FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, October 23, 2007

For More Information Contact:

Jonathan Burman, Tom Dunn or Alan Ray at (518) 474-1201

Internet:  http://www.nysed.gov

BOARD OF REGENTS PROPOSES MAJOR NEW INITIATIVES

IN STATE SUPPORT FOR SCHOOLS TO CLOSE ACHIEVEMENT GAP

The Board of Regents today proposed several major new initiatives in State funding for schools to close the achievement gap. Some highlights include: 

• Build on the proven success of education partnerships across the State to raise student achievement by creating PreK-16 Regional Education Alliances in high need communities with $20 million in State and federal funds. These alliances would incorporate existing Literacy Zones in high need communities. They would link school districts with colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and other service and community organizations. 

• Create a new Smart Scholars program that would transform the traditional 4-year high school to college model. This $100 million initiative would provide at least 12,000 disadvantaged students the support to graduate from high school on time with as much as 30 college credits and graduate from college in three years. 

• Prepare 1,000 new teachers for high need schools in shortage-area subjects through a new, three-year, $25 million program. Eight college-school partnerships would compete for the grant funds. All teachers would commit to work in high need schools for 4 years.  

• Parent and Family Outreach, directing $6.5 million in funds to community collaborations in high need areas to involve parents and families in their children’s education. Regional Education Alliances and Literacy Zones would be eligible to receive the competitive grants. 

• Planting the Seed. Certified teachers and members from the 750,000-strong professions licensed by the Board of Regents will mentor at-risk students. In addition, students and their counselors, parents, and teachers will have a single website that provides key information about career options, educational requirements, and links to college programs, financial aid, and grants available to students.

All of the Regents initiatives would work together, all centering on each individual disadvantaged student. For example, a disadvantaged student in a Literacy Zone could get help from a college or service or community organization, may enroll as a “Smart Scholar,” get help from parents who  benefit from Parent and Family Outreach programs, be mentored by a professional, get a well-qualified teacher prepared through the alternative certification partnership, and get hands-on learning from a natural history museum.

“These innovative initiatives will combine the powerful work of all educational institutions in the State,” Regents Chancellor Robert M. Bennett said. “They all center on individual students to accomplish one overriding purpose: to close the achievement gap.”

“The Regents proposals will draw together different key partners throughout the State to eliminate the causes of the achievement gap. We want to combine all the levers of support in major new reforms and ensure that students graduate from high school prepared for college,” State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said.

            New York State is unique among all 50 states in uniting all of education, from pre-K through graduate school, under one body – the Board of Regents. More than 270 independent colleges and universities, 4000 schools, 750 museums, 7000 libraries, 25 public broadcasting stations including 7 public television stations, 47 leading professions, and comprehensive education for individuals with disabilities – are all under the care of one Board of Regents.

Regional Education Alliances

The Regents also propose building on the proven success of education partnerships across the State to raise student achievement by creating PreK-16 Regional Education Alliances in high need communities with $20 million in State and federal funds. The alliances would support the 8 existing Literacy Zones in the Big 5 School Districts and establish and support Literacy Zones in other high need areas.

The purpose of the Regional Education Alliances is to raise the achievement of disadvantaged students all the way to college completion. To achieve this goal, Alliances would provide comprehensive educational support to students and their families and the schools and help improve the quality of teacher preparation and professional development. Alliances would set performance targets, measure results, evaluate progress, and report annually to the public, the Regents, the Legislature, and the Governor.

            Many successful partnerships between colleges and universities exist across the State. Other partnerships exist between schools and employers, between schools and libraries, and between schools and service and community organizations. Many of them involve students and schools with the greatest need.  Most of the partnerships are funded by the Regents and the State Education Department. A recent State Education Department survey of education partnerships found that between $500 million and $900 million, most of it with SED funding, already goes to these partnerships.

            “The Regents and SED already provide hundreds of millions of dollars each year to partnerships statewide,” State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said. “Many of these partnerships exist in areas of poverty and are dedicated to closing the achievement gap. It is time to galvanize their combined strength and coordinate their efforts. We will expand and combine many of the partnerships. We can bring together all educational institutions and community organizations. In this way we will launch innovative new ways to reach all at-risk students and ensure they succeed.”

            One major type of partnership that involves several different educational and other organizations is the “Literacy Zone.” Eight Literacy Zones now exist across the State. The State Education Department helped established or currently helps support these Literacy Zones to offer coordinated services in severely distressed communities throughout New York. These Literacy Zones enable children, adults, and families to access a variety of existing community services that they might not otherwise be able to obtain. In a Literacy Zone, adult education strengthens eight primary partnerships essential for family and community success: education; business; labor and workforce; health and mental health; financial and economic development; arts and culture; community agencies and the private not-for-profit sector that provides services to families; programs for special needs populations; and the volunteer sector. Literacy Zones, partly supported through SED, currently operate in the following 8 locations: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Onondaga County, Schenectady County, Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), the Bronx, and Long Island City/Western Queens.

       Each Regional Education Alliance should include colleges and universities, school districts, libraries, museums, professional organizations (from the 47 professions licensed by the Board of Regents), and public broadcasting, with help from research institutions, employers and labor leaders, and service and community organizations.

            Funding would consist of $15 million in new State funds and $5 million in federal funds; the federal funds are already available for 2008-09.

Smart Scholars

The Regents propose a new Smart Scholars program that would transform the traditional 4-year high school to college model. This $100 million initiative in new State funding would provide at least 12,000 disadvantaged students the support to graduate from high school on time with as much as 30 college credits, and then complete college in three years.

This more comprehensive program builds on the work of College Now, Early College High School Programs, and SUNY and independent colleges in providing college courses to high school students, plus the active work of the Department’s opportunity programs to assist students who are educationally at-risk to graduate from high school and achieve success in college.

The “Smart Scholars” program would target up to 12,000 students each year who:

• Have been identified as academically at-risk for not successfully completing high school or for succeeding in college;
• Have historically not had access to or success in higher education; and
• Do not have the financial resources to go to college without tuition assistance.

This “dual enrollment” program will provide targeted grants to colleges in partnership with one or more school districts, BOCES and community-based organizations to provide additional academic support dedicated to students beginning as early as the ninth grade, and, enabling students in grades 11 and 12 to take early college courses so that by graduation from high school, these students will have completed the necessary coursework to enter a baccalaureate program at the second-year level.  This will result in increased high school graduation rates and early college graduation.

The cost of both public and private higher education in this country has been rising steadily, in many cases putting the hope for a college degree out of the financial reach for both low and middle income students and their families. For example, from 2000 to 2006, New York colleges increased tuition and fees on average from 19 percent for two year CUNY institutions to 45 percent for four year independent colleges with other institutional sectors falling within that range. This program would prepare students who would otherwise not go to college and ensure they finish college in 3 years.

            (See Attachment for more information on Smart Scholars.)

Teacher Preparation

            The Regents propose to prepare 1,000 new teachers in subjects where there are shortages and for children in greatest need through a new, three-year, $25 million program.  This would be accomplished by expanding the proven Alternative Certification program through eight P-16 alliances that will be supported through competitive grants.

            Each partnership will prepare at least 125 new teachers over a three-year period, for a minimum of 1,000 new teachers prepared to teach the State’s neediest students. Teachers participating in this program will be required to work in high need schools in New York State for at least four years.

The program would work through challenge grants to assemble and sustain an effective P-16 partnership involving schools and colleges and universities. P-16 alliances and teacher education programs supported by this proposal must have or develop particular competence in urban and rural education where needs are greatest.

Research by Professor James Wyckoff of Rockefeller College and the State University at Albany and his colleagues have shown a  significant reduction in the gap between the qualifications of teachers in high poverty schools versus low poverty schools from 2000 to 2005. This narrowing of the gap is primarily attributed to the Regents policy to eliminate temporary licensed teachers and replace unlicensed teachers with certified teachers through the Regents-approved alternative certification programs (the Teaching Fellows program in New York City) and Teach for America.  

Family and Parent Partnerships

This $6.5 million initiative will build on existing USNY partnerships by directing competitive grants to community collaborations in high need areas. Regional Education Alliances and Literacy Zones would be eligible to receive the competitive grants.

The funding would:

• Link family service agencies with schools and school districts.
• Disseminate vital information about the kinds of support family support and educational services to parents of all newborns.
• Implement workshops annually to train parents to become involved in Contracts for Excellence and the State’s enhanced accountability system.
• Create an on-line web portal to provide parents with critical information on State learning standards and State assessments.
• Provide parents with curriculum based training to improve their ability to work with schools to support their children’s learning.
• Provide all new principals with opportunities for professional development in how to build parent and family partnerships.
• Revise annual school report cards to hold schools accountable for implementation of effective parent engagement programs.

If children are to achieve at faster and more sustainable rates, we must ensure that parent and parent leaders are effective partners the education of their children, including in the development and implementation of an enhanced accountability system that holds schools and districts accountable for their results.

Longitudinal analyses conducted over a 15-year period at Yale University have led analysts to conclude that students tend to achieve more when schools work in partnership with parents and families.

Cost Benefit/Return on State’s Investment:  Strengthening family-school partnerships and creating effective interagency collaborations will ensure early access to services for students, especially low-income students, limited English proficient students and students with disabilities; reduce the need and length of time students require compensatory services, and increase student attendance, achievement, and graduation rates.  Parents who are trained to be knowledgeable about Contracts for Excellence and the State’s enhanced accountability system will become advocates for effective use of State funds to support education.  

Funding requested:  $6.5 million is requested to fund these partnerships.

Planting the Seed

This is a broad approach to enable students to make connections between their school experience and their future academic and career prospects, thus providing a real-world incentive and stimulus to perform in the school setting.  The $1 million initiative will help to coordinate, through the Regional Education Alliances and other partnerships throughout the State, the involvement of certified teachers and the 47 licensed professions, through their professional associations and the individual participation from the total of 750,000+ licensed professionals in NYS.

This program has two key components to ensure that more at-risk middle and high school students learn about college and professional opportunities through guidance counselors and through members of the professions themselves. First, certified teachers and members from the 750,000-strong professions licensed by the Board of Regents will reach out to at-risk students and mentor individuals. Second, students and their counselors, parents, and teachers will have a single website that provides key information about career options, educational requirements, and links to college programs, financial aid, and grants available to students. Nothing else now exists to provide this kind of comprehensive information to students.

Bringing Museum Resources to Schoolchildren

Art, science and natural history museums, botanical gardens, theaters, historical societies and other cultural and science institutions are outstanding learning resources for New York’s students. They can teach in ways that complement traditional classroom study.

            Currently, these entities do not receive state support to create curricula or deliver instruction that aligns with the State Learning Standards.  New York needs a Cultural and Museum Education Act to provide formula funding to cultural and science-based institutions and organizations to provide K-12 educational programs aligned to the state learning standards. The proposal calls for $20 million the first year, $40 million the second year, with continuing funding thereafter. The $40 million would be allocated this way: $16 million dollars for formula-based aid, $6.5 million for competitive grants to museums, $15 million for competitive grants to performing arts institutions and other cultural institutions and $2.5 million for SED’s administration and evaluation of the program.

Create a Permanent Statewide Internet Library

The Regents propose to develop the State’s information infrastructure by investing in the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library (NOVELNY) pilot project to fuel a comprehensive Statewide Internet Library to serve higher education, research and development, the business community, and students and educators in K-12. This proposal would create free statewide access to vital but expensive databases and other digitized resources that will give New York’s students, businesses, researchers, and universities a competitive edge.

Independent Living

The Regents propose $5 million to create four more Independent Living Centers, which would enable 7,500 more individuals with disabilities to live and work independently.  This investment would expand the network from 36 to 40 Centers.  The Centers provide counseling, transportation, technical training, access to employment and other supports.  The four new ILCs will receive a base allocation of $300,000 each.  In addition, all centers will receive a cost of living allowance of approximately 5 percent.  The balance of the funds will expand capacity in the existing centers, with allocations based on population density.  The four new Centers, together with the expanded capacity throughout the system, will prevent institutionalization for 300 individuals and enable 50 more to leave institutions, with an estimated savings of $25 million.

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SEE ATTACHMENT.

Also available is a descriptive listing of P-16 partnerships throughout the state.

ATTACHMENT

SMART SCHOLARS

Partnership Program:

Board of Regents State Budget Proposal 2008-09

The significant gap between students of color versus White and Asian students with regard to their success in higher education is well documented.  For example, for New York State students in 2006, there was a significant gap in the six year graduation rate for Black and Hispanic students (48% and 45% respectively) as compared to White and Asian students (67%). In addition, the persistence from freshman to sophomore year for Black and Hispanic students was approximately 10 percent less than their White and Asian counterparts.  The U.S. Census Bureau reports that between 2000 and 2025, the percentages of African American and Latinos from the ages of 18 to 44 will rise by about 30 percent while Whites in the same age cohort will decline by about six percent.

The cost of both public and private higher education in this country has been rising steadily, in many cases putting the hope for a college degree out of the financial reach for both low and middle income students and their families. For example, from 2000 to 2006, New York colleges have increased tuition and fees on average from 19 percent for two year CUNY institutions to 45 percent for four year independent colleges with other institutional sectors falling within that range. More needs to be done to ensure that students who historically have not had access to or success in higher education can be appropriately prepared for higher education, be successful and complete the program at a cost which their families can afford.

The Board of Regents is proposing a new $100 million “Smart Scholars” partnership program to transform the traditional four year high school and college models in New York State to close performance gaps for students in danger of not succeeding in high school or college.  The Smart Scholars Program is designed to enable disadvantaged students to graduate from high school with up to 30 college credits, being better prepared and able to complete college in three years. This more comprehensive program builds on the work of College Now, Early College High School Programs, and SUNY and independent colleges in providing college courses to high school students, plus the active work of the Department’s opportunity programs to assist students who are educationally at-risk to graduate from high school and achieve success in college.

This “dual enrollment” program will provide targeted grants to colleges in partnership with one or more school districts, BOCES and community-based organizations to provide additional academic support dedicated to students beginning as early as the ninth grade, and, enabling students in grades 11 and 12 to take early college courses so that by graduation from high school, these students will have completed the necessary coursework to enter a baccalaureate program at the second-year level.  This will result in increased high school graduation rates and early college graduation.

There are three critical objectives of the Smart Scholars Programs.

• Students who are at-risk will be identified in middle school and early high school and provided additional academic support to ensure that, by the time they reach their junior year in high school, they are at grade level and ready to participate in rigorous collegiate courses. 

• Students in Grades 11 and 12 will be provided college courses which will be used to both receive college credit and to meet the high school graduation requirements.  

• Ensure that these college courses are rigorous and articulate with what college freshman would be expected to complete. Participating colleges must be able to demonstrate that these courses will be transferable to other State colleges and universities.

            A recent major study shows the program can be successful. Researchers analyzed dual enrollment programs in Florida and New York. They concluded that “Dual enrollment participation had a statistically significant positive association with students’ likelihood of earning a regular high school diploma and enrolling postsecondary education.” This remained true for continuing in college into the second and third years. (See Karp, Melinda Mechur, “The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment,” National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, October 2007.)

This program is not only essential for individuals who will grow personally and earn a higher income. It is also essential for the State and a whole. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that an increase in the average education of New York’s workforce by just one year could yield an increase in the State’s economic growth by as much as 15 percent.

Target Population:

The “Smart Scholars” program would target up to 12,000 students each year who:

• Have been identified as academically at-risk for not successfully completing high school or for succeeding in college;
• Have historically not had access to or success in higher education; and
• Do not have the financial resources to fund a Baccalaureate degree without tuition assistance.

The wide variety of approaches employed by the State’s colleges and universities in interacting with the P-12 schools will be continued under the Smart Scholars program. For example, some models may operate where students take college courses in their high schools either taught by college faculty or high school faculty that are employed as adjuncts of a college. Other models may include students taking classes on local college campuses. The bottom line is that students will not be taking more courses, but will be taking more rigorous courses which will be transferable for college credit at the majority of New York State’s colleges and universities.

The Gates Foundation funds approximately 130 early college high school programs where students, who complete high school, are awarded an associate degree or receive such a degree within the fifth year of the program. Many of these programs are working with students who are educationally at-risk.

The uniqueness of the Smart Scholars Program is to focus the academic instruction so that students, by the end of their senior year in high school, will get an articulated general education core that would typically be taken by freshman on college campuses.

Ultimately, the goal is to rethink the way we view high school and college education by transforming the approach to allow students to accelerate and complete the continuum of high school/college in seven years, save money and improve the transition from high school to college, reducing remediation and time to diploma.

Cost Benefit/Return on State’s Investment:

• Since students in these programs will meet economic eligibility requirements, more low and middle income families will be able to afford college for their children.
• After the first two years of focusing on academic support, at least 12,000 students from high schools participating in this program will graduate from high school and enter college as second year students (juniors).
• These students will be better prepared for college work, thus reducing the need for remedial courses and resulting in higher student retention and college graduation rates.
• College education benefits both the individual and society.  A person with only a high school diploma is almost twice as likely to be unemployed as is a four-year college graduate.
• In New York, jobs will increasingly demand postsecondary education.  The State Labor Department projects that the number of jobs requiring no formal post high school education will have grown by only five percent by 2014 while those requiring an associate degree will grow by 15 percent and those requiring a baccalaureate degree will grow by 12 percents over the same period.
• Annually, a worker with a baccalaureate degree earns more than one and a half time the income of someone with no post high school education.  The following table shows how median earnings increase and unemployment decreases with additional education, according to data from the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How the Program will operate: 

• Programmatic interventions. Students in programs such as the Liberty Partnerships Program and the STEP program would maximize their results by building upon their existing work of providing academic, counseling and support services to at-risk students by also offering them college courses in the junior and senior years of high school culminating in a full year of postsecondary study. 

• Building upon the existing efforts of SUNY, CUNY and many independent colleges offering high school students college courses, strengthen this approach with the overall goal of students taking a full year of postsecondary study by the time of high school graduation.  For example, CUNY’s College Now program could be focused on working directly with cohorts of students with the overall goal of having them achieve one year of postsecondary credits while in high school.  

• Support additional early college high school programs or enhancements in existing programs where students can complete one or two years of college study at the same time they complete their high school diploma.  

• Create greater opportunity for career and technical education students to build on existing high school to college partnerships and complete a year of postsecondary study upon graduation from high school. 

“Smart Scholars” program grants would be awarded to colleges and universities that partner with one or more school district, BOCES and community-based organizations to: 

• Target students who historically have not had access to or success in higher education or been able to afford four years of college; 

• Prepare students for college level work through study skill courses, preparatory courses, counseling and academic support services; 

• Ensure that courses offered in high school for college credit are aligned with the requirements of first-year college courses in a majority  of the State’s higher education institutions;  

• Work collaboratively with other colleges in New York State to ensure that the courses offered will be transferable to both public and independent colleges; 

• Employ new uses to technology to link rural kids already challenged by poverty but further disadvantaged by geography with opportunity otherwise not available.

ATTACHMENT 2

Literacy Zones:  Executive Summary

The Board of Regents voted Tuesday to propose new Regional Education Alliances with Literacy Zones in high need communities statewide. Build on the proven success of education partnerships across the State to raise student achievement by creating PreK-16 Regional Education Alliances in high need communities with $15 million in new State funding and $5 million in existing federal funds. These alliances would incorporate existing Literacy Zones in high need communities. They would link school districts with colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and other service and community organizations.

Eight first wave Literacy Zones are underway. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse City, Onondaga County, Schenectady County, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Western Queens, and the Bronx are first wave sites. 

What is a Literacy Zone?  A Literacy Zone (LZ) represents a hub of coordinated services emanating from a Family Welcome Center in severely distressed communities designated as high needs.  A LZ will enable individuals and families to ACCESS a variety of existing community services that they would be unable to navigate and acquire without the intervention and cooperation provided by the LZ. 

A continuum of literacy, from birth through adulthood, lies at the core of each Literacy Zone.  Family needs are addressed holistically.  Educational pathways of residents are addressed comprehensively, from the literacy and English language skills of the parents which shape readiness to engage in learning to participation and performance in formal education, P-16.

In a LZ, adult education strengthens eight primary partnerships essential for family and community success:  education; business, labor and workforce; health and mental health; financial and economic development; arts and culture; community agencies and the private not-for-profit sector that provide services to families; programs for special needs populations; and the volunteer sector. 

Why Literacy Zones? 

1. There are a growing number of children in severely distressed neighborhoods.  Severely distressed neighborhoods are defined as census tracts with at least three of these four characteristics:  1. high poverty rate (above 27%); 2. high percentage of female-headed families (above 37%); 3. high percentage of high school drop-outs (above 23%); 4. high percentage of working-age males unattached to the labor force (above 34%).  New York has the 3rd highest proportion of children living in severely distressed neighborhoods of any state in the nation (827,000 children or 18%, according to the U.S. Census 2000).  This share increased from 15% in 1990.

2. Large numbers are poor, Black or Hispanic children, according to the 2000 U.S. census. Black and Hispanic children together account for about one-third of all children in the United States, but they make up more than three-fourths of children living in severely distressed neighborhoods.  Black children are 20 times as likely as non-Hispanic white children to live in a severely distressed neighborhood, and Hispanic children are about ten times as likely.

3. Research shows that children growing up in severely distressed neighborhoods are less likely to perform well in school, are more susceptible to teen pregnancy, and are less likely to make a smooth transition to the workforce.  Problems and characteristics compound, and families are not likely to get the kinds of supports they need to thrive.  

4. Low literacy and/or English language proficiency of children, parents and community members is a root cause of social problems and limits the chance of educational and life success for many families in these communities.

5. The rapid influx and concentration of immigrant families who do not speak English well at home adds to the challenge in many communities. 

• In 2005, more than 1.6 million adult New Yorkers—13.8 percent of all 18-to-64 year olds—spoke English “less than very well,” a 6.4% increase from five years earlier.

1. Since 2000, Suffolk County has seen an astonishing 110 percent growth in adults with limited English skills. 
2. In Dutchess County, the number jumped by 68 percent. 
3. A quarter of all adults in New York City—1.23 million—have inadequate English skills.
4. Central New York has seen a huge influx of immigrants and refugees. They have been an energizing force for that region.  English skills still remain a prerequisite for career advancement, despite a hard work ethic and technical skills.

• One third of the 1.6 million spoke English “not well” and another third could not speak English at all. 
• 563,000 households in the state are linguistically isolated.

6. Rural poverty can be just as challenging as urban poverty.
   
   
• One-fifth of all poor people live in rural areas. Estimates from 2003 indicate a poverty rate of 13% exists in rural New York, compared to 14.4% in urban areas of the state.
• The 2000 U.S. census shows that 20% of the rural population lacks a high school diploma.
• The unemployment rate in rural New York is 5.2% and in urban New York, it is 5%.
• Literacy skills and English language proficiency add to a multitude of access issues, including access to health insurance and navigation of the health and mental health system.

SED is joining with other statewide organizations like New York State United Way as well as foundations to support and refine pilot Literacy Zones, with the goal of expanding state and federal funding. 

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