Meeting of the Board of Regents | March 2010

SUMMARY

Issue for Discussion

The imbalance between available resources and the projected needs for assessment and data initiatives must be immediately addressed.

Reason for Consideration

For information.

             

Proposed Handling

The item will come before the Regents EMSC Committee for discussion at the March 2010 meeting.

Background Information

Recent reductions in state General Fund support and the over-reliance on federal carry over funds have created a structural imbalance between our available EMSC resources and the costs of the NYS testing program and the student data systems.

The Department has applied for a competitive $20 million Institute of Education Sciences (IES) grant that would allow us to expand the amount and types of data that we collect to include teacher codes and course codes and to match those with unique student IDs. The grant would also allow us to expand the P-12 data system to connect with SUNY and CUNY data in a limited way.  USED is expected to announce the grant awards in March or April. 

Materials will be presented at the March EMSC Committee meeting to highlight the issue and present alternatives for consideration of cost reductions to the assessment program. 

Recommendation

              It is recommended that the Regents consider these options and advise the Department on next steps.