Talking education with Roger Tilles

Board of Regents member visited Lawrence School District

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Born in Great Neck and educated in that district’s public schools, Roger Tilles has an indelible memory of the last time he was in a school building in the Lawrence School District which he visited on Sept. 19.
“It was November, 22, 1963, I was performing in the All-County choir [officials] broke into our song to tell us that [President John F.] Kennedy was shot. It is a seminal moment in your life,” Tilles said.
Serving his second five-year term as Long Island’s representative to the New York State Board of Regents, Tilles said that he has visited 80 of the 126 school districts on Long Island in his nine and a half years on the board. The Regents are responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within New York, presiding over the university system and the State Education Department.
Tilles was recently named chairman of an advisory Blue Ribbon Commission on Arts Assessment that will study the possibility of creating an alternative high school diploma focused on coursework in dance, music, theater and visual arts.
The Herald interviewed Tilles briefly outside of Lawrence Middle School.


Herald: What did you learn from the visit that could help in your work as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Arts Assessment?
Tilles: You can’t do the job unless you get input and you learn what makes each district special and their strengths. I am lucky I am able to do that.

Herald: How would the commission’s work boost art and music programs in the public schools?
Tilles: It would give flexibility to students, as I am looking to add STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to STEM, and it’s catching on. Students would get to choose the areas they want to study.

Herald: The commission is studying the possibility of creating an arts diploma, why is this important?
Tilles: Kids should want to come to school, if arts and music gives them a pathway that should be one of our highest needs.

Herald: The Board of Regents recently approved increased bilingual instruction in the public schools. That appears to be an unfunded mandate. Could there be state money to pay for the extra education?
Tilles: I urged that somehow we make this revenue neutral for the school districts. This is about equal protection under the law and will be put into effect in a lot of districts.
Herald: Finish this sentence: Public school education in New York state is …
Tilles: Could be a lot better. Public school education on Long Island is second to none in the world. People on Long Island are willing to pay for programs, better teachers and safer schools. The Regents mission is to close the gap between the high and low needs schools and have all of our students educated to compete with the world.