July 1997
Report to the State Board of Regents

BY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER RICHARD P. MILLS


Approaching decision on graduation requirements

Decision time approaches. Last month we summarized what we heard in 16 regional forums. The Regents will have my formal recommendation on graduation requirements as scheduled in September, but this month we will discuss an outline of the general direction I plan to take. Among the key points are these:

The most difficult part of the issue is how best to provide for students with disabilities. We should ensure that all students with disabilities who are pursuing a regular diploma are in courses that lead to the standards and take the Regents exams. In the first year in which any of the five required exams would be given, a student with a disability who did not score 55 or above, would be permitted to take a Regents Competency Test. This option would be available only in the first year. If the student passed the competency test, he or she would receive a local diploma with a special education designation. We would use the scores students with disabilities receive on Regents exams to set a baseline for what such students would be expected to reach on Regents exams in the future.

The proposed idea is a significant increase in standards and opportunity for students with disabilities. The proposal would give students with disabilities an option other than an IEP certificate. The proposal incorporates suggestions we heard in the forums on the need for a safety net and it recognizes that we have limited data on how well these students could be expected to perform on more challenging exams. It allows us to move special education services to higher standards and recognizes the need to do this incrementally.

Schools under registration review show gain

State Education Department analysis shows that the Schools Under Registration Review (SURR) improved significantly this year. A record number improved enough to come off the SURR list. Most schools improved performance over 1996. The 21 newly identified schools did quite well as a group. Fourteen of these schools are now above all of their performance targets. In New York City, the SURR schools' increase in third grade reading exceeded the increase in the City as a whole.

In the midst of the general improvement, there are some schools that have not performed well. Chancellor Rudy Crew closed two schools last month in the context of the SURR process. Three other schools -- I.S. 111 in Brooklyn, P.S. 157 in The Bronx, and I.S. 193 in The Bronx -- have low test scores, but our field visits reveal that the right things are happening in those schools, so I have decided to permit them to continue for one more year on condition that a number of specific actions are taken to strengthen them.

Chancellor Rudy Crew and I agree that a fourth school, I.S. 74 in the Bronx, shows unacceptable performance and does not have a plan I can approve. The City has an extension until July 28 to develop an acceptable plan that includes specific actions. The Chancellor and I have discussed this school in detail and we will visit I.S. 74 together when it opens in the fall. If I.S. 74 falters in the early months of the new year, the Chancellor and I will prepare to close the school, even at mid-year if necessary.

We tend to focus on the problem schools, but as the State Education Department report demonstrates, the school- by- school renewal process seems to be working. I commend the work of Associate Commissioner Shelia Evans-Tranumn and our New York City team, and the work of the school and district leaders who have achieved these improvements. We all know how far we still have to go, but we should pause to recognize their achievements on behalf of children.

Implications of brain research for education

The public is becoming aware through the popular press of a decade of research on how the human brain develops in infancy. In contrast, few New York educators seem to be talking about this. That must change.

What do we know? At birth an infant has the basic neural capacity but only the most elemental neural connections have been established. In the first three years, and in particular during the first year, the brain makes an astonishing number of these connections. This explosive rate of electrical activity actually changes the structure of the brain, and establishes the foundations for speech, reading, thinking, and controlled movement. Scientists have used recent brain scanning techniques to map this incredible development, and to create low cost tests for reading problems as well as promising solutions. Scientists have learned that there are intervals during which infants make certain connections, and the missed opportunities are very hard to make up.

This research has expanded our understanding of reading and reading disabilities. It suggests that early attention to understanding the relationship between letters and sounds is very important. Many researchers challenge special education definitions of learning disability, and they insist that grade three is far too late to intervene when a child is having trouble reading.

The implications of this research are significant. Prevention, not remediation is the way to go. We should read the research and think about what it means for teacher preparation, reading programs, and early education. And we must build ever stronger connections with families and human services agencies.

Our most obvious problem in many schools is reading. The Regents and the Department have prepared the way for a much more assertive strategy on reading. We have called attention to reading with the Report Cards. Schools have made a huge effort to respond and we will see the results in the fall. The Regents special education proposal would double the amount of prevention dollars, and our budget proposal would raise state reading funds to $100 million. The Regents Task Force on Teaching will surely pave the way for better teacher education. But we must examine and apply this new knowledge about how young children learn to read in order to get still better results.

The brain research confirms that the practices of good parenting are very important: reading and talking to infants, singing to them and touching them. All of these actions stimulate the development of the baby's brain from the earliest days.

Parents have to be at the heart of the matter

Are we doing enough to bring parents into the work of school reform? Not yet. The need for more work with parents is evident in reports on the SURR schools. Parents are key to improvement in special education. We have done a lot. For example, parent voices were heard in the statewide forums on graduation standards. The Department's School Report Card design incorporated the research on what parents want to know about schools. We sent an open letter to parents to describe what they could do. And the Department's year-long teleconference series often included parents. This is good, but it doesn't yet add up to a strategy. A separate parent initiative is not what I'm suggesting. We wouldn't separate any other of the key partners. We do need to act on our recognition that parents are key partners. We should be looking for concrete ways to include parents in everything.

All means all

When we talk about high educational standards for all students in New York, that is exactly what we mean. People ask, "But what about the severely disabled? They can't be included in this effort." Our answer is, yes they can. And we are making that a reality.

Last year, VESID convened experts in educating children with the most severe disabilities from all parts of the State. They included public school and private school educators, parents, people from independent living centers and early childhood direction centers, representatives from our leading universities and department curriculum experts.

The group developed Standards for Students With Severe Disabilities. They concluded that all students, including those most severely disabled, must be given the opportunity to achieve high standards--but that for these relatively few children (probably less than 11,000 of the 362,000 receiving special education services) we should modify our performance indicators and sample tasks to reflect more realistic expectations.

For example, one of the Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education and Home Economics states, "Students will have the necessary knowledge and skills to establish and maintain physical fitness, participate in physical activity, and maintain personal health." The standard is equally applicable for all students; however performance indicators, key ideas and sample activities necessarily differ for students with severe disabilities. For a child with severe multiple disabilities an alternate-level key idea might be to "demonstrate personally and socially responsible behaviors and to care for and respect themselves and others." Examples of tasks that directly relate to the standard, but are appropriate for this student to demonstrate performance would include:

Since work on this document began, the IDEA (the federal law that governs special education) has been amended to require states to do this type of alternative curriculum development. Fortunately, we are well ahead of schedule.

The Department will be holding public discussions on the document in the late fall and bring final recommendations to the Board in February 1998.

Building relationships to get results

Summer offers time to build and extend the relationships among institutions that are so critical to getting results in education. Here are some recent examples:

Teachers for New York City. New York City schools experience a higher teacher turnover rate than the rest of the state, and this is particularly the case in the lowest performing schools. The City also faces a huge recruitment task over the next five years as teachers retire. One strategy emerged last month: a three way conference involving deans of education schools, New York City officials, and the State Education Department. We agreed to join forces to put a well prepared teacher in every classroom and keep that teacher there. The Regents were represented by Regents Diane McGivern and Adelaide Sanford, and both Chancellor Rudy Crew and I spoke.

Higher education and the schools. For three days this month I worked with Chancellors Ann Reynolds of CUNY and John Ryan of SUNY to build the basis for stronger connections between schools and higher education. Our counterparts from Illinois, South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, and Vermont worked with us. The common ground is defined by standards for students, teachers, and teacher preparation institutions.

Partners for children. Our partnership with The United Way and the Department of Health achieved a lot in the first year. More than a thousand attended the first Prevention Conference and we are planning a second one. Two dozen communities have begun talks among local partners to use what they learned in the conference. We have a draft set of outcomes and strategies to help us improve results. Now it's time to expand the partnership and think about long term investments.

Continuing improvements in the State Education Department

Higher education offices are moving into the Education Building this month and the teacher education units moves have already occurred. Staff who have long been housed in facilities originally designed for library materials are finally getting appropriate space. These moves are part of the commitment to improve working conditions, and are supporting connections between higher education and the secondary schools.

The State Archives and Records Administration within the State Education Department is consolidating operations into three core programs: Government Records Services, Documentary Heritage Services, and State Archives Operations. We are eliminating redundancies in training, publications, regulations, and administration. In the coming year, we expect improved services to state and local governments, better integration of our stewardship activities supporting historic records preservation, and stronger programs that support the use of historical records, particularly in the schools.

Quarterly performance reviews continue. We have held thirty hour and a half performance reviews over the last five quarters and are starting our sixth round of these reviews. At the July Regents meeting we will summarize major performance gains in the Office of the Professions.

Higher Education Leadership. Although nothing is guaranteed, we are hopeful that the legislature will include full funding for our Office of Higher Education once a budget is enacted. In the interim, I have directed Richard Cate to begin an aggressive search for a Deputy Commissioner once the budget is approved and a position waiver is obtained. We will be seeking candidates with exceptional leadership skills, campus experience, ethnic diversity and demonstrated ability to work as part of a team.

Higher Education is a critical component of our diverse organization, and we must ensure that we select a permanent leader for the Office from a highly qualified pool of candidates. I want to take this opportunity to thank Jeanine Grinage for her dedicated leadership over the past year and a half. Jeanine will have my full support as she continues to lead the organization over the next several months until a permanent Deputy Commissioner is appointed.

Office of Professions draws attention

As the State Education Department works on improving performance, we try to learn from quality improvements in other states. Now others are turning the tables on New York.

The reforms started by the Office of the Professions have captured the attention of other government agencies in New York and elsewhere. Most recently, Professions has been benchmarked by New York State's Unified Court System, which is responsible for the licensing of attorneys. Representatives from that agency wanted to learn how we achieved the dramatic improvement in re-registering licensed professionals.

New Jersey wanted to learn how we reduced re-registration processing time from six weeks to one day and achieved a 30% reduction in time for processing licensure applications. New Jersey is planning to incorporate our innovations into their state system.

The State of Illinois has studied our customer service initiatives, particularly the Web page information. New York State is a leader in the information available via the Internet to consumers of professional services.

Another chapter for Kiryas Joel

This month I issued two orders that will implement the closure of the Kiryas Joel school district and provide for the education of the children. This action follows from the June 4 court order in Grumet and Hawk v. Cuomo, et al., which declared unconstitutional the 1994 law establishing the district.

For the last several weeks, the State Education Department had a team of legal, finance, and program experts working with school leaders from the former Kiryas Joel district and Monroe-Woodbury to work out the transition. District Superintendent William Bassett represented me in the discussions with the districts. Unfortunately, the transition was too slow to adequately prepare for the children's education for the rest of the summer and the coming year. Therefore, I issued the orders to complete the transition of responsibility to Monroe-Woodbury.


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