The New York State Board of Regents on Monday approved a plan laying out the state’s goals for its education system, as required by the sweeping federal education law signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 known as the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The Regents’ approval means the state can now submit its plan to the federal Department of Education for review and approval.
The plan details how the Regents will implement the federal law, including how individual schools will be evaluated and identified for what the law refers to as either comprehensive or targeted support and improvement.
Under the plan, elementary and middle schools would continue to be evaluated on English and math test scores and high schools on graduation rates. But the plan would also hold schools accountable for other measures, such as performance on science and social studies exams, the number of students making progress in achieving English language proficiency, college and career readiness, chronic absenteeism and, eventually, out-of-school suspensions.
Under the plan, the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools receiving Title I federal funds, which go to low-income schools and high schools with six-year graduation rates less than 67 percent, would be identified for comprehensive support and improvement. Those schools would receive additional funding and supervision, including visits from external reviewers, and will be required to choose at least one school improvement strategy from a list approved by the state. Schools not receiving Title I funds that performed within the range of that bottom five percent would also qualify for the program.
In general, schools that fail to get off the comprehensive support and improvement list after three years would be put into the state’s receivership program, which might lead them to close.