Meeting of the Board of Regents | October 2010

Report of the


REGENTS P-12 EDUCATION COMMITTEE


to


The Board of Regents


October 19, 2010

            Your P-12 Education Committee held its scheduled meeting on October 18, 2010.  All Committee members were present, except for Regent Norwood, who was excused.

ACTION ITEMS

Broome
Street Academy Charter High School

            Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the charter of the Broome Street Academy Charter High School as proposed by the Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY) and issues a provisional charter to it for a term of five years, up through and including October 18, 2015.  [P-12 (A) 1]

Academic Intervention Services

            Your Committee recommends that subdivision (ee) of section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner be amended as submitted, effective November 10, 2010, and it is further recommended that subdivision (ee) of section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner be amended as submitted, effective October 25, 2010, as an emergency action upon a finding by the Board of Regents that such action is necessary for the preservation of the general welfare to ensure that the emergency rule adopted at the July 2010 Regents meeting remains continuously in effect until the effective date of its adoption as a permanent rule, and thereby avoid disruption to the administration of the modified Academic Intervention Services requirements by school districts in the 2010-2011 school year.   [P-12 (A) 2]

Academic Intervention Services and the Response to Intervention Process

            Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents add paragraph (7) of subdivision (ee) of section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner, as submitted, effective November 10, 2010.  These regulations would allow a school district to provide a Response to Intervention (RTI) program in lieu of providing Academic Intervention Services (AIS) to eligible students, provided that certain conditions are met.   [P-12 (A) 3]

MOTION FOR ACTION BY FULL BOARD

           

            Madam Chancellor and Colleagues: Your P-12 Education Committee recommends, and I move, that the Board of Regents act affirmatively upon each recommendation in the written report of the Committee's deliberations at its meeting on October 19, 2010, copies of which have been distributed to each Regent.
MATTERS NOT REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

Testing Program Update – The Committee discussed updates to the Grades 3-8 ELA and math tests, the Comprehensive Regents Examination in English and the PARCC and NCSC Test Consortia.

Grades 3-8 Testing Program – updates include the resetting of cut scores to signal student progress towards college and career readiness; and changes to the format of the testing program for the spring 2011 exams.

Comprehensive Regents Examination in English – the first administration of the redesigned one-day exam is scheduled for January 2011.

PARCC and NCSC Test Consortia – States in the PARCC Consortium are committed to building an assessment system that is internationally benchmarked.  All states in the consortium will adopt common assessments that are aligned to the Common Core Standards and performance standards.  PARCC tests are slated for administration in the 2014-15 school year.  The NCSC Consortium will design an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards to develop a comprehensive assessment system for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. [P12 (D) 1]

Elimination of Certain State Assessments – The Committee discussed proposed amendments to regulations to address the deficit-reducing actions taken by the Board of Regents in June that impacted the NYS assessment system.  The actions taken include the elimination of the Checkpoint A Second Language Proficiency exams for languages other than English; the Checkpoint B Regents comprehensive examinations in Hebrew, Latin and German; and the elementary and intermediate assessments in social studies.  These proposed amendments are necessary to ensure that students continue to meet State learning standards and earn diploma credit despite the elimination of these examinations.  It is expected that these proposed amendments will be submitted to the Regents for approval in December.  [P12 (D) 2]

RTTT Timelines – The Committee discussed proposed timelines for implementing New York’s Race to the Top plan – focusing on the timelines for Data Systems and Turning Around Low Performing Schools.  There are two strands associated with the Data System timeline – the P-12 Longitudinal Data System and the Instructional Reporting and Improvement System.  The Committee’s discussion on the timeline for Turning Around Low-Performing schools focused on ideas for engagement – such as bringing in schools to the table that have turned around and talk about what generated their turn around. 

Updates from the Office of Accountability and the Office of Innovative School Models – The Committee discussed updates on the 2010 School Improvement Grant Award Process, the fall 2010 Charter School Application Process, and upcoming regulatory changes relating to charter schools.  Earlier this school year, we informed seven districts of their 1003(g) School Improvement implementation grant award decisions (New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Yonkers and Roosevelt). The Committee discussed the districts that received awards, the amounts awarded to each school, and the intervention model selected.  The Department will continue to support districts so that targeted schools will be successful in implementing their selected intervention model and accompanying strategies.  

The Committee also discussed the 2010 Charter School Application Process.  This new charter school application process utilized by the Board of Regents and the New York State Education Department has been designed to ensure that any charter school applicant presented to the Board of Regents for possible approval demonstrates the essential competencies consistent with the new statute.  On September 22, 2010, we received 15 full applications.  Over the course of the fall, staff will review the full applications, conduct face-to-face capacity interviews with applicant groups, and make charter award recommendations to senior staff.  At the December 2010 meeting, recommendations for charter awards will be brought to the Regents for consideration and action.

That concludes my report.

                                                                                    Anthony Bottar, Chair