Race to the Top. New York Report. Year 1: School Year 2010-2011. [State-Specific Summary Report]
Author: Department of Education (ED)
Date: 2012-01-10
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Academic Standards,Accountability,Achievement Gains,Administrator Effectiveness,Administrator Evaluation,Best Practices,Budgets,Charter Schools,Competition,Data,Data Collection,Disabilities,Educational Assessment,Educational Change,Educational Improvement,Elementary Secondary Education,English Curriculum,Enrollment,Federal Legislation,Federal State Relationship,Graduation Rate,Grants,Higher Education,Language Arts,Leadership Effectiveness,Mathematics,Measurement Objectives,Models,Outcomes of Education,Performance Based Assessment,Poverty,Principals,Professional Development,Program Evaluation,Program Implementation,Reliability,School Districts,School Effectiveness,School Turnaround,State Government,STEM Education,Systems Approach,Teacher Effectiveness

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of New York's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. New York significantly increased its capacity to provide support to its local educational agencies (LEAs). At the State level, New York State Education Department (NYSED) created a Performance Management Office (PMO) to oversee the implementation of Race to the Top and to support LEAs as they undertake this complex work. NYSED's Office of Innovative School Models partnered with other agency offices to assist in turning around low-performing schools, and the State held LEAs accountable to high standards related to this line of work. To directly support its schools, New York established Network Teams, which are three-person teams of curriculum, data, and instruction experts. Each of the State's Boards of Cooperative Educational Service (BOCES) formed Network Teams to provide services to as many as 25 schools within their component districts to deliver tools, resources, information, and training that support New York's education reform agenda. Additionally, a number of LEAs were granted permission to certify a Network Team Equivalent if they could provide evidence that they had an existing local or regional infrastructure with the capacity for delivering the functions of the Network Teams. In addition, the State launched several competitive grant programs, including the Clinically Rich Graduate Teacher Preparation Pilot program and the School Innovation Fund (SIF), and completed grant award decisions for two cohorts (both new and continuation) under the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. The State also implemented a revised approach to charter school authorizing to make the charter approval process more selective. One challenge that New York faced in Year 1 was coordinating and communicating with the large number and variety of LEAs and stakeholders participating in its Race to the Top plan. The number of LEAs compounded the complexity of NYSED reviewing and approving Scopes of Work, budgets, expenditures, and evaluation plans. Additionally, the State's Education Data Portal project encountered delays and shifts in strategy that will affect the timelines the State initially proposed, although the project continues to move ahead. Lastly, during Year 1, the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) filed a lawsuit against the State pertaining to the teacher and principal evaluation system. New York will continue to develop and implement strategies to communicate with and provide support to its participating LEAs. Additionally, the State has formed a number of advisory groups and steering committees to help direct the work it is doing. For example, during fall 2011, the State launched a series of Common Core Advisory Panels comprising educators, administrators, and curriculum and assessment experts in all disciplines who will convene to advise the State about developing and implementing new CCSS-aligned curricula and assessments. More than 80 experts from P-12 education, higher education, and business are participating in this multi-year effort. A glossary is included. (Contains 21 footnotes.) [For the parent document, &quot;Race to the Top Annual Performance Report,&quot; see ED529267. For the full report, &quot;Race to the Top. New York. State-Reported APR: Year One,&quot; see ED529323.]