Meeting of the Board of Regents | June 2009

Report of the

REGENTS EMSC/HIGHER EDUCATION/VESID JOINT COMMITTEE MEETING

to

The Board of Regents

June 23, 2009

              Your EMSC, Higher Education and VESID Committees held a joint meeting on June 22, 2009.  All Committee members were present, except for Regent Joseph Bowman, who was excused.

MATTERS NOT REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

Grades 3-8 Testing – The Regents continued their policy discussion regarding changes to the scheduling of the Grades 3-8 mathematics and English Language Arts examinations.  Senior Deputy Commissioner Johanna Duncan-Poitier discussed input from the field on two surveys that were conducted and discussions with education groups.  The Regents endorsed changing the testing schedule so that both the math and ELA examinations are given in May beginning in the 2009-10 school year.

Policy Issues Concerning Graduation Rates – Part I:  Establishing a Graduation Rate and Annual Targets for Accountability – The Regents continued their discussion on policy issues and key policy questions concerning the graduation rate.  The Regents discussed the most recent graduation rate data, trend data and information on New York State’s performance under the current accountability graduation rate goal.  The Regents requested that a list of additional policy questions be prepared for their consideration over the next several months as well as timelines for submission of information to USDOE.   The Regents also asked for additional data to help inform the policy decisions they will need to make over the next several months.  [EMSC/HE/VESID (D) 1]

That concludes our report.

                                                                                    Anthony Bottar and Merryl Tisch       

                                                                                    Co-Chairs, EMSC Committee

                                                                                    Milton Cofield and Harry Phillips

                                                                                    Co-Chairs, Higher Education Committee

                                                                                    Roger Tilles

                                                                                    Chair, VESID Committee