Acting on the recommendation of the Governor’s Common Core Task Force, the Board of Regents earlier this year adopted a regulation that guarantees the grade 3–8 English language arts and math state assessments will not be used as part of teachers’ evaluations this year and the next three school years. There is no change for high school teachers.

Teachers who have grade 3–8 math or ELA assessments as part of their Measures of Student Learning will receive a Transition Rating that excludes grade 3–8 ELA and math state assessments for the 2015–16 school year. Where this rule results in a teacher having no remaining assessments to use in his or her Measures of Student Learning portion of the rating, the teacher’s Transition Rating will be based entirely on his or her observation scores.

State-provided growth scores will continue to be computed for advisory purposes only, and an Overall Rating will continue to be provided to teachers based on such growth scores. Through 2019, however, only the Transition Rating will be used for purposes of employment decisions.

Grade 3–8 test scores still will be used for schoolwide accountability measures, such as measuring progress in schools designated by the state as priority or focus schools.