Meeting of the Board of Regents | March 2010
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THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 |
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TO: |
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FROM: |
Dr. John B. King Jr. |
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SUBJECT: |
Need to reduce costs of NYS Assessment program |
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DATE: |
February 23, 2010 |
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STRATEGIC GOAL: |
Goals 1, 2, and 5 |
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AUTHORIZATION(S): |
SUMMARY
Issue for Discussion
What actions must be taken for the 2010-11 testing cycle to reduce costs and remain in fiscal balance?
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
The recent information regarding the structural imbalance of the Office of P-12 compels us to prepare contingency plans and options for the Board’s consideration to reduce operating costs in the 2010-11 budget cycle. There are many variables that may impact our future choices including:
- the final enacted 2010-11 state budget and reductions or restoration to General Fund support
- the final 2010-11 federal education budget
- the outcome of our RTTT application (phase 1 or 2) and other funding opportunities we are pursuing
- staff retirements and attrition
Presented below are cost savings strategies targeted specifically at reducing the costs for the New York State assessment program. We have not included any actions that would compromise our compliance with NCLB requirements.
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Strategy |
Estimated Savings |
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Review all test development processes to reduce reliance on Education Specialists (Special Payroll employees paid on an hourly basis) and limit their involvement to critical work e.g. standard setting |
$1.25 million |
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Discontinue paper-based scoring materials for Regents exams and post all scoring training materials and answer keys to website to let schools download prior to scoring |
$.60 million |
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Eliminate Component Retesting in Math & ELA |
$1.6 million |
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Immediately discontinue translating exams into Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Korean, & Russian- Continue Spanish and perform the work with Department staff. |
$.75 million |
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Eliminate Grade 8 Second Language Proficiency exams |
$2.0 million |
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Eliminate both January and August Administration of Regents Exams |
$1.9 million |
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Eliminate HS Foreign Language Regents exams |
$2.4 million |
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Eliminate Regents exams in Social Studies 5, 8, Global History and Geography, & US History & Government |
$1.6 million |
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Eliminate 3 of the 4 Regents exams in Science (one is needed for Title I @ HS level) |
$1.2 million |
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Eliminate 2 of the 3 Regents exams in Math (one is needed for Title I @ HS Level) |
$.40 million |
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Total Estimated Savings |
$13.7 million |
In addition, we recommend that the Board consider the development of an on-line assessment program as a means to achieve some long term savings through the efficient distribution, administration and scoring of the assessment and be piloted during the 2010-11 testing cycle. Although the cost for developing and piloting a selected assessment is estimated to be $1.5 million, the investment is likely to yield significant long term savings.
For our 2010-11 EMSC base budget planning, we will be asking each senior manager to prepare work plans and justifications for each planned activity. We will be looking to identify additional savings by elimination of activities that do not align with the strategic vision or are not mandated by law, regulation or Board directive. In addition, we will be analyzing staffing and making maximum allowable uses of federal state-level funds to achieve additional savings on administrative funds which could then be re-purposed. Finally, we must continue to advocate for the Regents 2010-11 Budget Priorities and restoration of our base level funding.
Recommendation
It is recommended that the Regents consider these options and advise the Department on next steps.
Attachment