The January 2020 Board of Regents Meeting began with an update on the progress of the Graduation Measures in New York State Initiative.
Chancellor Rosa started the discussion by informing the group that they have hired a new organization to facilitate the research review associated with the project. West Ed, a company based out of San Francisco, will now oversee the process replacing the previous company, ACHIEVE.
Deputy Commissioner Kim Wilkins and Associate Commissioner Emily DeSantis announced a revised time frame for conducting Regional Meetings which will be used to gather stakeholder feedback. Originally scheduled to be completed by the end of February, the timeline for the meetings has been extended through April 2020. Several dates have already been established (see link below) and it is anticipated that the remaining dates will be announced in the near future.
Board of Regents members will be facilitating the meetings in their respective judicial districts. During their Board of Regents meeting discussion, the “meeting in a box” structure for the sessions was reviewed. This format is designed to bring as much consistency to the meetings as possible so that information collected can be more easily organized.
It is anticipated that the members of the Blue Ribbon Commission, who will be charged with developing graduation requirement recommendations, will begin meeting next fall.
The link below includes a summary of the information that was presented including a list of the dates, times and locations of meetings currently scheduled, the guiding questions that will be used to facilitate the gathering of stakeholder feedback, and the updated timeline for the overall project.
The Board conditionally approved the newly developed Learning Standards for Computer Science and Digital Fluency. A summary of the work was presented, along with an overview of the standards and tentative timeline for implementation. The committee is planning to have finalized standards ready for permanent adoption in August 2021.
Board of Regents members were updated on the implementation of the new regulations relating to the Financial Transparency Reporting requirements. In the coming months, school districts will begin submitting expenditure data through the business portal. SED anticipates releasing the expenditure reports for 2018-19 by June 1, 2020.
The components that will be included in the district expenditure reports were reviewed along with the specific data that will be included within each section.
The College, Career and Civic Readiness Work Group provided Board members with an update on the progress of their work. The group is proposing three specific recommendations:
1. Developing a clear definition of Civic Readiness as it relates to primary, middle, and secondary levels.
2. Implementing an option for students in grades 11 and 12 to complete Civic Readiness Capstone Projects which would promote civic engagement in the community. Completion of the project could be counted as a component of a 4 +1 Humanities Pathway for graduation.
3. Offering a Seal of Civic Readiness as a high school diploma option for students who attain a high level of proficiency in areas of civic skills, knowledge and experiences. The seal would also earn schools points on their College, Career and Civic Readiness (CCCR) School Quality Index Scale.
Last week NYSED sent out a field memo regarding subject area certification for special education teachers and Statement of Continued Eligibility (SOCE) requirements. The regulations, associated with Every Student Succeeds Act, relate to certification requirements for teachers of special education and their eligibility to teach certain subject areas in grades 7-12.
The Board approved an amendment that adds the subject areas of general science and languages other than English to the list of subject areas included in the requirements. They also added additional special education certificate titles to the list to make the list of certificate titles for the credentials consistent throughout the regulations.
Board of Regents members were updated on the work of the edTPA Task Force and the status of the teacher certification requirements as they relate to the competency assessments.
In May 2014, successful completion of the edTPA competency exam became a requirement for initial teacher certification. Since then the committee has made modifications to the requirements including standard setting for passing scores and implementing a multiple measures review process.
The Committee voted to freeze the current edTPA passing scores through December 31,2021.
The Board discussed changing the term Emotional Disturbance which is currently one of the 13 classifications used to designate a student who is eligible for special education services. Seven different terms are used across the country to classify this disability category and the Board will be reviewing whether the term should be replaced with more appropriate terminology.
