In its preliminary report, the Assembly Minority Task Force on Education Standards concluded, after meeting with a cross section of teachers, principals, superintendents, parents and other community members across the state, that the new educational standards are a positive development and that the state should not give into demands by some that these standards be relaxed.

The Task Force was appointed last January by Assembly Minority Leader John Faso to make a recommendation about how the new educational standards, imposed by the State Education Department and the Board of Regents, could be implemented fairly and effectively. This task force was established in response to concerns raised by parents, teachers, and school administrators across the state.

The Task Force was chaired by Assemblywoman Kathleen Murray, of Levittown, and was made up of nearly 20 assemblymembers from across the state. Nassau County was represented on this task force by Murray and Assemblyman Steve Labriola, of Massapequa.

Over the course of four months the task force traveled to 13 different regions around New York, touring schools and holding roundtable meetings involving a total of 135 school teachers, administrators, parents, business owners, and other concerned citizens.

The Roundtable Session in Nassau County was held on April 15 in Merrick and included both Murray and Labriola; Levittown School Superintendent Dr. Herman Sirois; Bellmore-Merrick Superintendent Dr. Marc Bernstein; Toni McDonald, a 10th grade global studies teacher in Levittown; PTA Council Presidents Carol Giannattasio of the Massapequa School District and Kathy Dowling of the Farmingdale School District as well as several other teachers, parents and administrators from around the county. At that time Task Force members listened to their concerns for students who would have to abide by the new Regents standards and testing requirements which will gradually be phased in through 2004 when the phase-in will be complete.

This concept of higher standards is not new for New York State. In the last 15 years other attempts have been made to increase the standards. The last major effort began in 1984 when the Regents Action Plan to Improve Elementary and Secondary Education Results was adopted. This plan imposed additional course requirements for students in all public and non-public schools, starting at the middle school level. At the time the Regents Action Plan generated the same sort of controversy as the new standards recently imposed has. These concerns were reported by the Assembly Minority's Advisory Panel which acted in a similar fashion to today's task force. In 1991 the Regents released the New Compact for Learning which attempted, once again, to achieve key pupil performance.

When asked what is different that will make the current increase in standards work where the others didn't Murray stated, "I don't know that the effort is different but the bottom line is there has to be something...they [educational experts] have to look at what didn't get done in that round of reform that we can do this year in this round. The SED and Board of Regents, in my opinion, were very correct in saying 'We have to do something and we have to do something radical' because the numbers were just bearing out the fact that our kids were getting less and less educated across the spectrum obviously, with some exceptions ... it's not only a New York crisis, its a national crisis and so we have to react to a crisis and what we heard about what was different about the last cycle of reforms and this cycle, what they [educators who went through the last cycle of reform] thought was that the standards themselves were much clearer this time, much more clearly drafted and much more clearly presented to the school districts themselves."

Murray added that what she heard from teachers was that the communication levels in prior reforms was terrible and the reforms just didn't catch on in local districts because the school districts were not made partners in the reform. She believes that because this time around the reforms are getting so much media attention parents and teachers are more aware of what is going on and can be made more a part of the efforts.

It was information such as this and other concerns raised that the task force used in presenting their preliminary report.

In their report the task force rejects certain ideas. The first notion rejected was that the new standards should be abandoned, postponed or watered down in any way. They also rejected proposals to allow regional alternatives to the statewide tests.

The task force also strongly believes that school districts, while not being able to alter the standards themselves, should be able to have flexibility in how they reach those standards.

Several recommendations were made by the task force that included; the establishment of parents' right to know their children's standardized test scores; state financial support to allow for regional scoring of the ELA tests by teachers on non-school days to ensure consistent scoring and minimize the districts' need for substitutes; improvement of staff development so teachers are fully prepared to help children meet the standards; encouragement for schools to develop Academic Intervention Services tailored to local needs and conditions to help students clear the higher performance bars that have been set; development of programs that encourage schools to share and emulate successful teaching practices; and reconsideration of the fourth and eighth grade testing schedules to prevent clustering of tests during a single week and to minimize disruption of tests by inclement weather.

The task force also came to the conclusion that special education and occupational education programs could and should be included in the higher standards without lowering the bar. Murray said she believes the phase-in time of five years will allow students who are currently in high school to continue with their programs without changing it mid-stream while allowing students in seventh grade and below plenty of time to be built up to and prepared for the new standards. The task force reports, "While we believe the Regents, SED and local school districts need to remain especially sensitive to the needs of students in special education, we also believe it would be a mistake to create a blanket exemption from the standards for these students. The greatest danger is that this would cause some school districts, sometimes at parents' request, to place more students in the special education category to avoid the Regents exam requirement."

Academic intervention was a major part of the recommendations by the task force and the preparation of students for the new standards. Murray said that programs like Island Trees' Summer YES Program, which provides academic support for students during the summer months, is an example of the type of preemptive program that should be shared with other districts so they might follow suit.

The findings of the task force will go to the State Education Department and the Board of Regents and it will be up to their discretion if they follow through on these recommendations.

Commissioner of Education Richard Mills said the report, "provides a strong indication that the Regents are on the right track ... we should press on in our efforts to raise standards for all students."

The task force will now go on from studying the standards themselves to consider teacher training, teacher preparation, and other issues facing the teachers who are preparing the students to meet these new standards. They also plan to do a more in depth analysis of the impact of standards on occupational education and other specific testing and curriculum issues that were beyond the scope of the preliminary study.