The state’s top education leaders will give high school students more time to meet tougher new graduation requirements.
They also will provide teachers in school districts that rolled out new Common Core learning standards too slowly with some protection against being fired because their students performed poorly on state tests last school year and this school year.
Both proposals are part of a package of adjustments a Board of Regents committee approved this morning after hearing months of complaints over the way the state has rolled out the new learning standards in classrooms.
“We are absolutely committed to the Common Core, absolutely committed to its successful implementation,” Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. told reporters today. “And absolutely committed to moving forward in a way that balances the concerns we’ve heard with a sense of urgency about the needs of our students.
The changes are aimed at reducing the stakes of new tests aligned with the Common Core learning standards, which seek to raise the level of what students learn in each grade level. The state Department of Education has faced widespread criticism that it botched the rollout of the new standards by rushing to test students at the new levels as educators adjusted to teaching them.
“We regret that the urgency of our work, and the unevenness of implementation, have caused frustration and anxiety for some of our educators, students and their families,” a Board of Regents report detailing the changes stated.
The proposed changes also seek to reduce the amount of local testing time connected to teacher evaluations and to delay a new statewide student data system until privacy concerns are addressed by the Legislature.
But the reprieve for teachers that face termination under the new evaluation system because of poor student performance on new state tests drew prompt criticism from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has created his own education review panel. Cuomo, in a written statement, called it “yet another excuse to stop the teacher evaluation process.”
“The regents’ response is to recommend delaying the teacher evaluation system and is yet another in a long series of roadblocks to a much needed evaluation system, which the regents had stalled putting in place for years,” Cuomo said.
Legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and the state’s largest teachers union, New York State United Teachers, had called on the Board of Regents to create at least a two-year moratorium on what they described as “high-stakes consequences” for teachers and students from new exams aligned with the new learning standards.
Under the new changes, the regents would allow teachers who face being fired because they received “ineffective” ratings due to student test results given in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to argue that the failure of their school districts to “timely implement the Common Core” was the cause.
“That change would ensure that a teacher would not be removed unfairly as a result of the Common Core assessment,” King said.
Other proposed changes include:
• Extend the phase-in for high school Regents exams aligned with the Common Core so that the class of 2022 would be the first required to pass new English and math exams with higher scores. The effect would essentially delay the full implementation of tests connected to the new learning standards by five years.
• Delay sharing student names and addresses with inBloom Inc., a private data service provider that will manage a new statewide student information system, until the Legislature can address student privacy concerns.
• Prevent school districts from using traditional standardized tests to measure the progress of kindergarten through second-graders for teacher and principal evaluations starting in 2014-2015 and give more flexibility for school districts to reduce local testing connected to the evaluations.
• Cap the amount of time school districts can spend on local standardized tests that are used for teacher and principal evaluations.
• Request $10 million from the governor and the State Legislature to create a new “Native Language Arts” test that would measure the progress of Spanish speakers.
• Seek federal permission to allow English language learners to be assessed using the state’s “language acquisition test” for the first two years rather than the state English Language Arts exam.
• Seek federal permission to allow students with severe disabilities to be tested on instructional level rather than chronological age.
• Request $8.4 million in new state funding to eliminate multiple-choice stand-alone field testing and to allow the Department of Education to print more versions of state tests so that more can be released publicly. Many educators have complained that the state does not make the tests available to the public after they are administered because the test questions are reused.
• Clarify that school districts do not need to use the results of state tests for third- through eighth-graders for placement and promotion decisions.
• Ask the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to convene states periodically to review and update the Common Core standards. The two groups were instrumental in bringing states together to create the learning standards, which have since been adopted by 45 states. New York is among the first to begin testing students on the new standards.
• Develop more classroom materials focused on “differentiated instructional practices” for disabled students and English language learners.
• Create a “teacher portal” where educators from across the state can share curricular resources.
The regents also reiterated their support for more state funding for professional development for teachers and parent outreach. They have sought $125 million for that work next year in the state budget, but the money was not included in cuomo’s initial budget proposal.
“The implementation of the Common Core and teacher and principal evaluation during a time of limited resources has come with significant challenges,” the report states. “School districts need additional financial resources to implement these rigorous reforms.”
A committee of the Board of Regents met this morning to discuss the proposed adjustments. The complete state Department of Education report can be read at: www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2014/February2014/214p12hea3.pdf.
email: djgee@buffnews.com
They also will provide teachers in school districts that rolled out new Common Core learning standards too slowly with some protection against being fired because their students performed poorly on state tests last school year and this school year.
Both proposals are part of a package of adjustments a Board of Regents committee approved this morning after hearing months of complaints over the way the state has rolled out the new learning standards in classrooms.
“We are absolutely committed to the Common Core, absolutely committed to its successful implementation,” Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. told reporters today. “And absolutely committed to moving forward in a way that balances the concerns we’ve heard with a sense of urgency about the needs of our students.
The changes are aimed at reducing the stakes of new tests aligned with the Common Core learning standards, which seek to raise the level of what students learn in each grade level. The state Department of Education has faced widespread criticism that it botched the rollout of the new standards by rushing to test students at the new levels as educators adjusted to teaching them.
“We regret that the urgency of our work, and the unevenness of implementation, have caused frustration and anxiety for some of our educators, students and their families,” a Board of Regents report detailing the changes stated.
The proposed changes also seek to reduce the amount of local testing time connected to teacher evaluations and to delay a new statewide student data system until privacy concerns are addressed by the Legislature.
But the reprieve for teachers that face termination under the new evaluation system because of poor student performance on new state tests drew prompt criticism from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has created his own education review panel. Cuomo, in a written statement, called it “yet another excuse to stop the teacher evaluation process.”
“The regents’ response is to recommend delaying the teacher evaluation system and is yet another in a long series of roadblocks to a much needed evaluation system, which the regents had stalled putting in place for years,” Cuomo said.
Legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and the state’s largest teachers union, New York State United Teachers, had called on the Board of Regents to create at least a two-year moratorium on what they described as “high-stakes consequences” for teachers and students from new exams aligned with the new learning standards.
Under the new changes, the regents would allow teachers who face being fired because they received “ineffective” ratings due to student test results given in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to argue that the failure of their school districts to “timely implement the Common Core” was the cause.
“That change would ensure that a teacher would not be removed unfairly as a result of the Common Core assessment,” King said.
Other proposed changes include:
• Extend the phase-in for high school Regents exams aligned with the Common Core so that the class of 2022 would be the first required to pass new English and math exams with higher scores. The effect would essentially delay the full implementation of tests connected to the new learning standards by five years.
• Delay sharing student names and addresses with inBloom Inc., a private data service provider that will manage a new statewide student information system, until the Legislature can address student privacy concerns.
• Prevent school districts from using traditional standardized tests to measure the progress of kindergarten through second-graders for teacher and principal evaluations starting in 2014-2015 and give more flexibility for school districts to reduce local testing connected to the evaluations.
• Cap the amount of time school districts can spend on local standardized tests that are used for teacher and principal evaluations.
• Request $10 million from the governor and the State Legislature to create a new “Native Language Arts” test that would measure the progress of Spanish speakers.
• Seek federal permission to allow English language learners to be assessed using the state’s “language acquisition test” for the first two years rather than the state English Language Arts exam.
• Seek federal permission to allow students with severe disabilities to be tested on instructional level rather than chronological age.
• Request $8.4 million in new state funding to eliminate multiple-choice stand-alone field testing and to allow the Department of Education to print more versions of state tests so that more can be released publicly. Many educators have complained that the state does not make the tests available to the public after they are administered because the test questions are reused.
• Clarify that school districts do not need to use the results of state tests for third- through eighth-graders for placement and promotion decisions.
• Ask the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to convene states periodically to review and update the Common Core standards. The two groups were instrumental in bringing states together to create the learning standards, which have since been adopted by 45 states. New York is among the first to begin testing students on the new standards.
• Develop more classroom materials focused on “differentiated instructional practices” for disabled students and English language learners.
• Create a “teacher portal” where educators from across the state can share curricular resources.
The regents also reiterated their support for more state funding for professional development for teachers and parent outreach. They have sought $125 million for that work next year in the state budget, but the money was not included in cuomo’s initial budget proposal.
“The implementation of the Common Core and teacher and principal evaluation during a time of limited resources has come with significant challenges,” the report states. “School districts need additional financial resources to implement these rigorous reforms.”
A committee of the Board of Regents met this morning to discuss the proposed adjustments. The complete state Department of Education report can be read at: www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2014/February2014/214p12hea3.pdf.
email: djgee@buffnews.com