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Education policy conference is a first
January 20, 2005 NYSUT First Vice President Dick Iannuzzi chats with Carol Slotkin of the Western Sullivan United Teachers and SRPs at an Educational Conference Board session. With No Child Left Behind ratcheting up student performance and accountability at a time when New York is being forced to fix the way it funds public schools, education advocates are gearing up for a busy year in and out of the state Legislature. The Educational Conference Board in December pulled together more than 150 participants for its first-ever policy conference on investment and accountability for student success. The session was designed to provide a forum for parent, teacher, principal, superintendent and school board leaders to focus on key policy issues. The ECB is chaired by Edward L. McCormick, former president of the state School Boards Association. New York State United Teachers is part of the ECB, a coalition of the state's major education organizations representing parents, teachers, school administrators and board members working to improve the quality of New York education. Among the issues outlined in presentations by experts: • How can advocates ensure children in all districts benefit from increased state spending on education? • What role could value-added assessment play in measuring student achievement? • How is the State Education Department helping districts meet changing requirements of NCLB? Conference-goers got an up-close look at the report of a court-appointed panel that is recommending billions of dollars more in immediate aid to New York City schools. The pros and cons of value-added assessment, which focuses on individual student gains from year to year, were outlined by researcher William Sanders. In 1992, Sanders developed a value-added system in Tennessee that is now used by more than 80 districts around the nation. At the conference, NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin, an ECB vice chairman, introduced a NYSUT-produced video about the largest rally in the history of Albany 's Empire State Plaza - the ECB-organized May 2003 march for education funding. The conference crowd applauded the coda of the video - that the outpouring of support resulted in state legislators overriding a series of education vetoes by Gov. Pataki. - John Strachan |
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