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Posted on Tue, Sep. 6, 2011
Chester Upland braces for change as schools reopen after deep cuts
By Anthony R. Wood, Inquirer Staff Writer
For Christina Wilmer and Wanda Mann, a summer of discontent is about to give way to an autumn of trepidation.
In an era when the ax has fallen freely on public-education budgets all over the nation, it has come down with extraordinary ferocity and sharpness in their distressed Chester Upland School District.
Largely as a result of state cuts, more than 40 percent of the teachers who finished the 2010-11 school year won't be back for 2011-12, which starts Tuesday. High school class sizes will jump 65 percent, from about 21 - near the national average - to 35 or even more.
Charter school expansion pushed
Towanda Daily review BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF)
Published: September 6, 2011
HARRISBURG - Under the banner of offering more school choice, Republican lawmakers plan a major push this fall to greatly expand the number of charter schools in Pennsylvania that provide students and families an alternative to traditional public schools.
The charter school expansion legislation goes hand-in-hand with bills in the GOP-controlled statehouse to give students vouchers or scholarships to attend the private, parochial or public school of their choice and expand the amount of tax credits available in the state Educational Improvement Tax Credit program
Statewide Average Weekly Wage for 2010 Posted Sept 6 2011 @ 2.05%; Projected Act 1 Index for 2012-13 Moves to 1.7%
FYI, for future planning purposes (Act 1 estimated index for 2012-13):
The 2010 calendar year SAWW posting is 2.05% dated today at: http://www.paworkstats.state.pa.us/admin/gsipub/htmlarea/uploads/cal_year.pdf
Today's 2.05% SAWW percent change would drive out a PA Act 1 index for 2012-13 of 1.7%.
Today's 2.05% SAWW percent change would drive out a PA Act 1 index for 2012-13 of 1.7%.
School 'Reform': A Failing Grade
The New York Review of Books by Diane Ravitch SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
It is a well-known fact that American education is in crisis. Black and Hispanic children have lower test scores than white and Asian children. The performance of American students on international tests is mediocre.
Less well known are contrary facts. The black–white achievement gap, as a recent report put it, "is as old as the nation itself." It was cut in half in the 1970s and 1980s, probably by desegregation, increased economic opportunities for black families, federal investment in early childhood education, and reductions in class size
It's Poverty Stupid – American Public Schools with Poverty Levels of less than 25% lead the developed countries on the international PISA exams.
Physicist Michael Marder of the University of Texas plotted latest PISA international test scores by income level for US:
See this link for more details on the PISA exam results and poverty: http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-5th-pisa-poverty-and-policy.html
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