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 19, 2013
SPECIAL EDITION EPLC Education Notebook Monday, February 11, 2013
EPLC: Summary of
Governor Corbett's Proposed 2013-2014 Education Budget
POSTED: Monday,
February 18, 2013 ,
3:01 AM
GOV.
CORBETT was wise to step back from the threat he made to tie any increase in
state aid for public schools to the Legislature passing the pension reforms he
is seeking. That line in the sand was
drawn by the governor and his top aides before he presented his budget. Last
week, the governor erased that line. He said he wouldn't presume to tell the
Legislature what to do.
“At the
time, superintendents of those districts believed they could provide a more
cost-efficient cyber alternative by reimbursing to their districts any
surpluses that existed in the cyber program. However, after the school was
formed, it was determined that state law did not allow money to be transferred
from the cyber program to the school districts.”
Parents seeking to keepSTREAM
Academy
Parents seeking to keep
By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh February 19, 2013 12:15 am
When the board of the STREAM
Academy
Parent Leaders in Lancaster ,
Pennsylvania , Oppose Gulen Charter
School
Diane
Ravitch’s Blog By dianerav February
18, 2013 //
Two parent
leaders in Lancaster , Pennsylvania Turkey
District looks to best utilize
specialist teachers; staff cut from 56 to 20.
By Katrina
Wehr, Special to The Morning Call 10:01 p.m. EST, February 17, 2013
Two Allentown
With only
five music, five art, five physical education and five library teachers to
service the 15 elementary schools in the district, students went from seeing
their specialist teachers 36 times a year to nine times, Superintendent Russell
Mayo said.
The
Scranton Federation of Teachers, the district's union, is circulating principal
evaluation forms in two buildings: John F. Kennedy and Frances Willard
elementary schools. After principals in
those schools are evaluated, the union plans to expand the effort to all
schools and to other administrators, including the superintendent. Union President Rosemary Boland said she
believes Scranton
No More Whoohoo
Yinzercation Blog February
18, 2013
“Whoohoo!”
Curb your enthusiasm kids and under no circumstances should you ever start a
sentence like that. In another sign that high-stakes-testing is out of control
and hurting our children, students are now being told to follow rigid writing
guidelines that have nothing to do with real learning and everything to do with
how they will be measured on tests.
Kin in district may be hindering teacher talks
in Carbondale
Eight
months after the Carbondale Area Education Association's contract with the
school district lapsed, negotiations could be stalled because two-thirds of the
school board are unable to participate. Six
board members have a conflict of interest, such as a direct relative involved
in the teachers union, that prevents them from serving on the negotiating
committee.
Vacant schools in Philadelphia
a cautionary tale for Chicago
WBEZ91.5 Chicago February 18, 2013
A WBEZ and Catalyst-Chicago analysis showed most schools
closed over the last decade have been filled by new specialty schools or
privately run charters.
But this
year, Chicago Public Schools officials say they will not hand over buildings to
charters or make them into new schools. Instead, they want to do something
they’ve never tried before: sell the schools on a large scale. They say that
would help shrink their massive budget deficit.
ROSEN: Say no to charter schools
Looking Left
Yale Daily News BY DIANA ROSEN STAFF COLUMNIST February 13, 2013
The News reported three weeks ago on plans to open new charter schools in
New Haven (“State may get new charter schools,” Jan. 23). Over the past several
years, charters have been expanding in the Elm City Chicago
Charter schools, freed from the regulation of the public school system,
were supposed to fix public education through innovation. Instead, lack of
regulation has led to a variety of problems, including hiring inexperienced
teachers, failing to serve difficult-to-educate students and using taxpayer
dollars corruptly. What charters haven’t created, though, are better-educated
students.
How many ineffective teachers are actually out
there?
Getting
rid of ineffective teachers is pretty much the focus of school reform these
days but pinpointing
who really should go isn’t as easy as it seems. Aaron
Pallas, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University
“Charter schools on the other hand, —
especially those operated by national Charter Management Organizations
like KIPP and National
Heritage Academies – tend to reinforce geographic racial patterns in
their marketing appeals. On their websites and in their printed materials,
these charter chains invariably promote their abilities to educate “underserved”
communities and “close achievement gaps,” even though there is no evidence that
charters in general are any better at this than traditional public schools. In
fact, many of them are worse.”
Is Segregation The New School Choice
By Jeff
Bryant | January 6, 2012
I remember the day that the poor kids showed up at our school. It was in 1964. Classes had already started, and I was in second grade, surrounded by my familiar friends from my mostly white, mostly well-to-do, suburban neighborhood inNorth Dallas . Their bus showed up after the last bell had
rung. That in itself was a little odd because most of us walked, biked, or were
driven to school by parents.
I remember the day that the poor kids showed up at our school. It was in 1964. Classes had already started, and I was in second grade, surrounded by my familiar friends from my mostly white, mostly well-to-do, suburban neighborhood in
From Portfolios to Parasites: The Unfortunate
Path(ology) of U.S. Charter School
I recall
several years ago attending an initial organizing meeting for a special
interest group on Charter Schools at the American Educational Research
Association. Note to outsiders – AERA has several special interest groups, some
research oriented, some advocacy oriented… many somewhere in between. These
are member organized groups and many are very small. If I recall correctly,
there were a handful of us at that meeting, including Gary Miron, Katy Bulkley
and a few others. If memory serves me, I think Rick Hess may have paid a visit
to the meeting to argue that this new group should really just be a part of the
school choice special interest group. All of that aside, I and others attended
this meeting out of our interest in studying this relatively new concept of
charter schools. Most of us were intrigued by the possibilities of alternative
governance structures that might provide opportunity for innovation (what might
now be referred to a disruptive innovation).
I didn’t
spend a whole lot of time researching charters in my first few years after
that, but eventually I did start to explore charter schooling and teacher labor
markets – specifically the recruitment/retention of teachers based on different
academic backgrounds – specifically college selectivity. My perspective was
that some creative, energetic leadership (which might now be referred to as
Cage-busting leadership) that might be associated with a mission-driven
start-up school, coupled with an ounce or two of deregulation, and applied in
the right context, might provide opportunities to recruit an academically
talented pool of teachers. Our research largely supported these assertions.
Schools matter Blog posted by Judy Rabin Sunday, February 17, 2013
An Open Letter to Bill Gates, By Ruth Rodriguez-Fay
Some charters make it hard for poor, disabled to
get admitted
'Significant barriers,' some of them illegal,
found in 18 of 25 schools, part of national trend.
Getting in
can be grueling.
Students
may be asked to submit a 15-page typed research paper, an original short story,
or a handwritten essay on the historical figure they would most like to meet.
There are interviews, exams. And pages of questions for parents to answer,
including: How do you intend to help this school if we admit your son or
daughter?
These
aren't college applications. They're applications for seats at charter schools.
Charters
are public schools, funded by taxpayers and widely promoted as open to all. But
Reuters has found that across the United States
Education Policy and Leadership
Center
SUBJECT: Governor Corbett's Proposed
Education Budget for 2013-2014
"Southeastern Region Breakfast Series" Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Continental Breakfast - 8:00 a.m. Program - 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel - 201 North 17th St. , Philadelphia ,
PA 19103
SPEAKERS: An Overview of the Proposed 2013-2014 State Budget
and Education Issues Will Be Provided By:
Sharon Ward, The Pennsylvania Budget and
Policy Center
Ron Cowell, The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
State and Regional
Perspectives Will Be Provided By:
Mark B. Miller, School Director,Centennial School District
Mark B. Miller, School Director,
Joe Otto, Chief Operations Officer, William Penn
School District
Michael Churchill, Of Counsel, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Dr. Stephen D. Butz , Superintendent, Southeast Delco
School District
Dr. Stephen D. Butz
While there is no
registration fee, seating is limited and an RSVP is required.
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.
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:
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