"The currentsystem of academic selection at age 11 has contributed to what is in fact a mediocre performance of theschoolsystem in Northern Ireland by international standards, " the statement added.
State law pushed by Cuomo to protect federal Race to the Top funding required all of New York's nearly 700 school districts to have an approved evaluation system in place by Jan. 17 in order to receive a state aid increase in thecurrentschool year.