As ESSAA’s Regents Liaison, Paul Scampini attends the monthly meetings of the Board of Regents. Following is a summary of meeting held on September 11 and 12, 2017:
At the September 2017 Board Of Regents meeting, the Board began by giving final authorization to three major initiatives that they have been working on:
1. The final version of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was unanimously approved for submission to the Department of Education for review. As part of the presentation, Commissioner Elia outlined three waiver requests that NYSED has included in the plan:
- Eliminate the need for double testing high achieving middle school students who are enrolled in High School courses.
- Not require the state to include scores of newly arrived ELL students from the first administration of ELA assessments in school accountability formulas.
- Allow selected groups of students with disabilities to take 3-8 assessments up to two levels below their grade level.
Approval of the plan is expected from the Department of Education in early 2018.
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/
2. As expected, the Next Generation ELA and Math Standards were formally adopted. The 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 school years will serve as the transition period for the new standards with full implementation planned for 2020-21.
3. Also, as anticipated, the BOR formally adopted the newly developed P-12 Learning Standards for the Arts. The 2017-18 school year will be a transition year with full implementation expected in 2018-19.
- The Board of Regents formally adopted the new Unit of Study Requirements for Middle Level Career and Technical Education (CTE). The amended requirements,which ESSAA supported, were adopted as an emergency action this past spring.
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/
- Deputy Commissioner Jhone Ebert provided an update on the status of the 180 Day Advisory Committee.The group will be looking at proposed changes to the school calendar requirements in the next few months with the goal of bringing a proposal to the BOR at the December meeting.After gathering and reviewing feedback from the initial proposal, her goal is to have a finalized draft presented to the BOR for formal adoption in February.
- The Board moved closer to adopting the 2015 Professional Standards for Educational Leaders.Dr. Ken Turner, who chaired the Principal Preparation Project, reviewed the reasons why the committee feels the change is necessary.He specifically mentioned three new standards that are not included in the current standards that are crucial to effective school leadership:
Standard 3 – Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
Standard 5 – Community of Care and Support for Students
Standard 8 – Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
Regent Young recommended that a series of forums be held in the near future to allow representatives from the field to offer feedback before formal adoption.
The current proposal calls for a five year transition period to allow districts to incorporate the new standards into administrator evaluation frameworks. Districts would be required to begin using the new evaluation tools as of December 1, 2022.
Higher education institutions will be required to ensure that the new standards are incorporated into administrator preparation program course work.
It is anticipated that the new standards will be presented for approval at the December 2017 BOR meeting
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/
- The Board took emergency action on previously recommended adjustments to the standard setting process for the edTPA teacher certification exam.A safety net has been established to allow for transition to the edTPA.Additionally, candidates who score within two points of the cut score can file an appeal to demonstrate competency through a series of multiple measures.
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/
- Finally, as part of the meeting’s consent agenda, formal action was taken to continue the two step process for identifying students who require AIS services while the newly approved ELA and math standards are implemented..
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/
