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By Eric D. Randall The Board of Regents has hired the Boston-based executive search firm of Isaacson, Miller to help the Regents find the state's next commissioner of education. Isaacson, Miller helped the University at Albany hire its senior vice president for academic affairs and provost (James Steller, formerly of Queens College). It also helped the College Board hire its last two presidents - Gaston Caperton, a former governor of West Virginia, and David Coleman, sometimes called the "architect" of Common Core State Standards. According to a search notice, the Regents are looking for "a visionary leader to manage the state's educational resources to foster excellence for all students, ensure that all students graduate high school ready for college and careers in our global society, close the achievement gap, and raise the state's graduation rate." The commissioner will be in charge of "the University of the State of New York," which includes K-16 education, libraries, museums, public broadcasting and licensed professions. |
| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Eric D. Randall Under a plan that's part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's state budget proposal, 176 schools across the state could be designated as "failing" and taken over by an overseer, called a receiver, appointed by the commissioner of education. If the plan is approved by the Legislature, schools would be candidates for receivership at the discretion of the commissioner if they have been in the bottom 5 percent of all schools for three years ("priority schools" in the state's existing accountability system). Among such schools are 91 in New York City, 68 in the "Big 4" of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, and three in Albany. All of the districts with schools on the list have significant minority populations, including Mount Vernon, Roosevelt, Utica and Wyandanch. In the case of a school takeover, the authority of the receiver would override that of the school board and superintendent in managing and operating the school. |
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| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Paul Heiser While computers and technology are common in the lives of youngsters, the nation's high school students spend relatively little time studying computer science. Few are taught to write code, or take classes that delve into the workings of the Internet or explain how to create an app. "I think schools don't do enough to instruct students in computer science," said Matt Hladun, director of technology in the Queensbury school district in Warren County. Two years ago, Queensbury's high school began offering two courses in computer science. "I found a statistic last year from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed that by 2020, there will be 760,000 jobs in IT (information technology)," Hadlun said. "However, we are only graduating 40,000 students a year with a computer science degree." Computer programming is among the least popular Advanced Placement exams in New York. In 2014, only 1 percent of the 256,910 Advanced Placement examinations taken were in computer science, roughly on par with Physics and Mechanics, French Language and Culture; Studio Art: 2-D Design and Human Geography. |
| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Merryl Tisch New York State has some of the best teachers in the country. However, for far too long, those best teachers haven't had the opportunity to share their talents and experience with their colleagues. In New York, we're changing that with a bold initiative to energize and empower our very best educators, with the ultimate goal of increasing student achievement. Schools improve when experienced and highly effective teachers share their knowledge with colleagues and help administrators ensure that professional development is addressing the right topics. Since 2011, the Board of Regents has encouraged that kind of collaboration through a grant program called Strengthening Teacher and Leader Effectiveness (STLE). STLE is a labor-management partnership that has committed $83 million in federal funds to transform practice across more than a third of the state's school districts. |
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| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Pilar Sokol In a recent decision relevant to concerns over the expansion of a national measles outbreak, a federal appellate court with jurisdiction over New York has upheld the constitutionality of New York's mandatory vaccination requirements for public school attendance. The ruling also upholds the authority of school officials to temporarily exclude from school students exempted from the immunization requirements during an outbreak of a vaccine-related disease. The state's vaccination requirements prohibit schools from admitting students who have not been immunized or allowing them to attend for more than 14 days unless they qualify for either a medical or religious exemption. Students must present a certificate of immunization against vaccine-preventable illnesses identified in state law. Applicable regulations permit the temporary exclusion from school of students with a medical or religious exemption during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. In Phillips, et al. v. City of New York, et al., parents argued that both the statute and the regulation violate their rights under various provisions of the federal Constitution, including the substantive due process protections of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court's dismissal of the parents' claims. |
| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Sandra Ruffo When I heard a knock on my door in May 1985, I never could have imagined that I was about to embark on a 30-year journey in school board service. My caller was a friend and member of my local school board. He told me it was the last day to file for the upcoming election, and no candidate was on the horizon. He handed me an unsigned petition with my name at the top, and urged me to turn it in by the end of the day. I was the mother of five children, then ages 4 to 9. My husband questioned whether I thought I could manage the time commitment involved. I had never even been to a school board meeting, so I didn't know what to expect. I did know that there were "just two meetings a month," which I reported to my husband confidently, optimistically and somewhat naively. |
| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Courtney Sanik Your district policy manual probably says nothing regarding transgender students - nor does it have to, according to Jay Worona, NYSSBA deputy executive director and general counsel, and Linda Bakst, deputy director for policy services. Existing policies should help the district protect the rights of transgender students and address concerns that may be aired by other students and parents. Worona and Bakst recently presented a complimentary NYSSBA webinar entitled Transgender Students in the 21st Century. One message was that existing policies should help guide school officials even though those policies probably don't mention transgender students specifically. For instance, your general policy on Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination establishes the civil rights of transgender students. Transgender students are protected by the Dignity for All Students Act because it lists actual or perceived gender, including identity and expression, as a protected class. Therefore, your district is obligated to protect the rights of transgender students consistent with these laws as well as federal antidiscrimination laws. How it does so is up to administrators. |
| On Board Online • February 9, 2015 By Courtney Sanik School officials may not know how to respond when a student who entered the school system as male announces a new identity as female (or vice versa) and makes requests. Here are some suggested responses from NYSSBA's Department of Policy Services. Issue: A student is presenting as transgender or has made a request to use the alternate gender rest room or locker room. Solution: If a student consistently and uniformly presents as transgender and has made a request for accommodation, then an accommodation should be made. Medical documentation should not be required. Issue: Student would prefer to be known by alternate name and referred to by an alternate gender pronoun. |
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On Board Online • February 9, 2015