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“Statewide, 39.4 percent of Pennsylvania
Schools step in to
alleviate stress poor students face
Published:
Saturday, January
14, 2012 , 8:43
By
Every public school
district in the midstate saw an increase in the percent of children living in
poverty 2007-2010 and some saw percents nearly double, according to a report
recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In Harrisburg Philadelphia , Pittsburgh or Reading
This year’s state budget
made drastic cuts to the state’s poorest schools. The neediest 150 school
districts, or 30 percent of the state’s total, lost $537.5 million, or $581 per
student, according to an Associated Press analysis of the budget data. The
wealthiest 150 school districts, as measured by the number of children who
qualify for subsidized school lunches, lost $123 million, or $214 per student.
Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012 ,
7:31 PM
By JAN MURPHY, The Patriot-News
Superintendents are welcoming
efforts by the state’s top education official to seek relief from the No Child
Left Behind law.
Tomalis said he spoke to Duncan
The state also is asking the
federal government to allow the state to replace the 11th-grade Pennsylvania
System of School Assessment tests. The state wants to move to with the
subject-specific Keystone
Exams, which are in various stages of development.
Negotiations
ongoing between Chester
Upland School
District
Avery said negotiations began as early as 9 a.m. Saturday and continued beyond 5 p.m.
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/01/15/news/doc4f124dde75171777615322.txt
Long-struggling schools in Chester , Pa.
The Republic (Columbus , Indiana
First Posted: January 15, 2012 - 11:44 am
CHESTER, Pa. — Nearly two
decades after being declared financially distressed, the school system in this
struggling Philadelphia suburb faces a new and even more daunting crisis: It
may run out of cash.
School
voucher program, earned income credit cap both on
table
January
15, 2012
By Russ O’Reilly (roreilly@altoonamirror.com), The Altoona
Although state House
education committee member Rep. Mike Fleck, R-Blair/Huntingdon, opposes
taxpayer vouchers, he said he anticipates the House passing another aspect of
school choice that would fund scholarships for students to choose a school
outside of their home district.
"The vast majority
of the legislators support expanding the state's Earned Income Tax Credit
program (EITC)," Fleck said.
The EITC program allows
businesses that make a profit to direct some of their earned income taxes to
private or public education scholarship funds. The maximum for businesses to
redirect to scholarship funds was $75 million in 2011. Proposals could raise
the limit to more than $100 million. "Right
now we're working on a compromise bill that has that component. We hope to have
a hearing on the bill by mid-January and present it to the full House soon
after," said Fleck.
Study on Teacher Value Uses Data From Before Teach-to-Test Era
New York Times By MICHAEL WINERIP, Published: January 15, 2012
That 1998/2004 divide — what
happened in the interim was the 2002 No Child Left Behind law — should be kept in mind when
analyzing a new, widely publicized study that closely
tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years to determine whether teachers who helped
raise children’s test scores have a lasting effect on their lives. The
researchers conclude that having such a teacher improved students’ odds of
going to a good college, the quality of the neighborhoods where they lived and
their lifetime earnings.
US
By Craig Smith,
PITTSBURGH January 16, 2012
"First and
foremost, exercise and better health help children learn more
effectively," said U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills. "But
promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles also increases the likelihood that
they will be healthier as adults. We owe that to our kids."
Doyle is among a
bipartisan group of 85 House members who say that sending kids back to gym
class could help the fight against overweight youngsters. The group plans to
include language in an overhaul of federal education law that would pressure
schools to offer more PE.
School officials said
that if the government wants more physical education, it will have to ante up
because their budgets cannot be stretched much further.
Read more: House wants law to pressure schools to mandate gym -
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_776799.html#ixzz1jcjndhrS
By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer,
Posted: Mon, Jan.
16, 2012 , 6:19 AM
The commission that called for closing scores of
Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia also created a new category
called "mission schools" it said would ensure Catholic education
survives in poor inner-city neighborhoods.
Saying there was no way tuition alone could
sustain such schools, the commission came up with a concept for these mission
schools that will explore strategies for alternative funding from corporations,
private donors, and foundations. The commission designated eight schools
scattered across Philadelphia
Although there are no "mission
schools" in the area now, the archdiocese said some could be modeled after
two similar programs in North Philadelphia and Chester
Officials from the nonprofit Business Leadership
Organized for Catholic Schools (BLOCS), which has been working closely with a
small group of urban schools, applauded the mission concept. They said they
look forward to working closely with those schools and joining with foundations
to help sustain all remaining Catholic schools.
For FT2011 the BLOCS program received
$ 2,546,224.00 for scholarships thru the state’s EITC program,
which allows businesses to contribute directly to state approved educational
organizations of their choice instead of paying those funds as taxes into the
general fund.
PSBA officer applications
due by March 31
PSBA.org 1/8/2012
School board members seeking election to PSBA
officer posts in 2013 must file an expression of interest for the office
desired to be interviewed by the PSBA Nominating Committee. Deadline for filing
is March 31. The committee meets and
acts upon such interested candidates prior to June 10. The results of the
committee�s deliberations, with appropriate background
information on each candidate, are published in a PSBA publication prior to the
annual conference each year. Voting for officers is by printed ballot at the
association�s annual conference and an absentee ballot
process (see PSBA Bylaws, Article IV, Section 4).
Forms may be downloaded from here, and found
under About, Board of Directors
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