Saturday, September 29, 2012

Our Failing Public Schools




Education Voters PA County Legislative Guides Available

Great resource – for each county they list your state senators and state representatives along with their contact information, committee assignments and the school districts that they represent.
A full list of legislative guides can be viewed and downloaded HERE: http://www.educationvoterspa.org/index.php/site/take-action/legislative-guide7/


Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1650 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, teacher leaders, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.

These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg

“Mr. Tomalis said "well over 100" disciplinary complaints will be filed against public education officials over the cheating issue. There were more than 148,500 professional personnel -- including administrators and teachers -- in Pennsylvania last school year.”
Test scores analyst challenges interpretation of panel findings

State's presentation made assessment appear conclusive
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 29, 2012 12:14 am
When state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis issued statewide test scores last week, he noted that a technical advisory committee had analyzed three possible reasons for drops in student performance: funding, changes in test content and tighter test security.
But the head of the committee of outside testing experts says it didn't analyze funding. Nor was the committee's analysis quite as conclusive as it appeared in the secretary's PowerPoint and comments.

Posted: Fri, Sep. 28, 2012, 6:49 AM
Parents from two charters urge SRC to keep schools open
By Martha Woodall and Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writers
Parents from two charter schools whose founder and former top administrators are under federal indictment urged the Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Thursday to keep their schools open.  "We want our school to continue with a new administration," said Noel Bauman, who has three sons at Planet Abacus Charter School. "There is no other way for our school to continue without that happening."

Gil Spencer is known for his” take no prisoners” approach as a Delco Times staff commentary columnist.
SPENCER: No excuse for a failing education system
Published: Friday, September 28, 2012
Delco Times Opinion By GIL SPENCER gspencer@delcotimes.com
The state’s education establishment is still smarting from last week’s release of standardized test scores that show student performance getting worse instead of better.
Across the state, test results showed one in four Keystone State kids are not up to snuff in math, while three in 10 cannot read at grade level. Only 60 percent of our 500 school districts made “Adequate Yearly Progress” as defined by our education experts (compared to nearly 90 percent last year).
In Delaware County, over half our school districts failed the AYP test.
Of course, public education activists and union leaders had a ready excuse for this failure: Money.

Our Failing Public Schools
Here's my response to his commentary:
Hey Gil –
Nice seeing you again at Live from the Newsroom the other day.
Priya is certainly entitled to her opinion.  Here’s another:
Middle-class American students who attend well-funded schools rank at the top of the world on international tests.

Friday Morning Coffee: Official says Ed Sec'y Tomalis overstated cheating.
Capitol Ideas Blog by John Micek September 28, 2012
Good Friday Morning Fellow Seekers.
The chairwoman of an advisory group is disputing Pennsylvania Education Secretary Ron Tomalis' claim that his efforts to stop cheating had caused a statewide drop in standardized test scores, our Mothership colleague Steve Esack reports this morning.

NSBA creates Action Center to boost lobbying and advocacy in Washington
NSBA Joetta Sack-Min|September 28th, 2012
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) has launched the National School Boards Action Center (NSBAC), a 501(c)(4) organization that will enable NSBA to expand its advocacy efforts and to increase its lobbying to include public advocacy activities not previously available. NSBAC is also designed to serve local school board members as an important resource for grassroots advocacy and for information on the political process and candidates.
Although NSBAC will not endorse specific candidates, it will analyze information and identify differences among the political candidate positions so that local school board members will be able to determine what candidates best serve the interests of our public school students.
As part of its mission to raise awareness of school boards’ top issues to candidates for federal offices, NSBAC has released an analysis of President Obama’s and Gov. Mitt Romney’s K-12 proposals. For more information, go to www.nsbac.org.

Building One Pennsylvania 2012 Statewide Public Meeting
Promoting sustainable, inclusive and economically prosperous communities
Saturday, October 13, 2012 10 am to 11:30 a.m.  (doors open at 9:30 for registration)
Franklin Commons, 400 Franklin Avenue, Phoenixville, PA
Declining local tax bases, aging infrastructure, unfair state and federal policies are undermining our communities. It's time to stand together to support our diverse, middle class communities.
Join local elected, faith and civic leaders from across Pennsylvania for a public meeting to call on state and national policy-makers to act on bi-partisan solutions to the pressing problems impacting our communities.  
·         Reduce our local property tax burdens  
·         Invest in our schools  
·         Redevelop our infrastructure while creating local jobs 
·         Promote more balanced housing markets 
 The event is free but you must register in advance to reserve your seat. Register at www.buildingonepa.org or by emailing name, title, organizational affiliation, address, phone and email to  info@buildingonepa.org.   To defray the cost of the event, we are accepting donations. Suggested donation: $5-$10. 

2012 PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 16-19, 2012
Registration is Now Open!  Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey, PA
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 for a full day of events.  Stay tuned to aei-pa.org for information about our 2nd Arts and Education Symposium.  Scholarships and Act 48 Credit will be available.  Outstanding speakers and panelists from Pennsylvania and beyond will once again come together to address key topics in the arts and arts education and related public policy advocacy initiatives.  This is a networking and learning opportunity not to be missed!

http://www.aei-pa.org/

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Friday, September 28, 2012

Our failing public schools

Our failing public schools

Gil Spencer is known for his” take no prisoners” approach as a Delco Times staff commentary columnist.

SPENCER: No excuse for a failing education system
Published: Friday, September 28, 2012
Delco Times Opinion By GIL SPENCER gspencer@delcotimes.com
The state’s education establishment is still smarting from last week’s release of standardized test scores that show student performance getting worse instead of better.
Across the state, test results showed one in four Keystone State kids are not up to snuff in math, while three in 10 cannot read at grade level. Only 60 percent of our 500 school districts made “Adequate Yearly Progress” as defined by our education experts (compared to nearly 90 percent last year).
In Delaware County, over half our school districts failed the AYP test.
Of course, public education activists and union leaders had a ready excuse for this failure: Money.


Here's my response:

Hey Gil –

Nice seeing you again at Live from the Newsroom the other day.


Priya is certainly entitled to her opinion.  Here’s another:

Middle-class American students who attend well-funded schools rank at the top of the world on international tests.

The overwhelming proportion of the JPL Mars Curiosity exploration team came from America's public high schools.  A JPL website, Zip Code Mars, carries brief bios of the Mars team; 104 of 141 team members graduated from public high schools.

Last year, among the usual local colleges, Haverford High School grads also attended Harvard, Princeton, Swarthmore, NYU, Columbia, Cornell, MICA, RISD, Penn State Schreyer Honors College, Pitt Honors College, Drexel Honors College, UVA, Boston U, American, Catholic U, Case Western, Lehigh…..from a public school in a district that spends at about the state average.

U.S. 15-year olds in schools with fewer than 10 percent of kids eligible for free or cut-rate lunch "score first in the world in reading, outperforming even the famously excellent Finns.

U.S. schools where fewer than 25 percent are impoverished (by the same lunch measure) beat all 34 of the relatively affluent countries studied except South Korea and Finland.

In Pennsylvania, the statewide average for public school students in poverty in 2011 was 39.1%.  For the 144 PA schools on the 2011 list of failing schools that accompanied SB1, the voucher bill, the average poverty rate was 80.8%

These rates are based upon a family of 4 having an income of $23,000 or less.

A whopping 23.1% of U.S. children under the age of 18 live in poverty, putting us second in the world.  Among developed nations, only Romania has a higher relative child poverty rate…..

Does funding matter?  Apparently the school reform folks think so.
Here’s a May 16th, 2012 quote from Archbishop Chaput: “some of our schools will be forced to close without the passage of opportunity scholarships (i.e., school-choice vouchers) and increased Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) funding. This isn’t a “maybe.” It’s a certainty driven by economic facts.”

He got $50 million in new EITC money with absolutely no strings attached.  No public fiscal scrutiny and none of these damn PSSA tests.  Just cold, hard cash.  Ironically, area parochial schools have lost over 30,000 students to charter schools – the EITC program is simply a government bailout, with zero accountability.  We’re apparently just supposed to take it on faith.

There is no independent research demonstrating that charters or vouchers are systematically more effective than traditional public schools in raising student achievement for high poverty populations of students.

Every kid can learn.  Poverty is not an excuse – but it’s a stubborn fact.

We’re spending tens of millions on tests that are of no direct benefit to our kids.  We’re squeezing non-tested subjects out of the curriculum.  We’re wasting an enormous amount of instructional time and taxpayer money on test prep and testing that, in my opinion, is out of control.

We need leadership that will bring together ALL stakeholders from traditional public education and reformers, have them stop shooting at each other, and focus on how we can best use our limited resources to educate kids in poverty.

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PSSA advisor says PA Ed Sec'y Tomalis 'overstated' impact of cheating on test scores; she says it's speculation to say increased security alone brought down scores.




“Tuition free online public schools” are not free.
They take significantly more of your local tax dollars than it costs them to educate their students, accumulating large balances of excess funds, spending your local tax dollars on advertising and corporate bonuses while achieving lackluster academic results.  Only one of 12 Pennsylvania cyber charter schools made AYP for 2012.  Most have never made AYP.


Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1650 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, teacher leaders, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.

These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg

“…..it should be noted, as Tomalis acknowledged, that continuing investigations into alleged improprieties involve only six of 500 school districts and three charter schools. The secretary admitted that scores declined even when removing all test-score results from the statewide totals where cheating is alleged to have occurred.”
Posted: Thu, Sep. 27, 2012, 3:01 AM
PSSA: Letters: Senator Hughes - A lesson failed: Schools funding counts
Philadelphia Daily News by Pa. Sen. Vincent J. Hughes 7th District
AT A NEWS conference on Friday, state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis released the results of the 2011-12 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). The PSSA tests measure a student's achievement of certain academic standards and determine if school programs are adequate enough to enable students to attain proficiency of these standards. Every student attending a public school in Pennsylvania is required to take the test.
The results should be disappointing for every Pennsylvania citizen. The announcement that student test scores declined on the PSSA exams marks a sharp turnaround for our state. These results illustrate an undeniable truth: adequate funding matters.

PSSA: PSSA advisor says Education Secretary Ron Tomalis 'overstated' impact of cheating on test scores
She says it's speculation to say increased security alone brought down scores.
By Steve Esack and Eugene Tauber, Of The Morning Call 10:42 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2012
Last week, state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis said he relied on a team of outside statistical experts to come to the conclusion that his efforts to stop cheating caused a statewide drop in PSSA test scores.
Tomalis said the experts on the Pennsylvania Technical Advisory Committee concluded neither budget cuts nor rising accountability benchmarks had any bearing on the reduction in math and reading scores, which caused more than 600 fewer schools to hit federal testing standards.
"We hit the reset button on student achievement on our PSSA," Tomalis said last Friday in releasing the results of the 2012 Pennsylvania System of School Assessments.
"Right now this is our first indication, the first year, that we really believe the data you see before you indicates student achievement in all of our public schools in Pennsylvania," he continued. "We can't go back and figure out when the cheating started, where it started and in what year. But the things that we did this year, the efforts we took, make sure that we believe we have an accurate read."
But the chairwoman of the advisory committee on Thursday said the committee never reached those conclusions. She said Tomalis may have exaggerated the results of the committee's statistical analysis of scores.

SB1115: Pa. special-ed funding linked to charter law changes
By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Fri, Sep. 28, 2012, 3:01 AM
A long-awaited overhaul of Pennsylvania's special-education funding system is on hold this fall, awaiting agreement on proposed charter law changes, according to the chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee.
A Republican spokesman denied that, saying the issues were not being linked.
In June, a state special-education funding bill won overwhelming Senate approval and unanimous House support in preliminary votes.  But the last-minute insertion of an amendment to the state charter law sidetracked final approval. Both issues were shelved until this fall.
Parts of the proposed changes to the charter law are controversial, including the creation of a state board with the power to approve charter applications and a proposal to exclude records of charter school "vendors," including for-profit charter operators, from the state's Right to Know Law. Now, only school boards can approve regular charter applications.

SB1115: Pennsylvania Legislature Considering Charter School Regulation Bill

CBS By Pat Loeb September 27, 2012 6:23 AM
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A bill before the Pennsylvania legislature would grant the state broad, new power to regulate charter schools, including over-ruling local school district decisions on granting charters and setting enrollment goals.
The charter school proposal is actually an amendment to a bill that was supposed to reform special education funding. Education secretary Ron Tomalis says the Corbett Administration thought it would be faster.

“Ms. Iriti stressed the need to make the Promise the center of an "ecosystem" of government and civic groups working to prepare high school students for college and beyond.”

Pittsburgh Promise scholarship recipients perform well in college

September 27, 2012 6:18 pm
Early data indicates that recipients of the Pittsburgh Promise are persevering in college, a University of Pittsburgh researcher said today during the scholarship program's annual report to the community.
Seventy-six percent of 2008 and 2009 Promise recipients returned for their second year of college, Jennifer Iriti of Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center, said. That's higher than the 66 percent retention rate of students in an American College Testing sample from the same years, she said.
Ms. Iriti stressed the need to make the Promise the center of an "ecosystem" of government and civic groups working to prepare high school students for college and beyond.

Duquesne schools' board of control concur with 'financial recovery' designation

By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 27, 2012 2:58 pm
The Duquesne City School District's solicitor has notified the Pennsylvania Department of Education that the state board of control overseeing the district will not seek a hearing to contest the financial recovery designation given to the district last month.
Using new legislation for distressed school districts approved in June, state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis gave a preliminary declaration of financial recovery to Duquesne in August. The board of control had until Wednesday to notify the department if it wanted to contest the preliminary declaration.

Southern Lehigh worried about timing of new Keystone Exams
School Board says juniors will be tested on courses they may have taken years ago.
By Melinda Rizzo, Special to The Morning Call 5:16 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2012
The Southern Lehigh School Board is worried that workload, college testing and timing could work against this year's juniors as they take the state's new Keystone Exams for the first time.
Juniors will be given Keystone tests in algebra I, literature and biology, Superintendent Leah Christman said at the board's meeting Monday night.
The tests are end-of-course assessments, according to the state Department of Education website. The exams are aimed at assessing content proficiency, the website said.

PA mayors sign onto letter saying sequestration is a threat to metro economies.
Capitol Ideas Blog by John Micek September 27, 2012
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Allentown chief executive Ed Pawlowski are among the urban mayors who have signed onto a letter to Congressional leaders warning that federal budget sequestration could have a harsh effect on the nation's metro economies.
The Sept. 21 letter, sent on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, landed in the in-boxes of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker John Boehner and House and Senate floor leaders Nancy Pelosi of California and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Thursday, September 27, 2012
PSSA: Going from bad to worse on the PSSA front
Delco Times Heron’s Nest Blog by Phil Heron, Editor
There is bad news and worse news when it comes to standardized education testing in Pennsylvania. Scores are down, and they’re going to get worse.
That’s what I took out of last night’s ‘Live From the Newsroom,’ our weekly live-stream community affairs broadcast. My thanks to Dan McGarry, assistant superintendent in Upper Darby, and Larry Feinberg, a member of the Haverford School Board and leader of the Keystone Education Coalition, for joining us and offering their views on the four most-feared letters in education.

Education Voters PA  September 26, 2012

Education Voters PA County Legislative Guides Available

These legislative guides from Education Voters PA are a great resource – for each county they list your state senators and state representatives along with their contact information, committee assignments and the school districts that they represent.
A full list of legislative guides can be viewed and downloaded HERE: http://www.educationvoterspa.org/index.php/site/take-action/legislative-guide7/

Does anybody have any research showing that TIF programs are effective?

U.S. ED Unveils $290 Million in Performance-Pay Grants

Education Week Teacher Beat Blog By Stephen Sawchuk on September 27, 2012 5:06 PM
The U.S. Department of Education today unveiled its fourth batch of Teacher Incentive Fund grants, a program that supports differentiated compensation systems.
TIF has had more makeovers than Madonna since its 2006 inception, so if you haven't paying attention, there are a few tweaks to this round worth noting.
First, the program has expanded to include career ladders, whereby teachers get additional professional responsibilities, not just higher pay, as part of the programs. Second, grantees had to secure more support from teachers' unions and others up front, rather than during a planning year. (This isn't exactly easy to do; read more about that from colleague Jackie Zubrzycki's recent story). And finally, the competition paid special attention to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM fields.
Overall, the Obama administration has attempted to move the program from one focused mostly on pay to a broader strategy for improving teaching that puts evaluation systems at its core. (It echoes the approaches taken in the Race to the Top program and the the ESEA Flexibility waivers.)
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2012/09/us_ed_unveils_290_million_in_p.html

Building One Pennsylvania 2012 Statewide Public Meeting
Promoting sustainable, inclusive and economically prosperous communities
Saturday, October 13, 2012 10 am to 11:30 a.m.  (doors open at 9:30 for registration)
Franklin Commons, 400 Franklin Avenue, Phoenixville, PA
Declining local tax bases, aging infrastructure, unfair state and federal policies are undermining our communities. It's time to stand together to support our diverse, middle class communities.
Join local elected, faith and civic leaders from across Pennsylvania for a public meeting to call on state and national policy-makers to act on bi-partisan solutions to the pressing problems impacting our communities.  
·                     Reduce our local property tax burdens  
·                     Invest in our schools  
·                     Redevelop our infrastructure while creating local jobs 
·                     Promote more balanced housing markets 
 The event is free but you must register in advance to reserve your seat. Register at www.buildingonepa.org or by emailing name, title, organizational affiliation, address, phone and email to  info@buildingonepa.org.   To defray the cost of the event, we are accepting donations. Suggested donation: $5-$10. 

2012 PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 16-19, 2012
Registration is Now Open!  Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey, PA
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 for a full day of events.  Stay tuned to aei-pa.org for information about our 2nd Arts and Education Symposium.  Scholarships and Act 48 Credit will be available.  Outstanding speakers and panelists from Pennsylvania and beyond will once again come together to address key topics in the arts and arts education and related public policy advocacy initiatives.  This is a networking and learning opportunity not to be missed!

http://www.aei-pa.org/

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

PA Cyber Charter PSSA AYP 2005 - 2012. Of 12 PA cyber charters only 1 made AYP for 2012; only 2 made AYP for 2011, while 8 were in corrective action status. Pennsylvania has authorized four new cyber charters that are scheduled to open this year.




“Tuition free online public schools” are not free.
They take significantly more of your local tax dollars than it costs them to educate their students, accumulating large balances of excess funds, spending your local tax dollars on advertising and corporate bonuses while achieving lackluster academic results.  Only one of 12 Pennsylvania cyber charter schools made AYP for 2012.  Most have never made AYP.


Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1650 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, teacher leaders, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 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 Cyber Charter PSSA AYP 2005 - 2012 from PDE
Updated September 26, 2012
Of 12 PA cyber charters only 1 made AYP for 2012; only 2 made AYP for 2011, while 8 were in corrective action status.  Pennsylvania has authorized four new cyber charters that are scheduled to open this year.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett bombing public education into Stone Age
Allentown Morning Call Opinion by Bill White 7:17 p.m. EDT, September 26, 2012
The late Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay once famously proclaimed, "We should bomb Vietnam back into the Stone Age."  He'll never say it quite so colorfully, but I would argue that Gov. Tom Corbett is engaged in bombing public education in Pennsylvania into the Stone Age, and doing a pretty darned good job of it.
I've been trying for weeks to come up with a good vehicle for writing a satirical column on Corbett, his state budget cuts for education, Pennsylvania's charter school mess, dropping test scores and other manifestations of his carpet-bombing campaign. I've discovered that the reality of what is happening to public education in Pennsylvania is wackier than anything I could make up.

These legislative guides from Education Voters PA are a great resource – for each county they list your state senators and state representatives along with their contact information, committee assignments and the school districts that they represent.
Education Voters PA  September 26, 2012

Education Voters PA County Legislative Guides Available

Dear Friends and Allies,
We have now created, and have made available on our website, Legislative Guides for all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties!  These Legislative Guides can be extremely helpful tools in engaging your constituents around legislative education advocacy.  They include pictures, contact information (local and Harrisburg offices), committee appointments and a list of school districts within each legislative district.
Please feel free to share this resource with your networks and email lists and post on your social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.).  We'd like as many people as possible to have access to this information, because after all, the more people know how to communicate with policymakers the more they will, and the closer we'll come to our shared goal of providing a quality education for every child in Pennsylvania!  Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.
A full list of legislative guides can be viewed and downloaded HERE: http://www.educationvoterspa.org/index.php/site/take-action/legislative-guide7/

Philly District: Closings could mean end of neighborhood assignment, middle schools
thenotebook on Sep 25 2012 By Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner
In order to close up to one-fifth of the city's traditional public schools by the fall of 2013, Philadelphia District officials are considering some dramatic steps, including a move away from assigning students to schools based on their home address.
Also on the table are eliminating traditional middle schools and closing some poor-performing schools located in adequate facilities in order to preserve stronger academic programs elsewhere. All told, as many as 57 schools could be shuttered over the next few years.

Philly district seeks input on which schools to close
By Kristen A. Graham Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Wed, Sep. 26, 2012, 8:05 AM
The Philadelphia School District is preparing to close roughly 40 schools in June, and officials want your opinion on how they should pick which ones to shutter.
Really.

Missed the Delco Times Live from the Newsroom webcast  tackling the trouble with PSSA numbers? Here is the replay

Delco Times Published: Wednesday, September 26, 2012
School districts around the state get hammered this time of year when the PSSA numbers come through.  What are the solutions to using standardized testing to measure how students are progressing? Are these tests culturally biased?
We welcomed Upper Darby Assistant Superintendent Dan McGarry and Haverford School Board member Larry Feinberg and Liam Carey, a student at Haverford Middle School, to the big table to talk all things PSSA.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 26, 2012 
Contact:Anne E. Casey Foundation Sue Lin Chong

Child Poverty Rates Increase in 44 of 50 Largest U.S. Cities Between 2005 and 2011

New American Community Survey data available in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center
BALTIMORE – The 2011 American Community Survey (ACS) data show an increase in the rate of children living in poverty in the United States between 2005 and 2011. Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, 44 experienced increases in child poverty rates. Detroit, Cleveland, Miami, Milwaukee and Memphis, Tenn., had the highest rates of children living in poverty, while Virginia Beach, Va., San Jose, Calif., San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Mesa, Ariz., and Colorado Springs, Colo. had the lowest rates, according to an analysis by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau.
Over the same period, the national percentage of children living in poverty — or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) — rose from 19 to 23 percent, or an increase of about 3 million children from 2005 to 2011. The 2011 federal poverty level was about $23,000 for a family of four.

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 09/26/2012

A people’s education platform

Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss
With the presidential election approaching and the recent Chicago teachers strike, it seems like a good time for the following post, a “people’s platform” for education, or what Americans really want from their public schools. It was written by Nancy Flanagan, an education consultant and blogger at Education Week Teacher, and Don Bartalo, a retired superintendent who now works as an instructional coach and is also an author.

Are the untested Common Core Standards an homage to Soviet style central planning?
Who’s backing the standards push?  The Gates Foundation is funding common core parent outreach; the Walton Foundation is funding press coverage of “parent empowerment issues”

COMMON CORE: Standards Backers Seek Out Support of Parents

Education Week By Sean Cavanagh Published Online: September 25, 2012
Backers of the common-core academic standards have worked for years to secure the support of a diverse collection of elected officials, academic scholars, and school employees. Now they're ramping up efforts to court a different and potentially critically important audience: parents.
A number of national organizations are churning out written and online materials, videos, and even public service announcements aimed at explaining the Common Core State Standards to parents, in plain language, and building support for the new guidelines, which have been adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/09/26/05core_ep.h32.html?tkn=XMQFW%2FhihSRLNAcG4A00DzKMVRHdNyqRenBU&cmp=ENL-CCO-NEWS1

With this huge uniform national Common Core market we can re-brand those laid-off Dell tech support workers in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Gurgaon as “Common Core Content Associates” put them under contract to Walmart and give them all the online scripts that they will need to coach our students….heck, we won’t even need teachers…

COMMON CORE: Preparing for Common Core, Firm Acquires School Improvement Companies

Education Week By Jason Tomassini on September 25, 2012 12:07 PM
Schools aren't the only entities gearing up for the Common Core State Standards. Weld North, a private equity firm founded by a former Kaplan executive, purchased two school-improvement and professional-development companies, Editure and JBHM Education Group, the company announced Monday. The deal, worth around $50 million and for a 100 percent stake in each company, will create a national school consulting group that will compete for an increasing flow of money dedicated to school improvement and preparation for the Common Core State Standards adopted by all but four states.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2012/09/preparing_for_common_core_firm_acquires_school_improvement_companies_1.html

NPR’s Movie Review: 'Won't Back Down' Takes A Too-Easy Way Out
NPR.org Movie Review  by ELLA TAYLOR September 26, 2012
……All cynicism aside, the movie taps a rich vein of accumulated public frustration at the continued failure of government to provide decent access to public schools for all American children. Aside from religion itself, no subject lends itself more to arm-waving entrenched positions than education. And perhaps a movie aimed at a mainstream audience can't help but distill the discussion into culture-war sound bites.
For all its strenuous feints at fair play, though,Won't Back Down is something less honorable — a propaganda piece with blame on its mind. Directed with reasonable competence by Daniel Barnz from a speechifying screenplay he co-wrote with Brin Hill, the movie is funded by Walden Media, a company owned by conservative mogul Philip Anschutz, who advocates creationist curricula in schools. Walden also co-produced the controversial pro-charter school documentaryWaiting for Superman, so the outfit is not without axes to grind.
…..But if you were to wave a magic wand that replaced unions and bureaucrats with a rainbow coalition of local parents and educators coming together to create the kind of school they want, the result would be chaos, not to mention an end to the tattered remains of our common culture
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/26/161546081/wont-back-down-takes-a-too-easy-way-out

In Texas, Hudson ISD embracing a new vision
By MARY ANN WHITEKER/For The Lufkin News September 12, 2012 1:15 am
Hudson ISD has embraced a “New Vision” for the district. This vision will focus on five key goals: digital learning, 21st century learning standards (academic and career), multiple forms of assessment, accountability that is not focused on one state test, and transforming our school into a 21st century learning organization.
We will no longer purchase banners or plaques that imply we are a state recognized or exemplary campus based on one state mandated test! Parents will not see STAAR worksheets or test preparation materials. Teachers will not be referencing the tests in their classrooms. Rigor, purpose, interest, talent, creativity, problem solving, innovation, real-world application, digital access, collaboration will transform classrooms into centers that promote students owning their learning rather than learning for a test!
http://lufkindailynews.com/news/community/article_9bc0a3ea-fc4e-11e1-a137-001a4bcf887a.html#.UGLMOBRzffs.twitter


Building One Pennsylvania 2012 Statewide Public Meeting
Promoting sustainable, inclusive and economically prosperous communities
Saturday, October 13, 2012 10 am to 11:30 a.m.  (doors open at 9:30 for registration)
Franklin Commons, 400 Franklin Avenue, Phoenixville, PA
Declining local tax bases, aging infrastructure, unfair state and federal policies are undermining our communities. It's time to stand together to support our diverse, middle class communities.
Join local elected, faith and civic leaders from across Pennsylvania for a public meeting to call on state and national policy-makers to act on bi-partisan solutions to the pressing problems impacting our communities.  
·                     Reduce our local property tax burdens  
·                     Invest in our schools  
·                     Redevelop our infrastructure while creating local jobs 
·                     Promote more balanced housing markets 
 The event is free but you must register in advance to reserve your seat. Register at www.buildingonepa.org or by emailing name, title, organizational affiliation, address, phone and email to  info@buildingonepa.org.   To defray the cost of the event, we are accepting donations. Suggested donation: $5-$10. 

Public Forum in Delaware County: What State and Federal Budget Changes Mean for DelCo Service Providers
Thursday, Sept. 27th at 1pm Media Borough Hall Community Center; 3rd & Jackson, Media, PA
The SEPA Budget Coalition will join with Family and Community Service of Delaware County and PathWays PA to host a forum on the state and federal budgets.   Experts from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will offer a look ahead.  Congress faces dramatic budget choices that will have a deep impact on our ability to provide services DelCo families depend on.  Governor Corbett is also at a choice point, and there are some signs of a course correction in PA this coming year.  Please RSVP for the forum:
Click here to RSVP.

2012 PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 16-19, 2012
Registration is Now Open!  Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey, PA
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 for a full day of events.  Stay tuned to aei-pa.org for information about our 2nd Arts and Education Symposium.  Scholarships and Act 48 Credit will be available.  Outstanding speakers and panelists from Pennsylvania and beyond will once again come together to address key topics in the arts and arts education and related public policy advocacy initiatives.  This is a networking and learning opportunity not to be missed!

http://www.aei-pa.org/

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