Unconnected good ideas will not do. By eliminating the low standard Regents Competency Test, we close the escape route and face the problem of instructional practices that don't work for some children. Changes in the graduation tests require changes in the elementary and middle grades tests and the instruction to match the standards. This may be the biggest capacity issue. We must concentrate on instructional practices that reflect research.
Fads have no place in our schools.
The State Education Department and its many partners must produce curriculum and resource guides that explain best practices, and then continually improve those materials as we learn more. Time for instruction. We think that we have 180 days of instruction but some schools have more like 155 after all the distractions are counted. The Regents should support 180 days within a 12 month period to give schools flexibility in their operations, and the Department must move whatever we put in the way, such as untimely testing that disrupts teaching schedules. But the professional curriculum that emerges from this training system is disconnected.