EdVANTAGE Blog

Today the State Board of Regents elected Dr. Merryl H. Tisch to serve as Chancellor. The Chancellor acts as chair of the Regents.

She will be the first woman to lead the Regents in the 225-year history of the Board.

Chancellor-Elect Tisch issued a statement outlining her priorities:

As Chancellor, I will insist that we continue to raise standards for all of our children and hold every school district accountable for their results, while providing the support necessary to get that done.

We will reform and expand our data system to make it easier to use, faster, and more complete, extending from pre-kindergarten through college.

We will embrace innovation with a data-driven approach that seeks to constantly identify and advance policies and best practices to raise test scores, raise graduation rates, and finally close the achievement gap…

We will continue to find new ways to recruit the best and brightest into teaching and keep them there with an openness to alternate routes to certification and experiments to reward excellence.

We will find new ways to increase the number of excellent teachers working in schools with students who need extra help, including black and Latino students, English Language Learners and students with disabilities.

And we will move forward with the effort begun by Chancellor Bennett, the Board of Regents, and Commissioner Mills to redesign the State Education Department so that we can better support local innovation in our highest performing districts and engage more deeply with districts that are struggling and in need of additional support.

Our first order of business will be the completion of a timely and orderly search, both wide and exhaustive, for a successor to our Commissioner, Richard Mills, who will retire in June after leading change in the State for fourteen years.

Dr. Tisch is a resident of Manhattan and has served as a Regent for 13 years, including the last two as Vice Chancellor. She previously was Co-Chair of the Regents Committee on Elementary, Middle, Secondary, and Continuing Education and Chair of the Committee on Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities.

She was also a member of the Governor’s Commission on Property Tax Relief but abstained from the Commission’s recommendations.

In addition to her role as a Regent, Dr. Tisch serves as chairperson of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. She was once a first grade teacher in a New York City nonpublic school.

As Chancellor, Dr. Tisch will succeed Robert Bennett of Buffalo, who was the 2007 winner of the “Friend of the Council” award.  He will remain on the Board.

To succeed Dr. Tisch as Vice Chancellor, the Regents chose Dr. Milton Cofield of Rochester.