“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
“Middle-class American students who attend well-funded schools rank
at the top of the world on international tests.”
Poverty's role in bad U.S.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette Letter to the
Editor by STEPHEN KRASHEN August
12, 2012
The writer is professor emeritus of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California
Educators are always interested in improving teacher evaluation, and Anne Faigen's comments ("Evaluating Teachers Is Not So Easy," Aug. 5 Forum) are helpful. Her essay also, unfortunately, contributes to the impression that there is a crisis in teacher quality in theUnited States
The writer is professor emeritus of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California
Educators are always interested in improving teacher evaluation, and Anne Faigen's comments ("Evaluating Teachers Is Not So Easy," Aug. 5 Forum) are helpful. Her essay also, unfortunately, contributes to the impression that there is a crisis in teacher quality in the
Our international test
scores are low, we're often told, and the problem is bad teaching. Hence, we
need better methods of evaluating teachers.
Our international test
scores are unspectacular, but the reasons are not related to teacher quality
(or parents or unions or schools of education): Middle-class American students
who attend well-funded schools rank at the top of the world on international
tests.
Ana
Puig was a member of Governor Corbett’s education transition team….
CBS Moneywatch
Associated Press August
13, 2012 9:10 AM
Tea party evolves, achieves state policy victories
“Ana Puig, the FreedomWorks state director, said
she put 34,000 miles on her car building public support for the grants. She
visited tea party groups and anyone else who would listen, while also using
conventional lobbying of legislators.
After the fall elections, Puig said, FreedomWorks will push to raise the
$50 million program cap to $100 million. The long-term goal is traditional
tuition vouchers paid directly by state tax money. "Change happens
slowly," Puig said. "We understand the value of incrementalism."
Mastery poised to expand its influence around teacher coaching
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa on Aug 10 2012
Mastery Charter and
its methods for training and supporting teachers may soon exert greater
influence in schools all over the city, a development that promises to cement
the organization’s influence on educational practice well beyond its own
schools.
The Philadelphia Great
Schools Compact is asking
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for $2.5 million, some
$650,000 of which would pay for Mastery to train teacher coaches to work in
District and Catholic schools and other charters.
Some have criticized
Mastery for promoting a style of teaching that is suited to test prep but not
deeper learning. The compact’s
proposal to Gates says that Mastery wants to use part of the grant to
align its training with the soon-to-be implemented Common
Core standards and help teachers run classrooms that are more
student-centered and inquiry-based.
“Future historians (if there are
any) are going to shake their heads in disbelief. They’ll wonder how, in a
single generation, the world’s oldest democracy dismantled its engine — free,
public, locally controlled, democratic education.”
Eight problems with
Common Core Standards
This was
written by Marion
Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and
author.
By Marion Brady
……Variously motivated
corporate interests, arguing that the core was being sloppily taught, organized
a behind-the-scenes campaign to super-standardize it. They named their
handiwork the Common Core State Standards to hide the fact that it was driven by
policymakers in Washington D.C. ,
who have thus far shoved it into every state except Alaska ,
Minnesota , Nebraska ,
Texas , and Virginia
This was done with no
public dialogue, no feedback from experienced educators, no research, no pilot
or experimental programs — no evidence at all that a floor-length list created
by unnamed people attempting to standardize what’s taught is a good idea.
Back to School 2012-13: Giving Our
Schools More Hope
Forum for Education
and Democracy Blog by Forum Convener Dr. Larry Myatt
It's back-to-school
time for many over the next few weeks. What do most public teachers and
students across the nation have to look forward to as they head back for the
2012-13 school year?
Study Links Healthier Weight in Children With Strict Laws on School
Snacks
New York August 13, 2012
Adolescents in states
with strict laws regulating the sale of snacks and sugary drinks in public
schools gained less weight over a three-year period than those living in states
with no such laws, a new study has found.
The study, published Monday in Pediatrics, found a strong association
between healthier weight and tough state laws regulating food in vending
machines, snack bars and other venues that were not part of the regular school
meal programs. Such snacks and drinks are known as competitive foods, because
they compete with school breakfasts and lunches.
Too Many Carrots, Too Many Sticks
Four Fallacies in Federal Policies for
Low-Achieving Schools
Education Week By
Arthur H. Camins
Under the leadership
of U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan, the federal Department of Education has achieved
a remarkably high level of policy consistency. From its application guidelines
for Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, Teacher Incentive Fund, and Title
I School Improvement grants, to the proposed blueprint for the reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the department has chosen to
address the challenge of improving persistently low-achieving schools by means
of externally imposed competition, rewards for success, and prescriptive
dictates to correct insufficient progress.
$400 Million Race to Top Contest for Districts
Starts Now
The U.S. Department of Education today is
kicking off the $400 million Race to the Top competition for districts after
making big changes to the contest rules to assuage school board members and
prod more large districts to apply.
Federal officials threw out a proposal to
require competing districts to implement performance evaluations of school
board members, and raised the maximum grant amount for the largest districts to
$40 million, from $25 million. In a nod to rural districts, the department
lowered the number of students that must be served to 2,000 from 2,500 and is
allowing a group of 10 districts to apply regardless of the number of students.
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/
EPLC’s 2012 Arts and Education Symposium: Save the Date, Thursday, October
11
Education
Policy and Leadership
Center
Please mark your calendars and plan on joining EPLC, our partners, and
guests on October 11 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania
http://www.aei-pa.org/
PSBA
2013 Officer Candidates Slated
If you are not
planning to attend the October Leadership Conference and would like to vote for
any of these candidates please see the absentee ballot information below and
note the August 15 deadline for absentee ballot requests
At its May 19 meeting at PSBA Conference
Center
They are:
Marcela Diaz Myers, Lower Dauphin
SD , Dauphin
County
President
(automatically assumes the office of president)
Jody Sperry,Conneaut SD ,
Crawford County
Jody Sperry,
President-Elect
Richard Frerichs, PennManor SD , Lancaster
County
Richard Frerichs, Penn
President-Elect
Mark B. Miller, Centennial SD,Bucks
County
Mark B. Miller, Centennial SD,
First Vice
President
Larry Breech,Millville Area
SD , Columbia
County
Larry Breech,
Second
Vice President
Edward J. Cardow,Chichester SD , Delaware
County
Edward J. Cardow,
Second
Vice President
Absentee
ballot procedures for election of PSBA officers
Absentee
ballot requests must be received no later than August 15
PSBA website 6/1/2012
All school directors and school
board secretaries who are eligible to vote and who do not plan to attend the
association's annual business meeting during the 2012 PASA-PSBA School
Leadership Conference in Hershey, Oct. 16-19, may request an absentee ballot
for election purposes.
The absentee ballot must be
requested from the PSBA executive director in accordance with the PSBA Bylaws
provisions (see PSBA
Bylaws, Article IV, Section 4, J-Q.). Specify the name and home mailing
address of each individual for whom a ballot is requested.
Requests must be in writing,
e-mailed or mailed first class and postmarked or marked received at PSBA
Headquarters no later than Aug. 15. Mail to Executive Director, P.O. Box 2042 , Mechanicsburg ,
PA 17055
NSBA
Federal Relations Network seeking new members for 2013-14
School directors are invited to
advocate for public education at the federal level through the National School
Boards Association’s Federal Relations Network. The National School Boards Association is
seeking school directors interested in serving on the Federal Relations Network
(FRN), its grass roots advocacy program that brings local board members on the
front line of pending issues before Congress. If you are a school director and
willing to carry the public education message to Washington , D.C.
Click here for more information.
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