Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1850
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent
advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a
broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education
advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
For February 28, 2013 :
Ravitch on Philly: “the most insulting,
most demeaning contract ever offered in any school district to my knowledge.”
Roebuck Seeking Co-sponsors for
Comprehensive Charter and Cyber Charter School
Lehigh Valley superintendents
implore lawmakers for charter, special education funding reforms
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on February 27, 2013 at 8:44 PM
A group of Lehigh Valley superintendents today detailed the impact of
state budget cuts on their districts and implored Democratic legislators to
reform Pennsylvania
Newly elected state Rep. Dan
McNeill, D-Lehigh/Northampton, requested the House Democratic Policy
Committee hearing to discuss how schools have managed budget cuts under
Gov. Tom
Corbett and what his latest budget proposal means for students.
Parkland
School District Superintendent Richard Sniscak spoke on behalf of the
five districts attending the hearing in Bethlehem
PSBA by Steve Robinson, director of Publications & PR 2/27/2013
Russell Diesinger, a school director with Exeter Township School District
and an assistant regional director for the Pennsylvania School Boards
Association (PSBA), told members of the House Democratic Policy Committee that
the 2012-13 state budget plan recently offered by Gov. Corbett does not go far
enough to properly fund public education or minimize the need for districts to
cut valuable programs for students.
East Penn school director calls for
state to increase funding to public education
PSBA N E W S R E L E A S E 2/27/2013 Steve Robinson, Director of
Publications & PR
Charles Ballard, school board president with East Penn School District
In his testimony, Ballard demonstrated how Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed
increase of $90 million to basic education funding does not go far in his home
district. If the increase is approved, that would likely mean East Penn would
receive $306,000 more than last year, a 3.0% increase. However, East Penn is
anticipating an increase of $2.1 million in pension payments -- only half of
which are reimbursed by the state. This leaves his district nearly $1 million
short.
In addition, his district must keep up with the cost of funding charter
schools. This year, East Penn has had to contribute $3.5 million to fund
charter schools, an increase of $500,000 from last year. This unfair funding
formula includes the district paying pension costs to the charter schools even
though the state reimburses charters for these costs. This "double
dipping" results in charters being paid twice -- once from the district
and once from the state.
Editorial: Corbett pension plan is
the path back to fiscal stability
By Patriot-News
Editorial Board on February 27, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Forty-one billion dollars: It is a number that boggles the mind.
Yet that is the gap separating the value of the assets held by Pennsylvania
Among Philly teachers, anger and
dismay at contract offer
Kristen A. Graham, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER February 27, 2013 , 9:26 PM
Patrick Naughton is an enthusiastic social studies teacher and the dean
of students at Robeson High School in West Philadelphia, but the first thing he
did Wednesday morning was look for a new job.
Naughton had read about the Philadelphia
School District
District seeking to slash,
restructure teacher compensation
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa on Feb 26 2013
The School District wants teachers and other Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers members to take pay cuts as high as 13 percent, work a day that is an
hour longer, and then get no raises until 2017, according to documents that
union officials have circulated to members and were obtained by the Notebook. The documents are presented as summaries of
the initial proposal the District has put on the table in contract
negotiations, which began last week. The teachers’ contract expires this
summer.
No seniority? No water fountains?
More on the contract
Inquirer Philly School Files Blog by Kristen Graham February 27, 2013 , 10:12 AM
I’ve read the Philadelphia
School District
Some bullet points:
So you want to be a teacher? Welcome to urban public education 2013.
More charters, diverted tax dollars to
private and religious schools with no accountability, closing schools that are
the fabric of their communities and a contact proposal like this.
If this is the deal, Philly teachers
should strike
Daily News by Will Bunch POSTED: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 , 8:12 PM
Apparently the old saying is wrong: You can get blood from a stone after
all. In a world where "the American Dream" has become a year in which
your salary stays the same, the so-called City of Brotherly Love
But just when you think it can't get any worse, here come the contract
demands that the Philadelphia
School District
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianerav February
28, 2013 //
This is the most insulting, most demeaning contract ever offered in any
school district to my knowledge.
PA Students First PAC, major
pro-voucher group might have broken PA election law
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY
26, 2013 , 11:42 PM
Citypaper Posted by Daniel Denvir Follow
on Twitter @DanielDenvir
Political operative John D. McDaniel's ongoing Philadelphia
Board of Ethics saga has centered on Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds
Brown's troubling campaign finance practices and wasteful political patronage
in the Nutter administration. McDaniel had been Brown's campaign manager,
held apparently sole control over a political action committee and held a
well-paying job at the airport provided by the mayor himself. Now there's a new
twist: McDaniel's Progressive Agenda PAC also funneled $5,900 from Students
First PAC, a Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Public Schools board
rejects two charter school proposals, tables third
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh February
27, 2013 7:58 pm
The Pittsburgh Public Schools board tonight rejected two applications to
open charter schools this fall and tabled a third, effectively denying it
because of requirements to act within a certain time window.
Parkland School Board Vice President Roberta Marcus was
honored Tuesday night by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association with the
second annual Timothy Allwein Advocacy Award.
Marcus, a Parkland school board member
since 1995, was selected to receive the award as a result of her many volunteer
hours devoted to raising awareness of key legislative issues on the local,
state and federal level.
Education leaders discuss
sequestration’s impact to public education
NSBA School Board News by Joetta Sack-Min February 27, 2013
National School Boards Association (NSBA) President C. Ed Massey
participated in a Feb. 27 press conference call to rally against the scheduled
federal budget cuts, known as the sequester, that are schedule to take place on
Friday. The call was organized by the Committee for Education Funding, a coalition of 100
national education organizations including NSBA, to highlight the planned
program cuts and teacher layoffs that will occur if Congress does not
intervene.
“To
determine whether all those students were really so unprepared for
college-level work, Ms. Scott-Clayton examined the students' actual high school
and college credits earned and grades received. She found that 20 percent of
students placed in remedial math and 25 percent of those placed in remedial
reading were "severely misidentified," meaning that not only could they
have passed the entry college course in that subject, but they could have done
so with a grade of B or better.”
Many Students Don't Need
Remediation, Studies Say
Education Week By Sarah D.
Sparks Published Online: February 19, 2013
At a time when more high schools are looking to their graduates'
college-remediation rates as a clue to how well they prepare students for
college and careers, new research findings suggest a significant portion of
students who test into remedial classes don't actually need them.
Separate studies from Teachers College, Columbia University, and the
Harvard Graduate School of Education come to the same conclusion: The way
colleges are using standardized placement tests such as the College Board's Accuplacer, ACT's Compass,
and others can misidentify students, and secondary schools and universities
should work to develop a more comprehensive profile of students' strengths and
weaknesses in performing college-level work.
PhilaSoup March 2013 - Sunday Get
together
Sunday, March 3, 2013
from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EST) Philadelphia , PA
Teachers Institute of Philadelphia , University of Pennsylvania
3417 Spruce Street , Philadelphia , PA 19104
Philasoup is a monthly microgrant dinner meant to bring
innovative and dynamic Philadelphia-area educators together, highlight the
great work they are doing and fund some terrific projects. The vision for
PhilaSoup is to be a monthly microgrant dinner that starts and ends with
educators but is an access point to education for the whole city.
For more info and RSVP: http://philasoupmarch2013.eventbrite.com/
PSBA officer applications due April
30
PSBA’s website 2/15/2013
Candidates seeking election to PSBA officer posts in 2014 must file an
expression of interest for the office desired to be interviewed by the PSBA
Leadership Development Committee.
This new committee replaces the former Nominations Committee. Deadline
for filing is April 30. The application shall be marked received at
PSBA headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked by the deadline to be
considered timely filed. Expression of interest forms can be found online
at www.psba.org/about/psba/board-of-directors/officers/electing-officers.asp.
Edcamp Philly 2013 at UPENN
May 18th, 2013
For those of you who have never gone to an
Edcamp before, please make a note of the unusual part of the morning where we
will build the schedule. Edcamp doesn’t believe in paying fancy people to come
and talk at you about teaching! At an Edcamp, the people attending – the participants
- facilitate sessions on teaching and learning! So Edcamp won’t
succeed without a whole bunch of you wanting to run a session of some kind!
What kinds of sessions might you run?
What: Edcamp Philly is an"unconference" devoted
to K-12 Education issues and ideas.
Where:University
of Pennsylvania
Where:
2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on
Advocacy and Issues
April 6, 2013 The Penn Stater Convention Center Hotel; State College, PA
Strategic leadership, school budgeting and advocacy are key issues facing today's school district leaders. For your school district to truly thrive, leaders must maintain a solid understanding of these three functions. Attend the 2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on Advocacy and Issues to ensure you have the skills you need to take your district to the next level.
April 6, 2013 The Penn Stater Convention Center Hotel; State College, PA
Strategic leadership, school budgeting and advocacy are key issues facing today's school district leaders. For your school district to truly thrive, leaders must maintain a solid understanding of these three functions. Attend the 2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on Advocacy and Issues to ensure you have the skills you need to take your district to the next level.
