Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Topics of Interest

As a follow-up to my last post to The Voice of NYS PTA, below are some topics of interest that include a link to our letter to the Governor's office addressing many different issues that we believe will be included later this week in the Governor's State of the State address. 

 Topics of Interest:
  • NYS PTA Letter to the Governor’s Office: This week we finalized our letter to the governor’s office addressing issues raised in the letter they sent in mid-December to the Board of Regents and State Education Department.
    • Click here to read the letter from the Governor's office we are responding to.
    • To read the response letter from NYS PTA that addresses all of the items from that letter, click here.
    • If you are interested in reading the response letter from NYSED/Board of Regents, please click here.
  • The Education Conference Board (ECB) Makes Commissioner Recommendations: ECB sent out a letter this week to Vice Chancellor Bottar with our combined recommendation for selection of the next Commissioner. Please click here to read that letter. We are also in the final stages of preparing a letter from NYS PTA with our recommendations, and we will share that with you in an upcoming posting.
  • Mark your calendars for the Governor Cuomo’s State of the State is scheduled for this Wednesday, January 21 at 1:30 p.m. As it will be later this year, the Budget announcement will be combined with this presentation.
  • Letter Supporting National Core Arts Standards: A representative of NYSED requested a letter of support from NYS PTA regarding the potential adoption or adoption with amendments of the National Core Arts Standards. Unlike the Common Core Standards, these voluntary standards were drafted with input from all the major Arts discipline organizations like the National Association of Music Educators, which included teachers and administrators. Theses core arts standards attempt to structure process and content knowledge to assist educators in developing not only performance skills, but lifelong appreciation and participation in the Arts. The standards and the grade-by-grade matrix can be found at: nationalartsstandards.org. You can read our letter by clicking here.
Should be an interesting week ahead...
Bonnie

Bonnie M. Russell

NYS PTA® President
Communicate to Advocate
everychild.onevoice.®
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