Meeting of the Board of Regents | February 2009

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 11:00pm

Report of the

REGENTS EMSC COMMITTEE

The Board of Regents

February 10, 2009

Your EMSC Committee held its scheduled meeting on February 9, 2009. All Committee members were present except for Regent Cohen, who was excused.

ACTION ITEMS

Charter Schools

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the revision to the initial charter of the New York Center for Autism Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly. [EMSC (A) 1]

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the revision to the initial charter of the Williamsburg Charter High School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly. Your Committee further recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the first renewal charter of the Williamsburg Charter High School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York, and that its provisional charter be extended for a term up through and including July 27, 2009. [EMSC (A) 2]

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the charter of the Academic Leadership Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the City of New York, and issues a provisional charter to it for a term of five years, up through and including February 9, 2014. [EMSC (A) 3]

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the charter of the Brooklyn Scholars Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the City of New York, and issues a provisional charter to it for a term of five years, up through and including February 9, 2014. [EMSC (A) 4]

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the first revision to the initial charter of the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the City of New York, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly. [EMSC (A) 5]

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the revision to the initial charter of the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York, and the provisional charter be amended accordingly. Your Committee further recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the first renewal charter of the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York, and that its provisional charter be extended for a term up through and including August 10, 2009. [EMSC (A) 6]

MOTION FOR ACTION BY FULL BOARD

Mr. Chancellor and Colleagues: Your EMSC Committee recommends, and I move, that the Board of Regents act affirmatively upon each recommendation in the written report of the Committee's deliberations at its meeting on February 10, 2009, copies of which have been distributed to each Regent.

MATTERS NOT REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

Critical Improvements to the K-12 Data System – The Regents discussed an update on improvements to the Department’s K-12 data system in three areas: 1) leadership and organization (reorganization in EMSC) 2) redesign of data infrastructure (to prevent problems and data errors before they occur) and 3) long term plans to re-engineer the data system. Some of the short-term actions include providing school district access to the data that they enter quickly so they can correct errors; making data reports available to school districts outside of the nySTART system so that they can access data more easily when verifying and certifying their data; coordination data collection with special education so that there is one data calendar; providing support and training for school districts and the creation of regional data advisory groups. The Department has applied for a three-year $7.8 million grant from USDOE. These funds would be used to streamline the data system, increase data quality and accuracy, make local reporting easier, support Regents policy and school district practice to improve student achievement, and reduce the cycle time for reporting to the public. [EMSC (D) 1]

Grades 3-8 Testing Policy Overview – The Regents continued their policy discussion on issues related to the Grades 3-8 test: possible rescheduling of the exams to a different time of year as well as how the tests should be used and what types of questions should be on the tests (all multiple choice questions versus a combination of multiple choice and open-ended questions). The Regents heard about the field survey that is underway to get input on these issues. The survey asks questions about preferences for which month the Grades 3-8 mathematics and English Language Arts examinations should be administered as well as preferences for scoring models (school, district, regional or vendor scoring) and for test format (multiple-choice vs. open-ended questions). It also asks respondents to identify other relevant issues such as availability of sufficient room and staffing for the exams. The survey was posted on-line on Friday, February 6th and already 5,000 responses have been received. In March the survey results will be provided to the Regents to help inform their policy decisions

The Committee also discussed the problem experienced in January related to the cancellation of the second part of the Regents Comprehensive English Exam due to the weather. The Senior Deputy asked the Board for their endorsement to pursue two policy directions that would create more flexibility. The first is to redesign the Comprehensive Examination in English to be a one-part exam versus the current format which is a 6-hour two part exam, and endorsement to explore alternative options for the test administration and release policy to provide greater flexibility for student needs and to reduce the expense associated with the release of the questions and answers for each Regents exam. The current policy has not permitted “make-up” administrations when an exam has to be cancelled. The Committee endorsed these two policy directions. The Committee also requested that staff look for immediate solutions to the problem associated with students who took the first part of the January 2009 Regents English exam being required to retake that part because the second part was cancelled. [EMSC (D) 2]

Economic Stimulus Plan – Senior Deputy Commissioner Johanna Duncan-Poitier provided a detailed overview of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Package). This included a description of actions the Department is now taking to position itself to expeditiously move these funds once enacted. Among the many actions, staff is assessing the dollar amounts in both bills (competitive and formula driven); creating a master calendar for implementation; looking at process issues and accountability; and preparing a plan for communications with the field. The Senior Deputy also provided projected education dollar amounts in both the Senate and House bills.

Policy Activity Follow-up – Each month the Senior Deputy will be providing the Board of Regents with an update on the status of various policies that require follow-up so that the members of the Board of Regents committees are aware of activities in the field. Examples for this month’s report include off-line work on English Language Learners, Strengthening Urban teachers (forum follow-up); networks; completion of C4E cycle for this year and work to follow; Credit Recovery; streamlining of regulations/regulatory reform/consolidated monitoring, etc. Due to time constraints, this topic was not discussed this month.

That concludes our report.

Anthony Bottar and Merryl Tisch

Co-Chairs