White Paper - New York State Office for the Aging

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
I. INTRODUCTION: INTERNAL SCAN
Who We Are:
The Board of Regents and the New York State Education Department (NYSED)
govern education from prekindergarten to graduate school. We are constitutionally
responsible for setting educational policy, standards and rules and are legally required to
ensure that entities we oversee carry them out. The Board and NYSED also oversee 38
licensed professions, provide vocational, educational and independent living services to
individuals with disabilities, guide local government records programs and operate the
State Archives, Library and Museum.
Our Mission: To raise the knowledge, skill and opportunity of all New Yorkers.
Our Vision: We will provide leadership for a system that yields the best-educated
people in the world. We will do this by: setting goals and standards of excellence;
ensuring educational opportunity throughout a lifetime; seeing that everyone has the
opportunity to gain skills for work, citizenship and individual growth; building
partnerships for success and having the courage to speak up for the educational needs of
all New Yorkers.
Changing Demographics: The vast array of NYSED resources, programs, services and
constituents are clearly affected by patterns of changing demographics across New York
State as a whole. NYSED monitors trends using data to drive decisions about policy and
resources and continues to position itself to build capacity to meet demands. Over the
next 10 to 15 years, NYSED will continue to identify a cross-section of significant trends
and their potential impact.
Trends and Impact of Changing Ethnicity, Immigrant Populations, and Income
Levels:
The expected growth in the immigrant population in New York State, particularly
in large cities, will necessitate an increased need for information and services in other
languages and provided by people from a diverse cross-section of cultures. Students of
color, immigrants, low income and English language learners will comprise an increasing
percentage of students enrolled in public schools. The percentage of students needing
more than four years to graduate from high school is expected to increase because of
language and cultural barriers. Work in adult literacy will be dominated by the needs of
immigrant populations. In 2001, more than 50 percent of participants in adult education
were English language learners compared with only 36 percent ten years ago. Higher
education will need to provide more instruction in English language, remedial and
developmental instruction, to address the needs of an increasingly diverse population.
There will be a greater need for staff, in all professions from diverse backgrounds and
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