December 2000

BY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER RICHARD P. MILLS

The Meeting in Brief

The Regents will conclude their preparations for the legislative session by deciding what to recommend for state education aid. This completes a cycle that included the state aid conceptual framework and the Regents legislative and policy agenda.

The Regents will consider a policy agenda resulting from the November Forum on the implementation of the standards. They will continue the debate on Career and Technical Education with a revised proposal that reflects public comment. The Regents will also consider the coming Summit on Teaching, the state teacher certification exams, and the higher education Quality Assurance Initiative.

• State aid to education
• Career and Technical Education
• Teacher policy
• Roosevelt School District

Actions:

• Regents 2001-2002 State Aid to Schools proposal
• Seven charter school applications and two amendments to previously approved charters
• Appointments to Roosevelt School District Citizens’ Advisory Council
• Project SAVE regulations concerning students in residential facilities
• Regulations on school property tax report cards
• Federal Agenda

Reports:

• November 16 Standards Implementation Forum
• Revised career and technical education proposal
• Roosevelt School District’s Corrective Action Plan
• Early childhood education, including program accountability
• Education of English-speaking students from Caribbean countries
• Status of SURR schools
• A professional coaching certificate

State Aid

The Regents will decide the amount to recommend for state aid to schools for 2001-2002. This proposal is the second stage of a five-year Regents plan approved last year. The Regents proposal supports raising standards for all children and closing gaps in achievement by aligning resources with programs. There are significant problems with present law in this area and the Regents proposal offers practical solutions.

Present law won’t help close the gaps in student achievement because it fails to provide most of the increase to high need school districts.

Present law would allocate almost equal amounts of the increase to low- and medium-need districts and to high-need districts. High need districts generate increases but budget caps and save-harmless features result in only 39 districts receiving actual formula aid. The formula doesn’t recognize regional cost differences or concentrations of poverty, and it doesn’t require local maintenance of tax effort as state effort increases.

I am also concerned about the long-term sustainability of state aid. The Regents proposal includes, as I believe it should, the funds for programs decided upon by elected representatives in past legislative sessions. Within the context of those prior year decisions, it is difficult to add new funds that reflect Regents priorities for a simplified, needs-based formula to help close achievement gaps. When we do, the resulting total is significant. The Regents campaign to raise student achievement requires a level of resources that will be there over the long term. Regents discussed this issue in September and it is appropriate to do so again.

The proposal has five basic changes in state aid: simplify operating aid in various ways that focus increases on high need districts; improve school teaching and leadership; provide extra help for children who need it; promote cost-effectiveness; and strengthen accountability.

Career and Tech Proposal

Discussions on career and technical education before the Regents and statewide have produced good ideas and brought us closer to a solution. The revised draft before the Regents reflects that discussion.

In place of the program certification idea we have proposed a local self-study of programs in relation to standards, a validation by local teams from other communities, a specific and verifiable commitment by the local board to the State Education Department to fill the gaps, followed by program approval. Such a process would promote local reflection on the more challenging definition of career and technical education, an exchange of views among communities going through the same thing, and a local commitment to improve program quality.

There are three options presented for course flexibility, one of which the Regents have discussed already. All three options would represent a change from the Regents policy decision on graduation requirements, although this is less so in the case of the third option.

The graduation requirement policy includes five Regents exams and 22 credits of course work. The rationale was that students should demonstrate achievement of all standards by passing the five Regents exams, and since no exam can touch every topic, we should guarantee all students a rigorous academic program with appropriate opportunities for local flexibility. Sometimes boards must change policy. The point here is to make changes with full knowledge of prior decisions.

Some participants in the debate urge the Board to eliminate several Regents exams for students in a Career and Technical path. I recommend against that approach for several reasons.

• All the standards are for all the children. The Regents exams are widely recognized by the public as an indicator of achieving the standards. The argument against using a particular Regents exam (or an approved alternative) is really an argument against that portion of the standards.

• A Career and Technical program that required fewer than the five Regents exams expected of all other students would be a less challenging path and both students and other members of the public would see that immediately.

• The Regents exams are challenging for many students but results for both English and mathematics are strong and getting stronger. The data offer no reason to lower expectations for students.

• The Career and Technical proposal was not intended as a "safety net" but as a response to the need for graduates with both high academic and high technical skills that are required in the workplace today.

• Eliminating Regents exams would be a withdrawal from the standards on a broad front and for many children a return to the situation before the Regents reform efforts began. Many people who have supported us through the long effort to raise student achievement would question our resolve.

SURR Report

At the December Regents meeting I will report on the schools added to and removed from our list of schools under registration review. The main points are these: There will be more schools on the list than ever before, a significant number will be in communities upstate, and for the first time, I am returning former SURR schools to the list. There will also be school closures.

Staff will report the performance of current and former SURR schools. While the performance of SURR schools is generally low, most improve over time. Schools removed from the list perform consistently higher than current SURR schools and approach the average performance of their districts. As the standards continue to rise and the number of former SURR schools grows, maintaining the gains will become harder.

Roosevelt

The Board will discuss the District Review Panel’s report on the progress of the Roosevelt School District in implementing its Corrective Action Plan and meeting the 2000-2001 performance targets at the secondary level. While there has been some progress it is not sufficient on either the Plan or the performance targets.

Curriculum improvement is slow in English language arts and social studies, but the district has made some progress in developing mathematics curricula for grades 7 and 8 as well as mathematics A.

The District Review Panel also reports compliance issues in providing services to students with disabilities.

In addition, the Regents will consider approving appointments to a reconstituted Citizens Advisory Council in Roosevelt.

NYC Continuum of Services for Students with Disabilities

In June, the New York City Board of Education adopted a Continuum of Services for Students with Disabilities. The intent is to hold superintendents and principals accountable for placement and performance of students with disabilities, to ensure full access to the general education curriculum, and maximize integration of students with disabilities with their nondisabled peers. Representatives of the New York City Board of Education will attend the VESID Committee meeting to answer questions.

TWWIIA is new legislation to enable Social Security recipients to become employed by extending medical benefits and providing new training options. New York State is an early implementation state. Within the next few months, we will engage many stakeholders to respond to regulations, design the system and train staff to implement the program.

Outreach to Community and Minority Media

At their annual retreat last summer, the Regents asked for greater effort to reach press and other media in minority communities. Here is what we have done and will do:

• Last year we held a breakfast for minority media. Fourteen different media were represented.
• Our Communications Office maintains a list of 35 minority media (print and broadcast), with reporters and editors, for regular contacts by telephone, fax, and e-mail.
• The Communications Office regularly contacts reporters from 22 print publications by telephone regarding major news announcements. All 35 media receive press information by e-mail or fax.

During 2001, we will expand outreach to community and minority media in the following ways:

• Media breakfasts will continue.
• A toll-free 800-telephone number now allows all media across the State to listen in on our monthly press briefings. Advance calls to minority media will encourage them to use it.
• Through regular telephone calls, reporters or editors for an expanded group of minority media (including broadcast media) will be alerted to major news announcements and other news opportunities. They will receive all press material by e-mail or fax, as needed.
• I will appear on minority broadcast media in New York City.

Enhanced State Museum Exhibits

The New York Gem and Mineral collection is spectacular to begin with and recent technology improvements at the State Museum added new luster. Visitors can now stand at easy-to-use computer terminals to call up images of items from the collection, along with maps and other data about them.

Technology has also expanded the information available to visitors to the Native Peoples Hall. Using touch-screen technology, visitors can learn about even small details of the exhibit, and then probe still deeper with additional questions.

These two changes are just a hint of what is ahead as the State Museum transformation moves forward. Advice to the visitor: add more time for your visit. A lot more time.

Communicating the Library Initiative

It will take leadership everywhere to bring the vision of the New Century Libraries to reality. Last week I described the Library Initiative to Governor Pataki as a dramatic opportunity to bring modern library services to every part of the state. As Regents know, I talked earlier with leaders of the Library Systems. Last week I followed up with a letter to their trustees to urge their support for this historic initiative.

Monitoring Teacher Policy Implementation

The Higher Education Committee will consider several topics related to teacher preparation and recruitment.

• An overview of the New York State Teacher Certification Examination Program. National Evaluation Systems, Inc. representatives will describe our current testing program and planned enhancements over the next three years.
  
• The Governor and Legislature established the Teachers of Tomorrow Program (TOT) in May. The program funds are to assist school districts in their recruitment, retention and certification activities.
  
• We are planning a Summit on Teaching mid-winter to reach consensus on the problems of teacher recruitment and placement and to seek consensus on solutions. The Summit will assemble elected leaders, those who prepare teachers and those who employ them, union and business representatives, teachers, former teachers, and would-be teachers, and Regents.

We are beginning to implement the four staff recommendations on Quality Assurance in Higher Education that were developed in consultation with advisory groups and presented to the Regents in September 2000. The recommendations address:

1. Institutional improvement
2. Information for consumers
3. Information for policymakers and the public
4. Coordination of external accountability

To implement the first recommendation, the Advisory Group on Quality Assurance has provided comments on the first draft of proposed amendments to Part 52 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. A second draft is in your December materials and has been distributed widely to the higher education community for comment by February 12.

New - Online Verifications for Professional Business Entities

In our latest expansion of public information available on the Web, we have added professional business entities to our online license verification system. Consumers, businesses and governments can now confirm the registration of a total of 30,000 such entities: professional service limited liability corporations, accounting partnerships, and professional service corporations (such as design corporations).

Users can verify the firm's address, type of business entity, registration status and identification number, and the registrations of the New York licensees who serve as officers, partners, and shareholders. This service lets people know that professional services are offered by individuals and firms that are accountable to the Board of Regents.

A monthly publication of the State Education Department

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