November 14, 2013 Dear Commissioner King, I am writing to request a material change to your June 1 decision for teachers

annual professional performance reviews (APPR) in New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) schools. There are currently 36 schools in the NYCDOE that are categorically different from others schools in that they only serve Kindergarten, grade 1 and/or grade 2 and no upper grades with state assessments. The NYCDOE is requesting that these schools switch from being required to implement the Discovery Math standardized assessments to New York City performance-based math assessments in Kindergarten, and grades 1 and 2. The June 1 decision stated that New York City performance assessments must be used for the state growth or comparable measures subcomponent for all grades/subjects where there were no state assessments. If New York City performance assessments did not exist in certain grades/subjects then schools had the option between using state approved third party math assessments or school, team or grade level measures based on state assessments. Since these schools did not have state assessments, nor did New York City release Kindergarten, grade 1 or grade 2 math performance assessments, these schools were required to use state approved third party math assessments. The NYCDOE is requesting that New York City math performance assessments be used instead in these categorically different 36 schools, and any other schools that may be created in the future with similar grade configurations. Thank you in advance. Sincerely,

Dennis M. Walcott

Office of the Chancellor 52 Chambers Street Room 320 New York, NY 10007 Telephone: 212-374-0200