An Urgent Update:
Please distribute this message to all language teachers and ask them to contact the legislators to authorize the $7 million requested by the State Education Department to preserve our LOTE Assessments. You may also want to contact the Regents immediately by email or phone before the meeting on Monday.
The following recommendation from John B. King Jr. on Assessment Cost
Reduction Strategies will be discussed on Monday by the EMSC Committee:
Recommendation
If the State budget includes the $7 million that the Regents have requested for
the assessment program, the Department recommends that the strategies in Chart A
(below) be made to offset the remainder of the deficit. If the State budget does
not include the $7 million that the Regents have requested, or a final State
Budget is not in place by August 1, 2010, the Department recommends that in
addition to the strategies in Chart A, the strategies in Chart B (below) also be
made to eliminate the deficit. If all of the cost savings strategies included on
Charts A and B are made there will still be a remaining deficit of approximately
$1.1 million. The Department will continue to explore additional cost reduction
strategies to eliminate the remaining deficit.
A decision by the Board of Regents is needed this month in order for the
necessary reductions in the assessment program to be made beginning with the
2010-11 school year.
Chart A
| Strategy | Number of Students Tested | Estimated Savings |
| Review all test development processes to reduce reliance on Education Specialists (Special Payroll employees paid on an hourly basis) and limit their involvement to critical work e.g. standard setting | N/A | $1.25 million |
| Discontinue paper-based scoring materials for Regents exams and post all scoring training materials and answer keys to website to let schools download prior to scoring | N/A | $.60 million |
| Eliminate Component Retesting in Math & ELA | 9,000 | $1.6 million |
| Eliminate Grades 5 and 8 Social Studies Exams | 447,000 | $.80 million |
| Total Estimated Savings for Chart A Strategies | $4.25 million | |
Chart B
| Strategy | Number of Students Tested | Estimated Savings |
| Eliminate Grade 8 Second Language Proficiency exams | 114,000 | $2.0 million |
| Eliminate August Administration of Algebra 2/Trigonometry and Chemistry exams | 17,000 | $.8 million |
| Eliminate HS Foreign Language Regents exams except for Spanish and French | 16,000 | $1.2 million |
| Immediately discontinue translating exams into Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Korean, & Russian- Continue Spanish and perform the work with Department staff. | 22,000 | $.75 million |
| Eliminate January Administration of Regents Exams | 300,000 | $1.4 million |
| Total Estimated Savings for Chart B Strategies | $6.15 million | |
Here are the necessary links:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
http://www.senate.state.ny.us/
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/
http://www.nysaflt.org/advocacy/pdf/talkingpoints.pdf
I hope at some point to be the bearer of better news. I have emailed all the
Regents - now on to the legislators. Let’s not go down without a fight!
Sincerely,
Sue Hochmuth