Fundamental and sustained reform over a period of five years is necessary to accomplish the goal of providing the resources necessary for all students to meet higher standards, as delineated in an earlier section. Although the recommendations presented in the following section are urgently needed to begin in the coming school year, they will not be fully accomplished in one year. The Regents recommend that the following strategies be implemented over the next five years.

Provide More Resources to High Need School Districts

Target more aid to high need school districts by:

• Reducing and simplifying aid formulas for school operation by consolidating Operating, Tax Effort, Tax Equalization, Transition and Extraordinary Needs Aids into a single Operating Aid targeted to support higher learning standards for all students;
  
• Adjusting Operating Aid for differences in school costs and pupil needs; For example:

Operating Aid = Cost adjusted foundation amount x Need adjusted pupils x Wealth adjusted State share

• Relieving the cap on Operating Aid for high need school districts in the first year; eliminating the cap for all school districts after five years; and providing aid for a five-year period to help districts transition to the new funding formula; and

• Continuing to review aid formulas over time for their efficient and effective support of Regents standards.
  

Promote Successful Practices for Improving Academic Performance

Strengthening School Teaching and Leadership

• Operating Aid will be apportioned in a manner that recognizes differences in costs, student need and fiscal capacity in order to allow all schools districts to establish salary scales that allow them to attract and retain qualified teachers and principals.
  
• Operating Standards Aid will be used to provide incentives to teach in high poverty schools by targeting this aid to high need school districts and requiring it to be used to attract and retain qualified teaching and administrative personnel.
  
• Operating Standards Aid will also be used to help make teachers and administrators successful at supporting all students in meeting higher standards through sustained high quality training focused on subject content and teaching skills. This would build the capacity of teachers to teach a high standards curriculum to diverse students by increasing Operating Standards Aid and targeting its use for teacher recruitment, retention and skill building, especially in high need and low-performing school districts.

This would further provide a financial incentive to school districts to negotiate additional days for professional development with their local teachers’ association, in addition to the regular school year.

Ensure School Success through Extra Time and Extra Help

Throughout their elementary and secondary education, many students will need additional instructional time to master aspects of the curriculum. A variety of alternatives should be available to provide many avenues for learning to occur. State Aid to school districts should be enriched to ensure a strong State partnership in funding these extra-time efforts of school districts to meet the standards. The Regents recommend strengthening State support for school districts in the following key areas.

• Strengthen aid for academic intervention services to provide:

• Additional instructional time, including academic intervention services, summer school, tutoring for all students who need extra time and help to meet the standards and language instruction for students with limited English and with other language needs. Increase funding for the existing Educationally Related Support Services Aid Program and rename it as Academic Intervention Services Aid to emphasize the greater focus on additional instructional assistance to meet the State’s standards.

Academic intervention services are defined as additional instruction to strengthen preparation in content areas leading to State assessment of learning standards. These services are intended to enrich the regular school program and prevent failure rather than to intervene after students have failed. Increasing use of this approach is critical to helping all students meet higher learning standards.

• Additional support services, including counseling, family outreach, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy linked to student success would also be available to students with Academic Intervention Services Aid.

• Enrich aid for summer school attendance and provide aid for transportation to summer school programs. Recommendations include: improving and enriching aid for summer school attendance by providing it outside funding caps and allowing Transportation Aid to be paid for transportation to summer school programs beginning in the summer of 2001.
  
• Support for students attending nonpublic schools that adopt the Regents standards and graduation requirements through expanded access to programs providing professional development and academic intervention services.
  
• Provide access for all students enrolled in public schools to library materials and services provided by qualified staff by supplementing the existing apportionment for library materials based on public school district enrollment into a Public School Library Support Aid. The apportionment for public school students would be targeted to schools with concentrations of student poverty.
  
• Increase aid for universal prekindergarten education programs. The societal, educational and economic benefits of quality prekindergarten education programs are well documented in the research literature for children who are at risk of academic failure. Increase this aid to the level required by current law; provide stability by continuing existing programs (those with the neediest pupils) with a funding level of $2,700 per pupil; and increase efficiency by funding new programs at a level of $2,000 per pupil.
  
• Increase aid for early grade class size reduction. Extra help and individual attention can be provided with smaller class sizes. This is especially important in the early grades when reading skills are developing. Early grade class size reduction also helps to continue the quality education that children have received in prekindergarten programs and increase the likelihood of lasting academic and social benefits. Increase this aid to the level required by current law.
  
• Increase aid for additional instruction for English language learners.

• Provide an additional $15 million for Limited English Proficiency Aid raising the total funding from a level of $68 million in the 1999-00 school year to $83 million in school year 2000-01. The funding could be used to:

• Provide additional periods of intensive English instruction for English language learners;
• Provide academic intervention services, such as tutoring, after school programs and summer academies, to ensure all students met the new learning standards; and
• Ensure students have appropriate instructional materials.

• Provide an additional $10 million for Bilingual Education grants raising the total funding from a level of $11 million in the 1999-00 school year to $21 million in school year 2000-01. The funding could be used to:

1. Help prepare, recruit and retain certified bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers;
2. Provide incentives to retain certified bilingual and ESL teachers in high need school districts;
3. Support colleges and universities to align bilingual and ESL teacher education programs with the new learning standards;
4. Fund new programs serving parents of bilingual and ESL students; and
5. Provide additional services to students who are recent immigrants, including students from the Carribean, with limited language skills.

The goal of the Regents proposal is to achieve greater cost-effectiveness in school funding to support the attainment of high learning standards. School districts should use resources in ways that contribute to high student achievement. The Regents are developing a comprehensive system of school accountability for student success (the SASS program). As a part of this process, for school districts whose student achievement falls below State standards, additional accountability should ensure that resources are being used in a manner that is most likely to support gains in student achievement.

School districts with schools falling below the standards:

• Should be required to participate in school district comprehensive educational planning (CDEP) to focus available resources on raising student achievement.
  
• Should be assisted by State monitoring that builds upon program accountability procedures for registration review. This risk-assessment model of accountability provides levels of monitoring commensurate with district need, as evidenced by student achievement. For districts with student achievement below State standards, fiscal information should be gathered that:

• Assesses the cost-effectiveness of the district’s plan to use available resources for improving student achievement;
  
• Evaluates how districts target funding to high need schools;
  
• Assesses the district’s ability to achieve the goals stated in their plan;
  
• Assesses the appropriateness of validated programs to meet the performance deficiencies identified; and
  
• Ensures that districts have specific strategies for improving student achievement of English language learners and recent immigrants who are learning English.

• In addition, the Big Five city school districts should be required to maintain local effort in support of education. This recommendation is key to changing the performance of students in our large city schools. It assures us that increases in State Aid will be used in ways that add value to the education enterprise, rather than provide an opportunity to reduce local effort or to redirect local resources used for education to other city services.

• Cost-effectiveness requires prudent use of all State resources and the State must continually seek improvements. The State should modify the Building Aid payment timetable to ensure that aid does not flow until debt service is payable. Given the large State commitment to assisting school districts with their capital construction needs, efficient payment timetables have the potential of producing savings that can be targeted to other critical areas.

• Encourage the reduction of local costs by exempting school districts from the Wicks Law to allow a single general contractor for school construction projects in excess of $50,000, rather than four separate contractors as currently required.

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