pop Art was one of many forces that helped to shake all of that surface order adrift. We had a lot of thinking to do back then. Art helped many people express that thinking and the emotion that came along. And Pop Art still has that power.

We are very grateful for the partnership with the Museum of Modern Art and for the many who supported this extraordinary venture.

VESID

VESID continues to show an increase in its job placement outcomes. Figures just in show that 1,353 people with disabilities were placed in jobs in February. This represents an increase of 6% for the first eleven months of this State Fiscal Year, or 787 additional people becoming employed.

Department values

High performing organizations state what they stand for and act accordingly. The State Education Department staff have done a lot of thinking about values. Our Diversity Management Team, Office of the Professions, Cultural Education, and VESID have all written statements of values. The Agency Leadership Group and I considered this experience and suggested a statement of core values for the whole State Education Department. I invited all Department staff to discuss these statements over the next few months. We don’t yet live up to these statements all the time, but we aspire to them, and will devote our best efforts to demonstrate the values in practice. Here they are:

Vouchers

The subject was vouchers in New York City earlier this month. Here is what I said about the matter. There is no authority to implement a voucher program in the absence of state law. In addition, school vouchers are contrary to state education policy set by the Board of Regents. Even if the legal authority were established, a voucher program would face formidable constitutional challenges.

 


A monthly publication of the State Education Department

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Last Updated: March 30, 1999 (emc)
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