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 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
11, 2013
Budget Note: Although special education is
flat funded (for the sixth consecutive year) in Governor Corbett’s Proposed
2013-14 Budget, school districts are slated to see a ½% decrease in their
special ed allocation that will be used to increase the State’s special
education contingency fund from $10 million to $20 million.
What’s working in Cincinnati and Boston
Not closing schools. Not firing teachers.
Not charters.
Not vouchers. Not diverting tax
revenue to private and religious schools.
Not Teach for America
Not more tests with more negative consequences.
Partnering
with non-profits to provide a wide range of coordinated intervention,
prevention, enrichment and remedial services to kids – like their middle-class
peers take for granted in well funded school districts.
Here’s our weekend posting in case you missed
it…..
Saturday, February
9, 2013
Public education the focus of Pittsburgh
Yinzercation organizers urge audience members
to push for sustainable government funding
By Amy McConnell Schaarsmith / Pittsburgh February 11, 2013 12:06 am
American public schools have leveled the playing field for poor children
and provided opportunities for children of all backgrounds for more than a
century. But their ability to continue to do so will continue to erode unless
the community works to establish adequate, equitable and sustainable government
funding for public education, local education activists said Sunday.
Corbett's pension proposal drawing
concerns
State workers unsure how their benefits will
be affected
By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh February
10, 2013 12:07 am
The package proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett to address the state's more than
$40 billion pension debt leaves 386,000 state employees and teachers wondering
how it will change their retirement income.
Specific answers aren't easy to come by because of the complexity of the
changes and the uncertainty over whether there is legislative support for some
or all of the proposals.
There is uncertainty for school districts as well, as they prepare
preliminary budgets without knowing precisely what their state funding will be,
given that the governor tied his education funding proposal to getting approval
of his pension package.
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg February 10, 2013 12:27 am
NEPA could lose $149 million in
education over three years
Brandon Franchak's education is almost $2,700 short. So are the educations of Destiny Babcock,
A.J. Gajewski, Emily Moser and the rest of their classmates in the sixth-grade
music class at Carbondale
Area Elementary
School
In the first two budgets during Gov. Tom Corbett's administration and
under the budget proposed last week, Carbondale
The district, one of the poorest in Northeast
Pennsylvania , has one of the largest losses per student in the
state. The music program has been cut. Class size has gone from 20 or 21 to 27
or 28 students per class. After-school tutoring has been eliminated.
Similar cuts have been made across the region's 37 school districts, and
the poorer the district, the more has been cut, according to the paper's
analysis. The districts in Lackawanna , Luzerne,
Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming
“Central to this plan is a proposal to convert local schools into
community hubs that partner with elected officials, nonprofits, hospitals,
universities, businesses and others to offer a wide range of services to local
communities. The idea is far from
pie-in-the-sky. In Cincinnati, schools are considered "Community Learning
Centers" that provide year-round programming, such as summer enrichment,
comprehensive health services, adult education, early-childhood education,
college access and mentoring services. Since this effort began in 2000, the
district's high-school graduation rate has risen from 51 to 83 percent and it
has become the highest-performing urban district in Ohio
Letters: Stop the cuts - invest in
schools
THE PHILADELPHIA
Philly.com Letter to the Editor POSTED: Friday, February 8, 2013 , 3:01 AM
THERE ARE several arguments to be made against the school district's plan
to close more than three dozen schools and displace thousands of students.
Yes, as the Daily News noted ("Closures called
discriminatory," Jan. 29), Action United has filed a civil-rights
complaint with the U.S. Department of Education citing data that show last
year's eight school closures had a disproportionate, negative impact on
African-American and disabled students. The Office of Civil Rights is now
investigating the complaint. This year's proposed 37 closures follow the same
pattern.
WHYY Newsworks By Benjamin Herold February 11, 2013
Over six weeks, parents, students, labor unions, and clergy have all
taken turns blasting the School
District of Philadelphia
Now, City Council wants to get in on the act.
"Everybody agrees that some schools have to be closed. But certainly
not all of them," said Jannie Blackwell, the chair of Council's education
committee.
Blackwell, who represents the city's 3rd District in West Philly, has
called hearings to begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Council chambers.
District to hold public hearings on Philly
school closings
The notebook by Wendy Harris on Feb 08 2013 Posted in Latest news
The School Reform Commission will hold a series of public hearings over
three days to hear testimony on the proposed school closures before the
commission votes March 7. The meetings will take place Feb. 21, Feb.
22 and Feb. 23. All hearings will be held in the auditorium at the School District of Philadelphia 440 N. Broad St. noon Feb. 21. No more than 10
speakers will be permitted to testify about each school that is slated to
close, and the guidelines as outlined in the District’s speaker policy for SRC
public meetings will apply to the hearings.
The dates and times of the hearings are listed below:
List of Proposed Philadelphia School
The following list of proposed school closures and moves as presented on December 13, 2013
and is current as of the date of this PUBLIC NOTICE and is subject to change.
Any revisions to the recommendations will be made available by the start of the
public hearings scheduled for February 21, 2013 ,
and will be posted on The School District’s website (www.philasd.org) as well
as the Facilities Master Plan site (http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/f/facilities-master-plan)
Getting kids to eat healthier school
lunches is a challenge
Editor's Note: "What's For Lunch?"
is a three-part, multimedia report by The Intelligencer and the Bucks County
Courier Times. Running Sunday, Monday
and Tuesday, the series takes a hard look at what's for lunch in your kids'
schools, finds out whether districts can both meet federal standards and still
fill stomachs and shows just how far schools will go to get kids to eat better.
Visit Phillyburbs.com/Whatsforlunch for
complete coverage.
PhillyBurbs.com By Marion Callahan, Crissa Shoemaker DeBree and Gwen
Shrift STAFF WRITERS Posted: Sunday, February 10, 2013 6:00 am
All the warnings from Washington about
children's nutrition and the deficiencies in school lunch programs might simply
have remained rhetoric, as so many things do, but at Springfield Elementary
School
For proof, just drop by the cafeteria at lunch time and check out the
healthful tacos, skim milk and fresh fruits and vegetables -- not to mention a
masked man bobbing among the tables and leading chants of "sa-LAD."
Yes, really.
“What makes Union City America
The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools
New York Times Opinion By DAVID L. KIRP Published: February 9, 2013
WHAT would it really take to give students a first-rate education? Some
argue that our schools are irremediably broken and that charter schools offer
the only solution. The striking achievement of Union City , N.J.
New York Times By MOTOKO RICH Published: February 9, 2013
As Congress contemplates rewriting No Child Left Behind,
President George W. Bush’s signature education law, legislators will tussle
over a vision of how the federal government should hold states and schools
accountable for students’ academic progress.
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, says the states should
be allowed to set their own public school policies. At a Senate education committee hearing on
Thursday to discuss waivers to states on some provisions of the law,
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, forcefully urged the federal
government to get out of the way.
“We only give you 10 percent of your money,” said Mr. Alexander, pressing
John B. King Jr., the education commissioner for New York State Tennessee
to tell New York
Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure
While Others Fall Apart?
New York Times By PO
BRONSON and ASHLEY MERRYMAN Published: February 6, 2013
Noah Muthler took his first state standardized test in third grade at the
Spring Cove
Elementary School in Roaring Spring , Pa.
So this year, Muthler is opting Noah out of the Pennsylvania System of
School Assessment, using a broad religious and ethical exemption.
“The federal government does not serve as a national school board,” Mr.
Duncan said. “It never has, and it never should.” “Still, spurred by efforts to qualify for the
waivers and the administration’s Race to the Top grant program, 31 states now
require that teacher evaluations be based in part on growth in student
achievement on standardized tests, according to the Education Commission of the
States.”
The U.S. Department of Education announced today the release of student
performance data in reading and math for all schools in the country for school
years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. This is the first time the Department is
releasing school-level state assessment data. The data are being released as
part of the Department’s ongoing transparency efforts.
“It is important for the Department to continually provide transparency
into our programs and the performance of our schools,” said U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan. “Releasing this school-level assessment data is an
important step toward that goal. As we know, test scores alone will never
determine how effective our schools are, and we are working to release more
varied school-level data that we collect over the coming months.”
Public School Graduates and Dropouts
from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009–10
Description: This report presents the number of high school graduates,
the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and the dropout data for grades
9–12 for public schools in school year 2009–10 as reported by State Education
Agencies to the NCES Common Core of Data Universe Survey of public elementary
and secondary institutions
(1272KB)
An Open Letter to Bill Gates: Why
Not Measure This?
Education Week Living in Dialogue Blog By Anthony Cody on February
8, 2013 7:41 PM
Yesterday I posted
an essay that pointed out that Bill Gates apparently uses a different
set of outcomes in choosing a school for his own children than the measurable
ones his foundation advocates for the children of the less fortunate. I shared
the thoughts
of mathematician Cathy O'Neil, who points out
...the person who defines the model defines success, and by obscuring
this power behind a data collection process and incrementally improved model
results, it seems somehow sanitized and objective when it's not.
Don't be fooled by the mathematical imprimatur: behind every model and
every data set is a political process that chose that data and built that model
and defined success for that model.
TEN WAYS TO PROMOTE EDUCATIONAL
ACHIEVEMENT AND
ATTAINMENT BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Child Trends Research-to-Results Brief by Christopher Boccanfuso, Ph.D.,
Kristin Anderson Moore
This Research Brief brings together findings from a variety of research
resources, including
rigorous program evaluations, to identify 10 actionable, feasible goals
involving non-school
factors that affect educational outcomes and can be addressed through
out-of-school-time
programs. These goals are to:
1) Reduce unintended pregnancies
2) Improve prenatal and postnatal maternal health
3) Improve parenting practices among parents of infants and young children
4) Improve young children’s nutrition and encourage mothers to breastfeed
5) Enhance the quality and availability of educational child care,
preschool, prekindergarten, and full-day kindergarten
6) Connect children and adolescents with long-term mentors
7) Improve parenting practices among parents of school-age children and
teens
8) Provide family and couples counseling to improve family functioning
9) Provide high-quality educational after-school and summer programs
10) Develop positive social skills and reduce delinquency among
adolescents.
Charter Schools Unionize
Diane Ravitch’s Blog February 9, 2013
About 90% of the nation’s charter schools are non-union. The charter
owners want it that way. It enables them to hire and fire at will and to make
unreasonable demands on teachers, like a 9-hour or more work day. Some charters
routinely expect teachers to work 50 or 60 hours a week. Unions get in the way
of the owner’s control over the lives of teachers. Owners also like high
turnover as they can constantly replenish their staff with those at the bottom
of the salary scale and never have pension obligations.
SAVE THE DATE: 2013 Pennsylvania
Budget Summit
Many Pennsylvanians have
sent a clear message to Harrisburg Policy Center
for an in-depth look at the Governor's proposal and an update on the federal
budget -- and what they mean for communities and families across Pennsylvania
2013 Pennsylvania
Budget Summit
Thursday, February 21, 2013 ,
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
HiltonHarrisburg , 1 North Second Street, Harrisburg , PA
Hilton
EPLC 2013 REGIONAL WORKSHOPS
FOR SCHOOL
The Education Policy and Leadership Center, with the Cooperation
of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) and Pennsylvania
Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), will conduct A Series of Regional Full-Day
Workshops for 2013
Pennsylvania School Board Candidates. Registration is $45 and includes
coffee/donuts, lunch, and materials.
Pittsburgh Region Saturday, February 23, 2013 – 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh/Monroeville, 101 Mall Blvd., Monroeville, PA 15146
Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh/Monroeville, 101 Mall Blvd., Monroeville, PA 15146
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.
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