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Monday, January 8, 2007

 

For more information, contact:

Jonathan Burman, Tom Dunn, Alan Ray

 

NEW DATA SHOW:

NEW YORK STATE RAISES PERCENT OF HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS IN EVERY SUBJECT EXCEPT ARTS

 

            New York State raised the percent of core classes taught by highly qualified teachers in every subject except the arts between 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. More significantly, New York also narrowed the gap between high and low poverty school districts.

 

            The gap narrowed especially at the elementary school level, from a 16 percent gap in 2004-05 to a 7 percent gap in 2005-06. In middle and high school, the gap narrowed by 1.7 percent, to a 15.5 percent gap.

 

            New York City especially improved, with more highly qualified teachers in every subject.

 

            Despite the improvement, several of the Big 5 Cities still have relatively high percentages of teachers in some subjects who are not considered highly qualified under the federal rules of the No Child Left Behind Act.

 

            “The Board of Regents is focused on closing the student achievement gap,” State Board of Regents Chancellor Robert M. Bennett said. “Increasing the percentage of highly qualified teachers, especially for the neediest students, is a critically important way to do that. These data show we are making progress but have far to go in some key areas.”

 

“School districts across the State are trying to increase the number of highly qualified teachers, and their efforts overall are working, “ State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said. “But some districts continue to have troubling shortages of qualified teachers in key subjects. We will be working with schools to carry out critical reforms to recruit and keep the best teachers. The data show that the remaining problems are primarily in the high need districts, and this is a compelling argument for providing them with much greater State aid, as the Regents have proposed. ”

 

            During the past several years, the Board of Regents has enacted key reforms in teaching:

 

 

 

 

The attached slides provide details about the new data.

 

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