UPDATED
A Feb. 10 report from the New York Board of Regents has laid out options for in the Empire State, including advocating for periodic review and updating of the math and English-language arts standards, additional state funding totaling $525 million over the next three budget years to provide 鈥渆quitable鈥� aid to districts, and clarifying that the state doesn鈥檛 encourage assessments aligned to the common core to be used in decisions about students鈥� promotion and placement.
UPDATE: The proposals in the report were adopted by the Board of Regents on Feb. 10. In a subsequent conference call with reporters, state Commissioner of Education John King said he was disappointed about one other significant change that I didn鈥檛 touch on (and should have touched on) in the original post: Delaying the requirement that students demonstrate college- and career-readiness on common-core aligned exams in order to graduate high school from the Class of 2017 until the Class of 2022.
King said that 2022 seems like 鈥渁 very significant time away鈥� and added that for every class graduating between 2017 and 2022, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 another generation of students who will leave high school underprepared.鈥�
However, the commissioner said that the state will continue to report student performance on these exams to the Board of Regents even though those performance data won鈥檛 have high stakes for students seeking to graduate high school until the Class of 2022. The Class of 2017 will take common-core aligned exams in high school, but they鈥檒l have a lower performance threshold to meet.
Asked if he thought these adopted recommendations were a concession to critics that common core had been rolled out too quickly in New York, King responded he thinks the changes mean that common core had been implemented unevenly across the state, but that the importance to students of implementing common core the right way hasn鈥檛 changed.
The board鈥檚 report was the result of a 鈥渨ork group鈥� convened last December to examine ways to improve implementation of the common core in New York, which has been the subject of as well as in recent months. The report offered up a total of 19 options to alter how the standards have been implemented in New York. The options cover the standards themselves, as well as professional development, state and local assessments, educator evaluation, and curriculum.
It鈥檚 important to point out that this work group and its recommendations are separate from announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, on Feb. 7.
In addition to the options the board lays out for funding and reducing high stakes linked to common-core assessments, the report includes the proposal that if a district seeks to fire a teacher for students鈥� relatively poor performance on common-core aligned assessments in the 2012-13 or 2013-14 school years, 鈥渉e or she may raise as a defense an alleged failure by the board of education to timely implement the common core by providing adequate professional development, guidance on curriculum, or other necessary supports to the educator during those school years.鈥�
It鈥檚 unclear how many teachers would be affected by this move, either from the most recently completed school year or the current school year. But it doesn鈥檛 go as far as the proposal from the New York State United Teachers, the state teachers鈥� union, which called for tied to the common core back in September 2013.
CORRECTION: It turns out that the state board held its official vote on the recommendations in the report one day after they were released, on Feb. 11. (The Feb. 10 vote I referenced yesterday was a preliminary one.) In that official vote, the Regents voted to adopt all but one of the recommendations from the work group鈥攖he one that would have provided teachers facing dismissal with the defense that they were inadequately prepared for common core. Between the preliminary and actual vote, both the New York State United Teachers and Cuomo criticized the Regents鈥� report. NYSUT claimed that this supposedly new defense was already a protection afforded to teachers, while Cuomo argued that the Regents were inappropriately delaying the teacher-evaluation system. My colleague Stephen Sawchuk at Teacher Beat has .
Other recommendations are more technical in nature, but at least nominally address the objections from NYSUT and others that the state has dropped the ball on providing enough classroom resources aligned to the common core. Among them: 鈥淒evelop an online tool to allow educators from around the state to share curricular resources, including adaptations of modules.鈥�
In addition, the options push for 鈥渟marter鈥� testing options for English-language learner and special-education students, dealing mostly with waivers from current federal testing requirements.
On the subject of whether additional state money to help with common core, the report is very clear.
鈥淭he implementation of the common core and teacher and principal evaluation during a time of limited resources has come with significant challenges,鈥� the report states. 鈥淪chool districts need additional financial resources to implement these rigorous reforms.鈥�