Commissioner sets 3-year timetable on standards, tests, evaluations |
On Board Online • May 2, 2016
By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer
A three-year schedule for rebooting all elements of New York's education reform agenda will culminate with the proposal of a new evaluation system for teachers and principals in the 2019-20 school year, Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia told the Regents at their April meeting.
Under Elia's detailed timeline, the new evaluation system will await completion of two other initiatives: revising state standards and overhauling state tests. Yet, all three will move simultaneously on their own dedicated tracks for review, public input, professional development and other carefully phased work, she said.
The introduction of revised state learning standards in September 2017 is the first element slated for implementation.
The first administration of revised grade 3-8 tests in math and English language arts, which will be based on those standards, is to follow in the spring of 2019.
The new teacher and principal evaluations are "the last of these big areas that we have to address," Elia told the Regents. The schedule for the proposed new evaluation system in 2019-20 coincides with the end of a transition period, which includes a moratorium limiting the use of student test results in the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) evaluation system.
Elia's presentation sparked renewed discussion by the Regents of a provision of the current APPR law, which requires school districts to have revised APPR plans in place by Sept. 1 of this year or face the loss of state aid increases for 2015 and 2016.
While the deadline has been extended and the influence of test results has been largely neutralized for three years, the penalty still exerts heavy pressure on school districts to revise their APPR plans before the next school year begins.
According to the State Education
Department, 121 districts have adopted the required APPR plan revisions (known as 3012-d). Many other districts continue to send in proposals for review and approval by SED staff, she said.
Regents debated whether to express their objections to the requirement and the state aid penalty through a resolution or a letter to the Legislature, but they reached no clear consensus to do either.
"Districts are being held hostage to this," said Regent Judith Johnson of Rockland County. "This is a tremendous amount of work with no purpose."
"We need to be on record saying this is damaging to districts," said Regent Roger Tilles of Long Island.
Elia noted that changing the requirement or removing the penalty would require changes in state law beyond the Regents' authority. She urged board members not to give school leaders potentially false hope that the law will change, which she suggested could further complicate their efforts to complete new APPR plans.
"There have been opportunities over the last few months for the Legislature to change the law, and it hasn't changed," Elia said. "The districts having difficulty are going to have to double down and get this work done."
"There is nothing in this discussion that was not fully understood by the governor and the Legislature in their discussions on the budget," said Regent James Tallon of Binghamton, a former member of the Assembly. The mandate for revised APPR plans and the state aid penalty for non-compliance were imposed by the governor and the Legislature in the spring of 2015.
Tilles said at least three lawmakers have told him they believe the Regents "can take care of" the requirement for districts to comply with 3012-d on their own. "The law is the law," countered Regent Josephine Finn of Sullivan County, a village justice in Monticello. "Three legislators can say whatever they want, but we have to abide by the law."
"We support the Regents plan to review and propose revising to the evaluation system," said Julie Marlette, NYSSBA's director of governmental relations. "However, we urge all policymakers to take immediate action to protect the billions of dollars in needed state support for schools by allowing districts the option to maintain their current APPR plans rather than renegotiating, yet again."
NYSSBA has asked the Regents to support its legislative proposal. See goo.gl/Tuw8gm .
Elia's timeline for revising the standards, curriculum and assessments and the teacher and principal evaluation system lays out a detailed progression of benchmarks in each process. While the schedules are designed to proceed independently, each appears to be phased and timed to be responsive, if necessary, to developments in the others.
Committees reviewing the standards will meet into the summer and gather public comment for final revisions in the fall. The revised standards are scheduled for consideration by the Regents in November or December of 2016.
Curriculum revisions are scheduled to begin in January 2017. Professional development and development of new curriculum resources are slated to launch in the summer of 2017, with initial implementation of the new standards in September.
Students won't take state tests that fully reflect the revised standards until the standards have been in place for nearly two full school years.
Planning for a revised teacher and principal evaluation system is to begin in the spring of 2017.