The Articulation of Secondary and Postsecondary Education
The Articulation of Secondary and Postsecondary Education
Purpose: To ensure that the educational system meets the individual needs, talents, and aspirations of all learners and is comprehensive, efficient and effective in both fiscal and human terms; and to maintain and strengthen the levels of quality and excellence in all aspects of education.
Excerpt: This review thus suggests that the sharp compartmentalizations between school, college, non- collegiate postsecondary, academic, occupational, and technical areas should be modified. Indeed,... changes in attitudes and practices are taking place that promise to alter and improve articulation among these sectors. A variety of changes presages increased flexibility and new patterns that may increase options for the learner and may, in some instances, reduce his time and cost commitments.
This articulation process, as in any enterprise, is never finished. Agreements and procedures need review and revision. New personnel need orientation. Communication between sectors of the educational system must be established and kept open. Educators must resist the temptation to see their own small segment of the educational field as of primary importance while deprecating those who toil in other areas of the learning enterprise.
Date: August 1974
Program Area: Secondary Education, Higher Education
Native American Education
Purpose: To ensure that educational services provided to Native Americans meet their specific needs as a people and as members of American society.
Excerpt: New York State has been committed since 1846 to providing educational services for Native Americans residing on the State reservations and tribal lands. In the main, these services sought to enable Native Americans to move into the mainstream of American society. Even with the strong support of the State Education Department, it is evident that success has been limited.
The Board of Regents recognizes that Native American people in New York wish to retain their traditional culture and life styles and to blend these into the whole American society. Therefore, educational programs must be designed to meet the diverse and special educational needs of the various tribal individuals and groups comprising the Native Americans of New York State.
Date: July 1975
Program Area: Elementary and Secondary Education, Higher Education
Educating the Gifted and Talented in New York State
Purpose: To meet the educational needs of gifted and talented pupils and to encourage their rich contributions to our culture and society.
Excerpt: The Regents reaffirm their concern and commitment for meeting the needs of the State's gifted children and youth. The Regents now invite all concerned citizens, educators and laymen alike, public agencies and private groups to join us in the effort to promote more equitable opportunities for the State's gifted and talented.
Date: January 1976
Program Area: Elementary and Secondary Education
Education and Global Interdependence
Purpose: To reaffirm a commitment to international education as a means of helping citizens to understand better other regions of the world, international issues, and how to deal with global problems.
Excerpt: Today, as never before, the well-being of all peoples is inextricably linked in global interdependence. Further, understanding other peoples helps us to better understand ourselves.
The Regents direct the State Education Department to initiate new programs in international affairs for local communities and the State as a whole. These programs will enlist the services not only of schools and colleges but also museums, libraries, and voluntary associations such as women's organizations and service clubs.
Date: March 1976
Program Area: Elementary and Secondary Education, Higher Education
Educational Services: Structure, Governance, and Organization
Purpose: To review the history of the governance of education in New York State, to identify the current structure for delivering educational services, and to advance specific organizational recommendations which will stimulate further progress toward the goal of equitable educational opportunities in New York State.
Excerpt: Education in New York State is a State function primarily carried out by local school districts, locally administered and directed. Optimum size for the most efficient delivery of services varies; changing conditions often require different responses; therefore, organization must be a dynamic process. The voluntary, cooperative nature of BOCES appears to provide needed operational flexibility, without the necessity for an additional separate level of control and finance. The BOCES, inasmuch as they are dependent upon the support given them by local districts, must be held fully accountable for what they accomplish.
Date: May 1976
Program Area: Elementary, Secondary and Continuing Education
The Regents Statewide Plan for the Development of Postsecondary Education, 1976
Purpose: To define and differentiate the missions and objectives of higher education; identify the needs, problems, societal conditions and interests of the citizens of the State of New York to which programs of higher education may most appropriately be addressed; define and differentiate the missions and objectives of institutions of higher education; develop programs to meet the needs, solve the problems, affect the conditions and respond to the public's interests by setting goals, describing the time needed to meet those goals, identifying the resources needed to achieve the goals, and establishing priorities; enable all participants in the planning process, representatives of the people and the citizens themselves to evaluate the needs, objectives, program proposals, priorities, costs and results of higher education; optimize the use of resources; and evaluate the program effectiveness.
Excerpt: In this 1976 Statewide Plan, the fourth prepared by the Regents since 1964, the Regents sound a note of cautious optimism for the next four years. Although the problems confronting postsecondary education are greater than in any previous planning period, we believe New York's educational system is capable of meeting these challenges successfully.
If there appears to be a crisis, it is neither a crisis of confidence in institutional management, nor a crisis in mission or goals, nor a crisis in coordination. Rather, it is a reflection of the awareness on the part of the colleges and universities that State resources are limited and that the number of people who will be served is expected to decline. The institutions recognize the need to take into account an uncertain future. This recognition gives us confidence that postsecondary education will be able to adjust to the changed circumstances and needs of the future.
Date: November 1976
Program Area: Higher and Professional Education
Regents Policy Positions on the Postsecondary Educational System of New York State
Purpose: To establish Regents policy positions relative to the health of the higher education system overall and to the financial condition of individual institutions of higher education.
Excerpt: The following policy positions on the postsecondary educational system of New York State were adopted by the Regents at their meeting of January 1977. While some of these statements represent new and additional policies, others, in large part, reaffirm positions which the Regents have held for some time, have implemented through legislative and budgetary proposals and have set forth in quadrennial statewide plans and progress reports, including their 1976 Statewide Plan.
Date: January 1977
Program Area: Higher and Professional Education
Regents Action Plan to Reduce Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the Schools
Purpose: To ensure that each school district develops a program to educate students about the effects of the use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs on their health, and on the legal implications of drug abuse; and that each school district in the State develop and implement a set of written policies and procedures for dealing with students and employees who use and abuse tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
Excerpt: The Plan stresses educational programs, counseling and treatment for students, and cooperation among educational and police officials. The Plan outlines goals and activities which will be undertaken at State, regional and local levels over the next three years.
The Regents have concluded that widespread use of alcohol and other drugs by students poses critical health, disciplinary and legal problems. Therefore, their plan will help schools to: (1) provide educational, support and referral services and (2) develop appropriate enforcement procedures.
At the heart of the Plan is a requirement that each school district have a program to educate students about the effects of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs on their health and about the legal implications of drug use.
The Plan also requires each school district to have a set of written policies and procedures for dealing with students and employees who use tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
Date: May 1979
Program Area: Elementary and Secondary Education
Teaching as a Profession and Teacher Competence
Purpose: To designate teaching as a licensed profession and to strengthen performance in teaching.
Excerpt: For nearly two years the Regents have been considering proposals for the designation of teaching as a licensed profession and other recommendations for strengthening performance in teaching. Prior to that period and at the direction of the Regents, the Department worked with teacher preparatory institutions to modify their programs in a competency-based mode, i.e., the college programs derived the training objectives for prospective teachers from the requirements of the public schools.
Now the Regents and Department are mobilizing resources to assist schools in meeting these goals and in improving teacher performance. The... Recommendations taken together form a cohesive system for the improvement of professional practice. They encompass changes in entry requirements into educational service, as well as changes in training, evaluation and support services. [The] proposals are intended to enhance current efforts to improve professional practice in the schools and thereby improve student performance.
Date: February 1980
Program Area: Higher and Professional Education
Guidelines for Implementation of Revised Regulations Concerning State Student Financial Aid
Purpose: To establish Commissioner's Regulations regarding standards of satisfactory program pursuit and academic progress that promote access while maintaining academic quality, for purposes of determining continuing eligibility for State student financial aid.
Excerpt: The new regulations require that all students who receive State awards in the fall of 1981 must pursue a program of study and make satisfactory progress toward the completion of the program's academic requirements. Thus, both new students, and students continuing their studies, must be apprised of the new requirements as soon as possible. Special procedures with respect to satisfactory academic progress of students who are continuing their studies in the fall are described in the... paper. These procedures will assure that no student is disenfranchised in the fall of 1981 for failure to maintain academic standing as defined by the regulations which take effect September 1, 1981.
Date: October 1980
Program Area: Higher and Professional Education
The Regents Statewide Plan for the Development of Postsecondary Education, 1980
Purpose: To define and differentiate the missions and objectives of higher education; identify the needs, problems, societal conditions and interests of the citizens of the State of New York to which programs of higher education may most appropriately be addressed; define and differentiate the missions and objectives of institutions of higher education; develop programs to meet the needs, solve the problems, affect the conditions and respond to the public's interests by setting goals, describing the time needed to meet those goals, identifying the resources needed to achieve the goals, and establishing priorities; enable all participants in the planning process, representatives of the people and the citizens themselves to evaluate the needs, objectives, program proposals, priorities, costs and results of higher education; optimize the use of resources; and evaluate the program effectiveness.
Excerpt: In 1980 higher education in New York is at the beginning of a new cycle. The next 15 to 20 years promise challenges radically different from, but no less difficult than, those that faced the State and its so much smaller system of colleges in 1960, when the baby boom generation was poised to enter college and the idea of college was expanding to include open enrollment and full opportunity programs. Now the challenges include the likelihood of reduced enrollment, marked changes in the characteristics of the student body (including students' age, academic preparedness, programmatic interests, and financial circumstances), major fixed cost, and limited new resources.
The Regents 1980 Statewide Plan addresses the challenges facing higher education and New York State by looking beyond the four-year planning period and setting objectives for achievement for 1990. Its objectives are objectives for the State and for all New Yorkers.
Date: October 1980
Program Area: Higher and Professional Education
Education for a Global Perspective
Purpose: To learn about the past and anticipate the future interdependence among nations, social and political changes, including learning to understand and live with peoples who are different from oneself while preserving one's own cultural traditions.
Excerpt: New York State has led the nation in giving prominence to international education. Its curriculum led the nation in the 1960s for K-12 grades. Among its community colleges are some of the most internationally-renowned and most internationally active. Its public and independent colleges have been leaders in international education for many years. It is likewise a leader in areas of multicultural education.
Education for a global perspective touches many programs and units in the Department and in New York State's education generally. The types of activities the Department may undertake have been indicated in the eight focal points for policy direction earlier. Adult and community learning programs, infusion of global perspectives in the curriculum, preservice and inservice training of teachers, second language facility, international business education, educational and cultural exchanges, research and coordination are included.
Date: December 1980
Program Area: Cultural Education
Education for Civic Values
Purpose: To encourage young people to learn the importance of high standards and commitment to education.
Excerpt: The values at the basis of our governmental structure and civic order include: honesty, justice, responsibility for one's actions, responsibility of the individual to others and to the community, work as the road to achievement and reward, government authority conferred by the will of the people, due process for anyone from whom some possession or right might be taken, rule by the will of the majority with respect to the rights of the minority, respect for the rights of others, and equal participation of all persons in government. The problem is how to teach children to understand and accept these values and to act in accord with them. To ensure that our young people become productive, responsible citizens, school programs must emphasize the rights and duties, the privileges and obligations, of citizenship.
The Education Department is doing much to provide currency to education for values... The Department will continue to help schools both provide experience for pupils and direct instruction of pupils in the values which are the basis of our governance structure and civic order.
The Regents and the Education Department will continue to promote the inculcation of these values which form the basis of America's governmental structure and civic order through: (1) Developing curriculum materials to teach these values; and (2) Promoting examples of school operation which provide the experience of practicing those values.
Date: May 1981
Program Area: Elementary, Secondary and Continuing Education
Adult Learning in the Year 2000: Goals for Adult Learning Services in New York State
Purpose: To assure that learning opportunities are made available to all adults regardless of age, sex, physical condition, racial and ethnic background, economic and social status, intellectual ability and learning style.
Excerpt: It is the intention of the Goals to set New York State on a course to address the problems of today and to meet the needs for the year 2000. They commit the State to increased efforts to reach the underserved and to use lifelong learning to improve the lives of individuals and the quality of life in communities in New York State.
Date: December 1981
Program Area: Continuing Education
Youth Education and Employment: A Comprehensive Approach
Purpose: To recognize the developmental, educational and job-related skills youth need in order to become productively employed adults; and to provide youth with the necessary linkages with community-based organizations, business and industry.
Excerpt: The problem of unemployment has become a major issue confronting large numbers of youth in New York State. A disproportionate share of the burden is borne by youth residing in rural areas, minority youth in inner city ghettos, dropouts, women, and youth with handicapping conditions. The economic consequences of this dilemma are in themselves enormous as is manifested by rising costs in criminal justice and social service systems but perhaps far more important, are the human and social effects which are shared by everyone in society.
Society has not been unmindful of the problem of unemployed youth. A host of programs have been initiated and implemented at the State and Federal levels which address the employment and training needs of youth in transition to adulthood. However, these programs have been so fragmented that they have created an additional problem: the need to develop a comprehensive and well coordinated service delivery system.
There is a perceived need to develop a coordinated delivery system to meet the education and employment needs of youth. As the amount of public funds available for education and employment and training programs decreases, duplication or overlaps must be eliminated.
New York State must develop a comprehensive strategy for coordinating the efforts of various employment, education and training agencies via a comprehensive delivery system.
Date: April 1982
Program Area: Elementary, Secondary and Continuing Education, Vocational Rehabilitation
Engineering Manpower and Engineering Education in New York State: A Report and Recommendations for
Action
Purpose: To recommend actions to strengthen engineering education at New York's colleges and universities.
Excerpt: Over the past five years, employer demand for engineers has been strong.
Nationally, the brisk job market and high salary offers for new graduates continue to indicate some shortage of new engineers.
Enrollments in engineering programs have risen at a more rapid rate than have degrees in recent years. There is a limit on enrollments, however; they cannot continue to rise at high rates, for departments of engineering are finding their capacities strained. Fewer doctorates have been awarded recently than in the early 1970s; and industry has been attracting some former faculty members with high salary offers and more modern research equipment than colleges can provide.
In light of these facts, this report makes nine recommendations for the future of engineering education in New York State. These recommendations address both questions of quantity and questions of quality in engineering programs.
Date: July 1982
Program Area: Higher and Professional Education
The Role of Education in Support of New York State's Economic Development
Purpose: To recognize that educational agencies and institutions have a crucial role to play in maintaining and upgrading educational standards so that graduates are equipped to function in rapidly changing economy, in offering educational opportunities for the retraining of the State's labor force, and in providing information and research services to support industrial development.
Excerpt: The purpose of this statement is to set forth a Regents educational policy that supports economic growth, and to sanction and support initiatives by educational and cultural institutions which actively promote the economic revitalization of the State. This action will provide a basis in public policy for the State Education Department and other educational institutions to link with business, industry and labor, and with other State, regional and local agencies in cooperative efforts to promote the State's economic development.
Though the Regents believe there is a legitimate and important role for educational and cultural institutions to play in the State's economic development, it must also be clear that this is not the only mission or responsibility of education. Education also has a responsibility to encourage self-discovery, to enhance proper physical and social development, to develop creativity through the arts, to instill the rudiments of civic responsibility, to extend knowledge, and to assist in the search for personal and social purpose and values. This report focuses on those elements of the educational enterprise that deal with occupational preparation and other educational and cultural services and resources which contribute to both quality of life and the development of the State's economy.
Date: September 1983
Program Area: Departmentwide
Regents Program Directions for Building School/Community Partnerships
Purpose: To provide a comprehensive framework for planning and action at the State, regional and local level; and to increase public awareness of the wide range of possible partnerships between schools and communities, and the benefits of these partnerships for strengthening education.
Excerpt: Education in New York State is a joint enterprise between schools and communities. Schools are an integral part of every community, an idea that can be traced back to the Dutch settlers in the 17th century. Over the past 300 years, the structure, responsibilities, and activities of the State's public schools have changed dramatically. For many schools, a sense of neighborhood ties and partnership with the community have been lost.
... the Regents Program Directions set goals for building school/community partnerships, describe the resources available for building partnerships, and recommend five broad strategies for State-level involvement.
Date: October 1983
Program Area: Elementary and Secondary Education
Future Role of BOCES in Occupational and Continuing Education
Purpose: To define the mission of BOCES in terms of the populations that should be served at the secondary and adult levels; the services and instructional services that BOCES should provide for secondary school students; the services and instruction that BOCES should provide for out-of-school youth and adults; the role of BOCES to expand and contract programs; and the support services BOCES should provide.
Excerpt: The... report includes a summary of the major concerns which emerged at [meetings held with various groups of educators from around the State], a revised list of policy statements on the role of BOCES in occupational and continuing education, and a recommended action plan based on the policy
Date: October 1983
Program Area: Elementary and Secondary Education