Daily postings
from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1000
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators and members of the press via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
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on Twitter at @lfeinberg
WHAT WORKS: Students Learn Better with Engaged Parents
US News and World Report By LAURA MCMULLEN February 20, 2012
Even if parent
engagement in academics is hard, it's incredibly important, says Sherri Wilson,
senior manager of family engagement at the National
Parent Teacher Association (PTA)...Wilson cites a report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that surveyed the same 25,000
students, once in 8th grade, again in 10th, and lastly in 12th. The students'
responses—along with surveys of their parents and educators, and academic
data—showed that parental involvement in school correlates with higher
grade point averages.
Corbett budget leaves poor schools with less, rich
with more
Pottstown
Mercury By Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com Posted: 02/19/12 12:01 am
They say
the devil is in the details and when some state and local education leaders
began to pick apart Gov. Tom Corbett’s latest budget proposal, it had them
seeing red — literally.
When he
announced his proposed budget last week, Corbett said he was “level funding”
school districts and combining several budget lines into a single block grant —
in essence providing the same amount of state funding as the current year. But
an apples-to-apples comparison by the Republican House Caucus shows that it
doesn’t quite work out that way.
SUN FEB 19, 2012 AT
06:26 AM PST
Dear Mr. President,
DailyKOS
blog by Kenneth J. Bernstein, a 65 year old DC Metro area teacher
New York
Times EDITORIAL Published: February 20, 2012
Shuttering Bad Charter Schools
The charter
school movement has expanded over the last 20 years largely on this promise: If
exempted from some state regulations, charters could outperform traditional
public schools because they have flexibility and can be more readily tailored
to the needs of students. Another selling point is that these schools are
supposed to be periodically reviewed when they renew their operating permits —
and easily shut down if they fail.
It has not
worked out that way. Despite a growing number of studies showing that charter
schools, financed with public money and operating in 40 states, are often worse
than traditional schools, the state and local organizations that issue charters
and oversee the schools are too hesitant to shut them down. That has to change
if the movement is to maintain its credibility.
New Federal Guidelines Planned on School Vending
Machines
New York
Times By RON NIXON Published: February 20, 2012
“ALEC seeks to "influence teacher
certification, teacher evaluation, collective bargaining, curriculum, funding,
special education, student assessment, and numerous other education and
education-related issues. Common throughout the bills are proposals to decrease
local control of schools by democratically elected school boards while
increasing access to all facets of education by private entities and
corporations. Privatization takes many
forms, the authors note, including vouchers, tax incentives for sending kids to
private schools and charter schools operated by for-profit organizations.”
Campus Connection: UW profs shed light on ALEC's
threat to public education
TODD
FINKELMEYER | The Capital Times | tfinkelmeyer@madison.com Posted: Monday, February 20, 2012
6:30 am
University of Wisconsin-Madison
professors Julie Underwood and Julie Mead are expressing concern over the growing
corporate influence on public education in an article published Monday.
In particular, they are highly
critical of the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), which connects conservative state legislators with
like-minded think tanks, corporations and foundations to develop "model
legislation" that can be enacted at the state level
The main
mechanism of school reform today is to identify teachers who can raise their
students’ test scores every year. If the
scores go up, reformers assume, then the students will enroll in college and
poverty will eventually disappear. This will happen, the reformers believe, if
there is a “great teacher” in every classroom and if more schools are handed
over to private managers, even for-profit corporations. …. No nation in the world has eliminated
poverty by firing teachers or by handing its public schools over to private managers;
nor does research support either strategy.”
SMARTER ALEC - WHAT WORKS: Schools We Can Envy
Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational
Change in Finland?
by Pasi Sahlberg, with a foreword by Andy Hargreaves
by Pasi Sahlberg, with a foreword by Andy Hargreaves
Help update our county
list. If you are receiving KEYSEC emails
and your county is not on the list below please let us know. Thanks!
The Keystone State Education
Coalition was originally established in 2006 as the Southeastern Pennsylvania
School Districts’ Education Coalition (SPSDEC). It is a growing grass roots
public education advocacy group comprised of several hundred locally elected,
volunteer school board members (no salaries, no benefits, no pensions) and
administrators from over 300 Pennsylvania school districts in Allegheny,
Armstrong, Beaver, Berks, Bradford, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Centre, Chester,
Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Jefferson, Lancaster,
Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, McKean, Mercer, Montgomery, Susquehanna,
Tioga, Union and Washington Counties.
February 23: 9 am to 3 pm Harrisburg
Hilton 2012 Budget Summit :
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
Join the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy
Center for our 2012 Budget Summit on Thursday,
February 23, 2012 for an in-depth look at the state and federal budget
plans and what they mean for communities and families across Pennsylvania Summit
Time: February 23, 2012 from 9am to 3pm
Location: Harrisburg Hilton
City/Town: Harrisburg
Website or Map: http://org2.democracyinaction…
Click here to RSVP
February 29th: Partners for Public
Education at 6PM in the
South Fayette High School Theater
Statewide
kickoff meeting of PSEA's Partners for Public Education (PPE) Program
PPE is all about connecting
parents, community leaders, elected officials, and teachers together for one
goal - the support of public education. State
Senator Wayne Fontana, State Representative Jesse White, PSEA President Mike
Crossey, along with
members of the SFEA Representative Council, SF School Board, SF Administration,
and SF Student Government will stand together to recruit parents and other
interested parties add their voices to the chorus of those who care about
public education.
http://partnersforpubliced.org/
http://www.facebook.com/SouthFayettePPE
SAVE THE
DATE: March 8, 7 pm Lehigh County
Thursday, March 8th,
7:00 pm at Lehigh Carbon
Community College , Community Services
Center
All public education stakeholders are
invited to this special event. Join us on Thursday, March 8th at Lehigh Carbon
Community College at 7PM for an evening with several key
state legislators from Lehigh
County
State Representatives and Senators
representing surrounding school districts have been invited to attend and
discuss their positions on public education as they head into negotiations over
next year’s budget. This event will be
moderated by the League of Women Voters.
The
Education Committee of the League of Women Voters of Chester County
March 19th LWV Chester
County
PA Auditor
General Jack Wagner
Monday
March 19th 6:30 pm
at Stetson Middle
School , West Chester
Location: Stetson Middle School Auditorium
The Auditor General will speak to the public followed by Q & A Session.
The Auditor General will speak to the public followed by Q & A Session.
THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
March 26th: Last day to register to vote in the
April 24th PA Primary Election
You do have the power to change the direction of
education policy in Pennsylvania
The
last day to REGISTER before the primary is March 26 , 2012. Make sure that you, your family, friends,
neighbors and co-workers are all registered to vote in the April 24th
Pennsylvania Primary. Ask your incumbent
state representative and state senator for their positions on public
education. Let them know how important
these issues are to you. Forward this
reminder to any and all public education stakeholders.
PA SENATE
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
Budget Hearing -
Department of Education
Monday, February 27, 2012 9:30
AM Hearing Room 1 North
Office Bldg.
PA HOUSE
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
BUDGET HEARINGS:
EDUCATION
Monday, March 5, 2012 10:00 AM Room
140 Main Capitol
Education Voters PA –
Take action on the Governor’s Budget
The Governor’s proposal starts the process,
but it isn’t all decided: our legislators can play an important role in
standing up for our priorities. Last year, public outcry helped prevent
nearly $300 million in additional cuts. We heard from the Governor, and
we know where he stands. Now,
we need to ask our legislators: what is your position on supporting our
schools?
At The Chalk Face - Education Talk
Radio
SUNDAY MORNINGS AT 9am .
Educated Educators Talking Education.
A new one hour talk show dedicated to education. Hosts Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson cover the
biggest issues in education. From
standardized testing to No Child Left Behind.
PA House Democratic
Caucus Website
UPDATED DAILY –
STATEWIDE PRESS COVERAGE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT
BUDGETS
As districts consider their preliminary budgets and we await the
Governor’s February 7th budget
announcement, the PA House Democratic Caucus has begun daily tracking of press
coverage on school district budgets statewide:
http://www.pahouse.com/school_funding_2011cuts.asp?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pahouse.com%2fschool_funding_2011cuts.asp&utm_campaign=Crisis+in+Public+Education
Latest Updates on Chester
Upland February 20, 2011
District is
slated to lose an additional $980,000 under the Governor’s proposed 2012-2013
budget
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