October 1999

BY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER RICHARD P. MILLS

The meeting in brief:

The Regents will discuss a proposed list of legislative priorities. This list is the result of a process that spans several months and includes many discussions.

School visits: what distinguishes high performers

This fall I have been visiting pairs of schools in the Big Five – a high performing school and a low performer. The paired visits bring into sharp relief what distinguishes high performance. The point is obvious. If one school in the district can lift students to high standards, then all can. Here’s what I have noticed so far about high performing schools visited:

• The principal is obsessed with the quality of instruction and student learning. They talk about these matters to the exclusion of almost everything else.
• They don’t try to keep visitors in the office talking to adults. The classroom visits begin immediately and reveal real substance, not "pretend lessons" for the visitor. "I’m just coming to the exciting part. Give me two minutes more!" said one mathematics teacher when the visitor seemed about to leave. I stayed. And it was exciting.
• Principals and teachers know the data about student achievement. They tell the visitor what’s working, what’s not, and they have easy-to-explain plans to improve. And they don’t blame parents or children.
• The structure and content of the curriculum is obvious to the visitor and one sees it presented consistently in classroom after classroom. Without a doubt, the curriculum reflects the standards.
• Leaders know the children’s names and situations: A principal to a student: "Linda, what happened on the bus yesterday? Do we need to talk?"
• Professional development is serious business among the high performers. They leave "white space in the schedule," as one put it, to enable teachers to watch other teachers teach.

And what about the low performers? They seem to lack all of those marks.

Schools farthest from the standards

The Schools Under Registration Review (SURR) policy and program has been a significant strategy in closing the gaps in student achievement. Look at the summary data so far:

The regulations must be amended to permit the use of the new fourth and eighth grade mathematics and English test scores in defining the schools farthest from the standards. I intend to examine all relevant data on school performance and identify schools for registration review in November. I also hope to be able to remove some schools from the list in recognition of their improvement.

Recommendation: Regents action is required to ensure that SURR schools can be identified this fall in time for local leaders to respond. I recommend that the Regents adopt the proposed regulations.

Chief Operating Officer Richard Cate provided a "Budget Proposal Primer" that explains the fund structure, budget development process, and the layout of our budget proposal. At the October meeting, the Regents will discuss proposals for aid to localities, state operations, and capital projects.

We will concentrate on the requests above level funding. Budget materials summarize the specific amounts of increases and the proposed uses of these funds. These proposals reflect the Regents goals. All flow from policy work over recent years. The presentation will also respond to staffing issues that the Regents discussed in the September meeting. The state aid proposal is not included here. The Regents will consider State Aid at the November meeting.

Recommendation: In order to have an adopted Regents budget proposal in time to influence early stages of State budget development, I recommend that the Regents adopt the proposed budget.

CUNY’s proposed master plan amendment

Last month the Regents listened to more than a hundred people who spoke for or against the resolution of the Trustees of the City University of New York to change admissions policy concerning remediation.

Last week, I sent to the Regents the report of the external panel of experts that we commissioned to visit CUNY. Their report responds to each of the criteria that we are using to evaluate the CUNY proposal. At the October meeting, the chair of that panel will be available to the Regents to respond to questions.

At the meeting of the Committee on Higher and Professional Education this month, Deputy Commissioner Patton will summarize our review of the CUNY master plan amendment so far including:

• the canvass of higher education institutions in the greater New York City metropolitan area
• the forthcoming panel discussions on October 19^th at the Schomburg Center
• an overview of what will be included in the staff analysis of the proposed master plan

State Aid Proposal

In October, the Regents Subcommittee on State Aid will review an analysis of local school district tax effort and possible State Aid recommendations to strengthen teaching and support for academic intervention. The Regents will review a full draft conceptual proposal in November 1999, seek public comment on the proposal, and act on a final proposal with dollars requested in December 1999.

The tax effort study found seventy school districts fit a profile of low tax effort, low spending and low performance on the 4^th grade English language arts test. The total tax level loss attributed to this combination of factors was $878 million, of which $841 million is related to New York City.

The staff paper on teaching outlines a new State Aid concept to provide incentives to teach in high poverty schools, build capacity for a high standard curriculum, and increase support for academic intervention services.

Data on English Regents

At the September Regents meeting I reported that we would not release the data on the Regents English pending the completion of a series of checks on the accuracy of reporting. I made this decision because of calls from some superintendents questioning the accuracy of data reported to us by school districts. In response to those concerns, we have asked all superintendents to review and verify the data reported from their districts and taken additional steps to analyze and verify the data. The English Regents exam results will become public on October 13. Regents will receive the embargoed data several days before the public release.

Vocational Rehabilitation Placement Data

VESID set a new record for placements in FFY 1999 by placing 16,788 people into jobs. The Bronx and Albany District Offices showed remarkable increases in results during that time. New records were also set for placements in competitive employment and supported employment, while the downward trend in placing people in sheltered workshops continued.

Alternate Assessment for Students with Severe Disabilities

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that each state develop and implement an alternate assessment for students with severe disabilities. VESID and the VESID committee anticipated this by more than a year and have previously discussed a strategy to develop assessments related to the standards for students with severe disabilities.

The alternative assessment will ensure that all students with disabilities are accounted for in the statewide assessment program. This will allow students with even the most significant disabilities to demonstrate their mastery of skills and attainment of knowledge. An expert panel on assessment for students with severe disabilities and Advanced Systems in Measurement and Evaluation, Inc. have begun the work to develop our state program.

The September Legislative and Public Policy Conference was exceptionally rich and well attended. The Conference is one of the many opportunities we have to shape our priority legislative proposals. The first product of those discussions, in concert with State Education Department staff and Regents committee chairs, is a proposed legislative agenda that reflect Regents priorities. There are eight proposals:

• Ensuring Students Reach Higher Standards (State Aid)
• Assure Equal Access to Educational Materials for All Students
• Access to Wage Reporting Information
• Special Education Space in Integrated Settings
• Libraries 2001 Initiative
• Teaching to Higher Standards: New York’s Commitment (Three proposals)

No action is required at this time. In November, I will recommend that the Regents adopt their Legislative priorities.

The Regents Commission on Libraries has attracted considerable attention well before they completed their work. The presentation by the chair to the Regents Cultural Education Committee in July led to a significant new conception of the Library 2001 budget proposal. Last week, I urged the assembled research librarians to ensure that their views were included and then to get behind the Commission’s final proposal.

Deputy Commissioner Kadamus proposed a strategy to link learning standards, State Aid, and the Library Commission’s goal of providing school librarians. Instead of a mandate, he proposed a set of incentives. The Library Commission responded by dropping their earlier idea and adopting the Kadamus concept. This response again underscores the boldness of the Commission and the opportunity to link all the elements of the University to improve libraries.

A monthly publication of the State Education Department

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