Education in New York: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Remembering 2019 and Anticipating 2020
The decade of the teens began with high expectations and ended in confusion, both for New York State and New York City.
The decade started with a new leader of the Board of Regents, Merryl Tisch, and a new commissioner, David Steiner. Ever rising questionable test scores led to Tisch and Steiner, bravely, demanding an external audit and asked Daniel Koretz; a Harvard testing expert, to examine the testing regime in New York State and Koretz found the testing seriously flawed.
John King replaced Steiner and the state adopted the Common Core State Standards, moved to Common Core-based state tests, imposed four pre-service exams for prospective teachers, won a $700 million Race to the Top grant and began “scaling” the Regents exams.
It appeared like the state was moving in the right direction.
At the end of the decade the commissioner, after a contentious relationship with the Board precipitously announced her resignation. NAEP scores remained in the middle of the bottom half of states, and five months later the Board is still searching for a new commissioner.
Were Tisch/King moving in the wrong direction? Why was the current Board and Commissioner relationship so conflicted? The members? The structure? Or, were the sharp disparities in school funding across the state impacting CONTINUE READING: Education in New York: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Remembering 2019 and Anticipating 2020 | Ed In The Apple