Tuesday, May 17, 2011

SED Commissioner David Steiner's Reform Agenda


STATEMENT BY EDUCATION COMMISSIONER DAVID STEINER

AN AGENDA FOR EDUCATION REFORM IN NYS

December 14, 2009

The following summary is made up of direct quotes in a different order and format from David Steiner’s post on NYSED.gov. The original may be viewed at http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/AgendaforEducationReform.html


The status quo is deeply unacceptable – NYS needs a comprehensive, integrated and innovative education reform agenda.

Elements of David Steiner’s Reform Agenda

  • a demanding, clear curriculum,
  • reliable assessments,
  • high standards,
  • effective teachers in every classroom, and
  • great school leadership
  • develop clear, content-rich, sequenced curriculum guides
  • assessment guides will form the foundation for a new generation of assessments
  •  assessments that will be redesigned to generate truly useful data for students, teachers, principals and parents
  • we will expand curricular offerings to embrace the knowledge and skills our students need in the 21st century, by offering curricula and assessments in the Arts, Economics, and Multimedia/Computer Technology
  • for students who otherwise would lack access to special subject matter at their schools, there will be virtual school offerings, filled with the best of interactive, quality, on-line coursework 
  • we will redesign teacher and school leader preparation
  • we will support richer, more extensive, and better supervised clinical experiences for student-teachers and aspiring principals
    • we would, for example, expect to see next generation teacher training programs using video as a tool both for demonstrating best practices and for providing aspiring teachers with critical feedback from highly effective mentor teachers
  • we will provide incentives to bring effective teachers into our neediest schools and
  • encourage more teachers to teach science, math, English language learners, and children with special needs
  • we will ask higher education institutions to retool their teacher and school leader preparation programs
  • we will, through a limited experiment with rigorous selection and evaluation criteria, ask other providers with track records of success to raise the achievement of high needs students  – like cultural institutions and high performing school networks – to pilot teacher and school leader preparation programs
  • the evaluation of teachers must take place along multiple dimensions
    • the ability of a teacher to raise the academic performance of her or his students is critical, and
    • that ability – better supported by new models of professional development – must form part of the evaluation system
  • we must be informed by accurate, actionable, and interconnected data
    • accelerate the work of building a comprehensive P-20 data system that:
      •  helps to link student performance data to educator effectiveness,
      • provides electronic transcripts for all students,
      • connects P-12 education with higher education, and
      • integrates non-educational databases (like information on the workforce and health) 
  • ensure that teachers and schools are able to incorporate formative assessment data into the system to facilitate collaborative analysis of student performance to drive improved instruction
  • ensure that the state’s tests become less predictable and more comprehensive
    • the next generation of assessments will offer students:
      • feedback on their ability to master the crucial foundational knowledge and skills
      •  demonstration through performance-based assessments the higher-order critical thinking skills they will need for success in higher education and the world of work




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