About the standards guide
Dear NYSUT Member:
New curricula alert
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This annual special section of New York Teacher provides a comprehensive report on the status of standards and assessments being phased in at all grade levels. I hope you will use it as a guide to what happened over the past school year and what is upcoming this fall.
Here is some of what you can look for in 2005-06:
- Annual statewide testing in English Language Arts and math gets under way for students in grades 3-8.
- Incoming ninth-graders will be required to score higher on some Regents Exams.
- Middle-level schools will have additional options to customize their academic programs.
- New math standards and development of a grade-by-grade core curriculum for pre-K-12.
- Grade-by-grade pre-K-12 English Language Arts core curriculum revisions and pre-K-12 literacy strands.
As it has from the very beginning, your statewide union remains committed to higher standards and to helping you and your students achieve them. At the same time, we remain vigilant to make sure that changes are implemented under realistic schedules and with the necessary resources.
NYSUT is working at the state level to ensure that you and your students have the building blocks for success - reasonable class sizes, meaningful professional development, and adequate planning time and classroom resources.
We are working side-by-side with our national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, to bring about much-needed reforms in NCLB when the federal act is reauthorized in 2007.
Despite the mounting pressure, more students are meeting the challenge and achieving at unprecedented levels, scoring higher on state assessments and Regents Exams and graduating from high school in ever greater numbers.
And that is due to the dedication and hard work of all our teachers, other education professionals and support staff.
Maria Neira
NYSUT Vice President
See also: New curricula alert