“Only public schools, operated by school districts with elected
school boards are open to all children and fully accountable to all taxpayers.”
Baruch Kintisch, Director of Policy Advocacy,
Education Law Center, in testimony before the PA House Democratic Policy
Committee, July
17, 2012
Daily postings
from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1600
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, members of the press and a
broad array of education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook
and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
PA House lawmakers
review pension reform proposals
WITF Written by Mary Wilson, Capitol
Bureau Chief Tuesday, 14 August 2012 17:50
A joint panel of the state House Finance and
State Government committees has kick-started the Legislature’s discussion of
pension reform. Gov. Corbett has highlighted the issue as the number one
legislative priority this fall, and the opening salvo of what’s expected to be
a protracted debate began this week, as lawmakers tried to wrap their heads
around the complicated mess of problems plaguing the state’s pension system,
like a down economy and shortsighted underfunding. Most of the testimony revolved around
proposals to switch state and public school employees to a 401(k)-style
retirement plan, in which it’s their contribution that is locked into place,
instead of their benefit.
New details, deadlines for
Race to the Top district grants released
NSBA School Board News
Today by Joetta Sack-Min August 14th, 2012
The U.S. Department of
Education has released the final requirements for Race to the Top-District
(RTT-D) grant applications, a program designed to improve classroom instruction
and teaching to directly impact student learning.
These grants will
distribute nearly $400 million directly to school districts for programs that
support teaching and learning and the goals of the Race to the Top state
grants. The department is expected to award 15 to 25 grants ranging from
$5 million to $40 million.
Qualifying school
districts must serve at least 2,000 students with 40 percent or more qualifying
for free or reduced-price lunch, or join with other districts that meet this
qualification. Grants will support learning strategies that personalize education
in all or a group of schools, within specific grade levels, or select subjects.
Districts also must demonstrate a commitment to Race to the Top’s four core reform areas and the district superintendent or CEO, local school board
president, and local teacher union president (or 70 percent of teachers in
districts without collective bargaining) must sign off on the plan.
The department will
conduct technical assistance webinars for school officials on Aug. 16 and Aug. 21, 2012 .
Registration for the webinars is available at the Race to the Top website.
Dialogue with the Gates Foundation: Can Schools
Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
Follow me
on Twitter
at @AnthonyCody
This post is the third round of a five-part
exchange with the Gates Foundation. This post can also be viewed and commented
on over at the Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimist blog. This time I get to go first, and our
topic is this:
What is the role of education reform in
relation to the problem of family poverty? What is the best way to achieve
greater equity in educational and life prospects for children of poverty?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/can_schools_defeat.html
A new way to evaluate
teachers — by teachers
This was
written by Stanford University Education Profession Linda
Darling-Hammond, who directs the Stanford
University Center
for Opportunity Policy in Education and was founding director of the National
Commission on Teaching and America
By Linda Darling-Hammond
Teacher education has been under siege in the
last few years, the first line of attack in the growing criticism and more
aggressive regulation of higher education.
Most recently, the U.S. Department of Education
proposed — in a highly contentious negotiated rule-making exercise — to use test scores of graduates’ students to evaluate
schools of education, despite the warnings of leading researchers
that such scores are unstable and invalid for this purpose. Furthermore, in an
unprecedented move, the department would limit eligibility for federal TEACH
grants to prospective teachers from highly rated programs, denying aid to many
deserving candidates while penalizing programs that prepare teachers for the
most challenging teaching assignments.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-new-way-to-evaluate-teachers--by-teachers/2012/08/14/5844dc86-e677-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_blog.html
To Earn Classroom Certification, More Teaching and Less Testing
New York Times By AL BAKER
Published: July
29, 2012
New York and up to 25
other states are moving toward changing the way they grant licenses to
teachers, de-emphasizing tests and written essays in favor of a more demanding
approach that requires aspiring teachers to prove themselves through lesson
plans, homework assignments and videotaped instruction sessions.
The change is an attempt
to ensure that those who become teachers not only know education theories, but
also can show the ability to lead classrooms and handle students of differing
abilities and needs, often amid limited resources.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/nyregion/with-new-standards-going-beyond-paper-and-pencil-to-license-teachers.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Can School Performance Be Measured Fairly?
New York Times Opinion Room
for Debate JULY 29, 2012
More
than half the states have now been excused from important conditions of the No Child Left Behind
education law. They’ve been allowed to create new measures of how much students
have improved and how well they are prepared for college or careers, and to
assess teacher performance on that basis. Teachers will be evaluated in part on
how well their students perform on standardized tests. One study, though, found that some state plans
could weaken accountability. How can we
measure achievement of students, teachers and schools in a way that is fair and
accurate, and doesn’t provide incentives for obsessive testing, and cheating?
Here’s a
link to prior postings on ALEC involvement with school choice and other school
privatization initiatives:
ALEC: Many states’ voter-ID laws, including Pennsylvania ’s,
appear to have tie to same U.S.
By Ethan Magoc
FOR THE INQUIRER Posted: Tue, Aug. 14, 2012 , 6:51 AM
A growing number
of conservative Republican state legislators worked fervently during the last
two years to enact laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the
polls. Lawmakers proposed 62 photo-ID
bills in 37 states in the 2011 and 2012 sessions, with multiple bills
introduced in some states. Ten states have passed strict photo-ID laws since
2008, though several face legal challenges.
A News21 analysis
found that more than half of the 62 bills were sponsored by members or
conference attendees of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a
Washington-based, tax-exempt organization.
2012 PASA-PSBA
School
Registration is Now Open!
Registration is Now Open!
Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey,
PA
www.psba.org/workshops/school-leadership-conference/
www.psba.org/workshops/school-leadership-conference/
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