Report of Regents P-12 Education/Higher Education Joint Meeting Committee to The Board of Regents

Your P-12 Education Committee and Higher Education Committee held a joint meeting on March 16, 2015

Items not requiring action:

Professional Development.  Your Committees heard a presentation on critical professional development and teacher and leader support. Staff talked about two areas where the Race to the Top funding investment has proven to be extremely valuable in advancing the Board’s priorities: 

• Network Team Institutes (NTI). The presentation provided an overview of the accomplishments collectively achieved through NTI.
• Diagnostic Tool for School and District Effectiveness (DTSDE). The presentation provided an overview of the DTSDE team, including discussion on Professional Learning Community (PLC), face-to-face sessions and web-based interactive sessions.  Each PLC had a topic or theme of focus for each month and was facilitated by national education experts, NYSED senior staff, and/or Regents Research Fellow fellows

Professional Development Improvement Plans (PIPS and TIPS).  Your Committees received an overview of how improvement plans work in districts under the evaluation system.  We will have one district present to discuss how they tie improvement plans to professional development efforts.

Bilingual Education Certification Options. Your Committees discussed Part 80. With the Implementation of Part 154 revisions, School Districts are requesting additional options for current teachers to become certified as English to Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) teachers and content area certified teachers to gain bilingual extensions. The Department is proposing to create time limited ESOL and bilingual certificates using a combination of experience and exam or coursework and exam to gain a three year time limited certificate.