| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Cathy Woodruff
Close to three-quarters of the spending authorized in the Dec. 10 referendum will pay for instructional technology improvements, which provided the early inspiration for the capital project, said Superintendent John Carmello. But in the wake of last year’s shootings at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut, he said, interest grew in adding safety and security features, as well. Troy’s new middle school has all of the technology now authorized for the rest of the district, and “the positive feedback we were getting about the security upgrades made us realize we really had something there,” said Carmello. “For kids to be able to learn to their best potential, they’ve got to feel safe.” |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
Ending racial apartheid and reforming American public education are very different matters, but New York school boards could be well-served by Mandela’s advice. School boards associations, too. While NYSSBA performs multiple functions (advocacy, training and information), our overarching mission is to improve public education by protecting and enhancing the ability of school boards to make informed local decisions. Lately that means addressing Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), the most significant increase in student expectations ever faced by New York educators. Throughout this past year, NYSSBA staff have developed CCLS-related fact sheets and sample policies, published numerous articles, conducted regional workshops and webinars, hosted keynote addresses and Commissioner’s Roundtables, met frequently with key legislators and policymakers, testified at several hearings and attended every Regents meeting. We’ve sought answers to our members’ questions and advocated for resources needed for professional development and instructional materials. NYSSBA is part of the Educational Conference Board (ECB), which brings together representatives of New York State United Teachers, the state PTA and a variety of organizations representing education leadership to discuss issues of the day. We took a significant step forward recently, when the ECB produced a five-point plan of action to (1) build understanding for the CCLS; (2) invest in professional development; (3) ensure adequate funding; (4) assess concerns about student testing; and (5) continuously review and improve the implementation process. |
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| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Cathy Woodruff
Less than one-third of New York students passed the state math and English Language Arts tests they took in April. Yet, more than 90 percent of the state’s teachers were rated effective or highly effective under the state’s new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) rating system. Explain. It’s a head-scratcher, all right. How can New York’s teachers possibly be so effective if their students are struggling so mightily to meet the state’s new academic standards? Even a more sophisticated analysis – limiting the sample of teachers to those in the elementary and middle school classrooms where students took state exams in April, and limiting the ratings solely to the 20 points tied to those state test results – still reveals a sharp apparent contradiction. More than 83 percent of the teachers in grades 4-8 were rated effective or highly effective on the portion of their Annual Professional Performance Reviews (APPR) tied to their students’ test scores. But just 31 percent of students who took ELA and math tests met the new standards for proficiency on each of them. How is that possible? Isn’t a high level of teacher effectiveness supposed to correlate with high student achievement? Isn’t this supposed to be an accountability system? |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Cathy Woodruff A bouillabaisse of education issues has reached a simmering boil just in time for the start of the 2014 legislative session, which will double as a prelude to the anticipated re-election campaigns of state legislators and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Legislators will have to deal with a backlash against reform initiatives linked to the introduction of testing and privacy issues associated with new Common Core learning standards. Those include new teacher evaluations and the introduction of curriculum and state tests based on the standards. Also, school leaders have expressed concern about the privacy and control of student information to be collected as part of a statewide data storage project known as inBloom (see report). If last year’s legislative session is any guide, the upcoming recommendations of an education reform commission appointed by the governor will set the agenda for the educational policy and budget proposals Cuomo will choose to champion this year. While the commission’s findings remained under wraps as On Board went to press, the panel’s research in 2013 was concerned chiefly with the funding and structure of public school districts and on teacher preparation. Cuomo is scheduled to deliver his State of the State address on Jan. 8, followed by the Executive Budget proposal later that month. |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Karen Zevin As a market researcher and data analyst with considerable experience with quantitative and qualitative research and forecasting in the high tech, finance and advertising industries, I believe that data analysis plays an important role in sound decision-making. Every school district needs to have a secure place to store data on students, tools to analyze that data and a culture that supports use of data for continuous improvement. The state’s decision to use inBloom, a web-based data storage service, has been controversial. I share concerns raised by my colleagues in the Westchester-Putnam School Boards Association and the school board and educational community of Croton-Harmon, where I serve. Issues include how student data will be used and stored, the integrity of the data being collected and the significant local costs of collecting the data. While it’s clearly beneficial for local districts to collect and analyze data on students, including their performance on standardized tests, what’s unclear to me and my colleagues are the benefits of having the State Education Department or a contractor aggregate such information. While new data dashboards will help districts that don’t currently have them, many districts already use these tools. |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Gayle Simidian
How about kindergarten? The researchers could not find any measureable “indicators” for kindergartners’ college and career achievement in kindergarten-aged or younger children. But more squishy “predictors” of later academic success were documented, such as participation in pre-school education. The researchers also identified a third category of “other potential factors” such as being able to self-regulate one’s emotions and showing persistence. The more positive factors, the better, according to “Predictors of Postsecondary Success,” a new report by AIR’s College & Career Readiness & Success Center. The center, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Education, reviewed 80 studies published in the last decade. It concluded that focusing on certain skills and attributes in very young students can help teachers and administrators target resources to these areas to promote future success, according to the report. |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By the New York State Association of School Attorneys Fifteen years ago, in the middle of the night, the New York State Legislature passed the Charter Schools Act. As the story goes, legislators got a salary increase, and the people of New York got charter schools. Flaws in this hastily approved legislation have led to countless disputes between charter schools and local school districts over student residency, and such disagreements cannot be resolved without intervention by the State Education Department (SED) and the state comptroller. The result is a situation that is expensive, time-consuming and frustrating for all parties. Simply put, there has to be a better way. To fund charter schools, the Legislature decided that state per-pupil money should follow the student. The mechanism is found in Education Law Section 2856. Charter schools must provide SED with a list of students and, for each, the name of the school district in which the student resides. By virtue of his or her residency in a given school district, the charter school student is entitled to attend the charter school of his/her choice at the expense of the district of residence. But the law does not specify any method that charter schools should use to verify each student’s district of residence. This is a gross oversight because, long before former Gov. George Pataki even heard about charter schools, residency had been a common subject of dispute in public education. Disputes arise often between parents and districts, or among districts. A large body of decisions of the commissioner of education has established what kinds of documents are considered sufficient to establish residency. The financial implications go far beyond the allocation of state aid per student. The current statutory construct has resulted in some school districts paying hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to educate and transport students who, they contend, do not reside within their districts. In some cases, the districts have asserted that students actually live outside New York State. |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Courtney Sanik At least 70 school boards in New York State have passed resolutions expressing concerns with state mandated testing and how the Common Core is being implemented. Meanwhile, boards and districts have a legal responsibility to administer tests. What policies pertaining to testing should your school board have, especially in anticipation of upcoming state exams? NYSSBA has received many questions about whether boards should create a policy on “opting out.” Our answer is no because, according to the State Education Department, there is no mechanism or authorization in law or regulation that would permit a board to allow parent to “opt out” a child from a state-required test. However, it would be appropriate to discuss how administrators plan to respond to such requests. The most relevant existing district policy probably is the one dealing with attendance. Under such policies, skipping a test for political reasons or protest would be an unexcused absence. NYSSBA recommends reviewing your attendance policy to ensure that any consequences for unexcused absences are clearly explained. In the case of local testing, it may be appropriate to address make-up opportunities, as well. |
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| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By George Basler In 1987, investment manager George Weiss offered to pay college costs for 112 low income students in Philadelphia in a scholarship program called “Say Yes to Education.” While the approach has been replicated in other parts of the U.S., two New York cities, Syracuse and Buffalo, have taken the concept further. Coalitions of local leaders – including city, county and school officials – offer a range of “wrap- around” services to students and families. They include after-school programs, summer programs, SAT tutoring and legal aid. In 2008, Syracuse became the first city to adopt the Say Yes model of comprehensive program of student support and college scholarships throughout the school district. Buffalo followed suit in 2012, becoming the second Say Yes city in the United States. Last summer, the program received national attention when President Barrack Obama visited both cities to promote his education agenda. |
| On Board Online • December 16, 2013 By Merryl Tisch
I’ll be blunt: we encountered a tremendous amount of anxiety – and not a few misconceptions – about the changes that are taking place. Commissioner King and the Regents held these forums because we want to have a respectful, open dialogue about what’s working and how we can all do better. We’re listening. And we’re always open to input from school leaders, teachers and parents who live with these policies every day. But it’s also crucial that we move forward with the reform agenda for a very simple reason: it works. We’ve seen the reforms in action in districts like Mineola, where we witnessed firsthand students’ and teachers’ excitement about their work on the Common Core math modules, and in Maine-Endwell, where we sat with fourth-grade teachers collaborating their planning around the modules. Embracing the Common Core and implementing it quickly is the right path for school districts and schoolchildren. New data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows what experts have long predicted: states that have adopted the Common Core and professional assessments based on the new standards have seen marked improvement in student performance. Since 2011, scores in Washington, D.C. have shot up faster than any state’s scores. In Tennessee, another state that has adopted the Common Core and a strong evaluation system, scores jumped up by similarly substantial margins. Meanwhile, over that same time period, nationwide scores increased only minimally. |
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Over the past several weeks, Education Commissioner John King Jr. and members of the Board of Regents – including me – have participated in more than a dozen forums held across the state. The forums have focused on the Common Core standards and New York’s realigned testing and performance-review programs. We’ve listened to hundreds of teachers, parents and administrators, fielding their questions and concerns about the progress of implementation so far.