in Education News, Featured
Summary of June 3rd and 4th Board of Regents Meeting
Throughout the development of the Every Student Succeeds Act Plan (ESSA), Commissioner Elia has stressed the need to increase the transparency and accessibility of school performance data. Toward this end, NYSED has been working to develop a user friendly parent dashboard that will make school accountability data more easily available to parents, community stakeholders, and the general public. The June 2019 Board of Regents meeting began with an update on the progress of this initiative and a preview of the dashboard prototype that has been developed.
Over the past year, survey data was collected from approximately 2000 parents and stakeholders. They were asked about the school-related information they are most interested in being able to access and how they feel it could best be presented. NYSED staff has used this feedback to develop an initial design of the parent dashboard website which will become active in the next few weeks. The site will be accessible for review and public comment through the summer and fall of 2019. NYSED will then use the feedback gathered to finalize the website design, load the appropriate data, and make the dashboard fully operational in the spring of 2020.
Some of the key pieces of data that are currently listed on the trial dashboard template include:
  1. A school’s ESSA accountability status
  2. Student enrollment and ethnicity data
  3. Class size information
  4. NYS standardized test score data
  5. School Climate Survey results
  6. High School Graduation Rates
  7. College, Career and Civic Readiness data for high schools
During the discussion after the presentation, several Board of Regents members raised concerns about how certain pieces of the data could be misinterpreted by the public, leading to unfair comparisons between high and low need schools.
The link below offers a summary of the presentation and includes sample pages that display how data will be presented.
The Board of Regents was provided with an update on recent discussions involving the Evaluation and Assessment Workgroups and how best to move forward with the new APPR regulations. They viewed a presentation which focused primarily on Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) and whether or not they are an effective teacher evaluation tool. From the information presented, it appears that most education stakeholders do not feel that SLOs, as they are currently being used, are an authentic measure of teaching and learning.
Also included in the presentation was a tentative timeline for the development of the new APPR regulations. NYSED would like to have the new guidelines finalized in the fall/winter of 2019 for adoption by the Board of Regents in the spring 2020. This would allow for implementation in schools for the 2020-21 school year.
The link below enables you to access the slides used in the presentation and includes a concise overview of the different ways that SLOs are currently being utilized across the state. The information could be a useful tool to reference as you begin to have conversations in your units about potential teacher evaluation frameworks you would support in the future.
The Board of Regents adopted an emergency amendment extending the deadline for special education teachers to complete the requirements for a Statement of Continued Eligibility (SOCE). Originally adopted at the February 2019 BOR meeting, the regulation applies to special education teachers who teach core subject areas (science, ELA, math, or social studies) in   grades 7-12. The amendment extends the application deadline to June 30, 2020.
The Board was presented with information pertaining to teacher attendance rates and the supply/demand of substitute teachers across the state.
In June of 2015, the Board of Regents authorized NYSED to begin collecting data on teacher attendance. Statistical information was presented for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. Data was also presented which was collected by District Superintendents in January/February of this year to assess the number of teacher absences in their regions, the number of substitutes requested, and the rate at which requests were filled.
Monroe 2 BOCES was mentioned as having an effective practice of recruiting students who are enrolled in teacher preparation programs at colleges in their region to fill substitute vacancies.
Below you will find the link to a summary of the presentation.
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