New York Assessment Letter dated June 8, 2007
June 8, 2007
The Honorable Richard P. Mills
Commissioner
New York State Education Department
111 Education Building
Albany, New York 12234
Dear Commissioner Mills:
Thank you for submitting additional assessment materials for peer review under the standards and assessment requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). We appreciate the efforts required to prepare for the latest peer review that occurred in March 2007.
Based on the recommendations of the peer reviewers and the evidence you have provided to date, the status of New York’s standards and assessment system is Approval Expected. This status indicates that a State administered an assessment system in grades 3-8 and high school in 2006-07 that the evidence to date suggests is fully compliant with the statutory and regulatory requirements. There are certain elements, however, that are not yet complete due to the nature of assessment development. Please note that full approval of the New York standards and assessment system is dependent upon whether the additional evidence submitted for peer review meets the NCLB standards and assessment requirements.
New York must provide the Department with a timeline for completing the evidence needed to satisfy the remaining requirements, as indicated in the enclosure to this letter. Because there are elements of New York’s system that is not yet complete, we will place a condition on New York’s fiscal year 2007 Title I, Part A grant award, which will continue until New York submits the required evidence and receives full approval of its standards and assessment system.
The Department remains committed to working with New York to meet the requirements of NCLB and to raising the performance of all children. Toward that end, let me reiterate my earlier offer of technical assistance to you. If you have any additional questions or want to request technical assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Sue Rigney (Sue.Rigney@ed.gov) or Abigail Potts (Abigail.Potts@ed.gov) of my staff.
Sincerely,
Kerri L. Briggs, Ph.D.
Acting Assistant Secretary
Enclosure
cc: Governor Eliot Spitzer
David Abrams
SUMMARY OF ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE THAT NEW YORK MUST SUBMIT TO MEET ESEA REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NEW YORK ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
2.0 – ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS
- Description of the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) standards-setting procedures, the qualifications of the panelists, and evidence of approval of the new alternate achievement standards.
5.0 – ALIGNMENT
- Evidence of alignment between the NYSAA alternate achievement standards and the newly adopted grade-level expectations.
- Documentation that NYSAA datafolio contents are consistent with the API tasks and the NYSAA scoring rubric.
