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

Regent Roger Tilles, Chair of the Cultural Education Committee, submitted the following written report. Your Committee on Cultural Education Committee had its scheduled meeting on November 19, 2013.

In attendance were committee members: Regents Tilles, Dawson, Bendit, Rosa Cea, Jackson and Brown. Absent:  Regent Cottrell

In addition to CE Committee Members, in attendance were: Chancellor Tisch, Vice Chancellor Bottar Regents Cashin, Young, Norgrove, Chapey, and Tallon as well as Commissioner King and Executive Deputy Commissioner Berlin.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Chair’s Remarks: Regent Tilles welcomed everyone and opened the meeting.  Regent Tilles remarked

Update on National Core Arts Standards.  (Discussion).  Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cannell, Assistant Commissioner Candace Shyer and staff member Leslie Yolen briefed the Joint P-12/CE Committee members on the current status of the development of core arts standards.  The standards are being developed in partnership with the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS).  The standards will describe what students should know and be able to do as a result of a quality curricular arts education program.  The committee held a discussion about the types of assessments that would be used to measure student performance and were informed that the standards will likely result in a variety of assessment methods which will include performance, portfolio review as well as some traditional assessments.  The current timeline anticipates a release of the complete standards in March 2014, which will then be reviewed by the Board for possible adoption.

Report on New York State Public Broadcasters support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Initiative, American Graduate.  American Graduate is a public media commitment, supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), to help communities implement solutions to the high school dropout crisis. Public media plays a significant role building individual activity, community capacity, and national awareness.  Elizabeth Hood, Director of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting reminded the committee that 20 percent of all state aid to public broadcasters must be used to support educational activities.  Katherine Jetter of the Albany-Based public television and radio station WMHT briefed the committee on activities by New York State’s public broadcasters to support this initiative.   Regent Tilles commented on the direct support to P-12 initiatives that this activity provides.

History Month Activities: Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, Section 57.02, establishes November as New York State History Month.  State Historian Robert Weible briefed the committee on the role of the office of State History in supporting and coordinating history programs and supporting the work of the network of officially appointed local government historians.  He briefly described programs provided by the Office of Cultural Education and at other institutions statewide celebrating New York State History Month.

The committee agreed to postpone the discussion of public library construction to a future meeting in the interest of time.