i
Executive Summary
The New York State Board of Regents has clear goals for teacher quality in New York State andcomprehensive policies for achieving them. Since 1998, when the Regents Teaching Policylaunched systemic reforms, the New York State Education Department has been upholding new,higher standards for the preparation, certification, induction, ongoing professional development,recruitment and retention of teachers as well as school and district leaders and has beenmeasuring results by supporting independent, scholarly research. All of the Regents reforms arefocused on enhancing the quality of teachers and school environments in order to raise studentachievement and close achievement gaps.
The Regents goals and policies are closely aligned with teacher quality goals in the federal NoChild Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). As a result, in May 2006, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) determined that New York State was making a good faith effort to comply withthe NCLB’s teacher quality goals and was demonstrating progress.
To meet both State and federal teacher quality goals, New York State must ensure that: (1) allclasses in core academic subjects are taught by highly qualified teachers; and (2) low income andminority children have the same access as all other children to appropriately certified, highlyqualified and experienced teachers.
The New York State Education Department will use four strategies to close remaining gaps inteacher quality. First, it will continue to target State and regional resources to high need, lowperforming districts and schools and hold them accountable for results. Second, it will continue tomeasure and publicly report on progress in districts and schools. Third, it will continue tostrengthen teacher preparation, certification, induction, ongoing professional development andretention strategies. Fourth, it will expand effective partnerships between the State, public schoolsand districts, higher education, cultural institutions and the business community to support teacher quality in all LEAs and schools.
In a coordinated effort across virtually all of its program offices and their partners, the StateEducation Department will take actions to implement these four strategies in nine areas: (1) dataand reporting systems; (2) pre-service teacher preparation and specialized knowledge and skills for high poverty LEAs; (3) certification and out-of-field teaching; (4) recruitment and retention of certified, highly qualified and experienced teachers; (5) professional development; (6) workingconditions in schools and LEAs; (7) monitoring and technical assistance; (8) policy coherence; and(9) limiting the use of the HOUSSE.
As required by the U.S. Department of Education, this plan provides data on the number anddistribution of teachers who were not highly qualified in 2004-2005 and the inequitable distributionof teachers across districts. The plan explains how New York State addresses gaps in teacher quality, lists specific strategies and future action steps and provides an example of local progressin New York City. The plan also includes a description of New York State’s data sources on
Leave a Comment