On Monday, we submitted New York's Every Student Succeeds Act plan to the U.S. Department of Education. The Board of Regents approved the plan last week at its September meeting.
For the past year, we have engaged diverse groups of stakeholders to solicit recommendations on how to craft an ESSA plan that best meets the needs of our students, schools and communities. We established an ESSA Think Tank with representatives from more than 100 organizations, including district leaders, teachers, parents, and community members. We also worked closely with national education experts, including Linda Darling-Hammond (Learning Policy Institute) and Scott F. Marion (National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment).
Our final plan emphasizes fostering equity in education for New York's students; expands measures for school support and accountability and student success; and requires school-level improvement plans for the lowest performing schools overall as well as schools with the lowest performance for certain student populations. The plan also includes strategies for supporting the professional growth of educators and ensuring that all students, including English language learners/Multilingual learners, immigrant students, migratory youth, homeless youth, and neglected and delinquent youth, have access to a well-rounded, culturally responsive education that supports their academic and social-emotional development.
The Board of Regents also recently approved New York's Next Generation Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics. These new standards are the culmination of a two-year revision process, which involved numerous educators, parents and stakeholders from across the State. The Next Generation Learning Standards include substantive changes and continue to be rigorous. Parents, teachers, administrators, and early childhood development experts were very involved in the revision process, as well as educators who work with students with disabilities and English language learners.
Now that the new standards are approved, our next steps involve communication and professional development. We will work with BOCES District Superintendents, school superintendents, the Staff and Curriculum Development Network and teacher centers to develop and provide guidance on professional development for teachers to implement the new standards. We will also be developing clear communications for parents about the standards, with an explanation about the connections among standards, curriculum and assessments.
The Next Generation Learning Standards will not be fully implemented in your children's classrooms until September 2020, giving you and your teachers several years to feel comfortable with the revised material before it is tested. You can find more information, including a full timeline for implementation, in the
press release about the adoption of the Next Generation Learning Standards
.
Before closing, I want to congratulate Christopher Albrecht, the 2018 New York State Teacher of the Year. Mr. Albrecht is a fourth-grade teacher at the Fred W. Hill School in Brockport, where he has taught for 20 years. He is a native of upstate New York and first discovered his passion for teaching when he worked as a camp counselor on Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region of the state. You can read more in the
press release announcing his award
. Congratulations Mr. Albrecht!
Thank you for reading and for your continued involvement in your children's education. The parent-school connection makes our schools so much stronger.
Sincerely,
