Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1900
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.
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These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Education Voters
PA – Statewide Call to Action day April 10th
Download 1 page pdf with information about the April 10th
call-in day.
Parents can keep their kids out of PSSAs
“But as with any experiment, we
need to be able to evaluate the results, which so far appear mixed.
Pennsylvania's revised method of evaluating charter schools reported that only
28 percent of the more traditional charter schools and none of the state's
Cyber Schools (another outsource) met the standards for "adequate yearly
progress."
Are charter schools working? It's anybody's
guess
Philly.com
by Joel Naroff POSTED: Sunday, April 7, 2013 , 6:40 AM
Joel L. Naroff is president and chief economist of Naroff Economic
Advisors, Inc. He resides in Holland , Bucks County
Charter schools may be the best
thing for education, but there is no way to know that.
We are in the middle of a grand
experiment in public education. Charter schools are opening everywhere,
including ones specializing in the arts, sciences, and technology. Outsource
programs such as Renaissance
Schools
Are charter schools the pathway
to the future or fool's gold? Are our public schools failing, and if so, which
ones and why? Should we use a combination of approaches? Unfortunately, we have
absolutely no idea of the answers because we don't have an accurate method of
determining success or failure.
Take 5 minutes and join Education Voters PA
for the Statewide Call to Action Wednesday April 10th!
Education Voters PA
"A national dialogue about the overuse or potential misuse of
standardized testing results is a healthy conversation to have,"
Parents can keep their kids out ofPennsylvania
Parents can keep their kids out of
Patriot
News By Kathy Matheson The Associated
Press on April
07, 2013 at 3:25 PM ,
Newman
has exercised the rarely used opt-out provision for the annual standardized
tests — and caused a buzz by encouraging others to follow her "act of
civil disobedience."
Standardized test irregularities in Pa.
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review By Craig
Smith Monday, April 8, 2013 , 12:01 a.m.
Pennsylvania
Test-cheating drew national
attention last week with the surrender of 35 Atlanta
Read more:http://triblive.com/news/education/3767281-74/district-cheating-test#ixzz2PrhYzV39
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
“The ultimate goal, in any
event, should be providing space to allow teachers to get back to teaching the
way they see fit.”
NCLB school assessments must give way to
local control (EDITORIAL)
Local schools will face
their annual final exams, in a manner of speaking, when the
state begins its Pennsylvania System of School Assessment next week. A direct result of President George W. Bush's
desire to set high standards in education, and a way to measure them, the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2002 requires standardized testing of any
public school that receives federal education money.
But here's the thing: The law
has demanded steadily increasing performance targets over the past decade or
so. And this is the last year that schools can score anything less than 100
percent. After this year, all students must score no worse than proficient for
a school to avoid sanctions, and those sanctions become more harsh and
stigmatizing with every unsuccessful year that passes. Think about that. Every single student
proficient? According to standardized testing? It's almost as though Bush and a
bipartisan Congress wanted public schools to be subjected to a nightmare grind
right at the time charter and cyber schooling was beginning to take off.
PA Mom: Why I won’t let my son take
high-stakes standardized test
Here’s a Q & A with a Pennsylvania Florida
Post Gazette Issue One / The
PSSAs April 7,
2013 12:12 am
Tests are overused
I am appalled by state
Department of Education press secretary Tim Eller's response ("PSSAs Are Valid," April 2 letters) to Kathy
M. Newman's March 31 Forum article ("Why I Won't Let My Son Take the PSSA"). Suggesting
that Ms. Newman, or any parent who chooses to opt out of the PSSA, has a plan
to abolish all assessments is absurd and harmful.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/letters/issue-one-the-pssas-682427/#ixzz2PoOyG6ur
NorthJersey.com BY LESLIE
BRODY STAFF WRITER THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013
A handful of New Jersey New Jersey
USC, Mt. Lebo
The Pittsburgh
By Ethan
Lott Research Director-Pittsburgh
Business Times Apr
5, 2013 , 5:00am
EDT
Three Pennsylvania
Three students from Upper
Dublin High
School in Montgomery
County , Penn.
By Lauren DiSanto and Deanna Durante,
NBCPhiladelphia.com February
2, 2013
Three
students from Montgomery County ,
Pa. Upper Dublin High School
Area educators express concerns to House
Democrats
If the state's flawed charter
school funding formula was fixed, Scranton
School District University
of Scranton Scranton
A multi-city reporting project will look at
expanding learning time
The notebook by Paul
Socolar on Apr
05 2013 Posted in Latest news
In conjunction with partner
education news organizations in other cities, theNotebook is
launching a year-long reporting project to write about the issue of expanding
learning time. We will join Catalyst-Chicago, EdNews Colorado, GothamSchools, andEdSource Today (which covers
California) in this collaboration, supported by a grant from the Ford
Foundation, which has made “more and better learning time” a priority in
its philanthropy.
Expanding learning time for
students, especially those in low-income communities, has emerged as a major
reform initiative. Some
argue that additional time that is wisely used can be a key lever for
educational equity. In addition to
reporting on developments in their own localities, the five news organizations
will take advantage of this collaboration to produce a cross-city report that
compares and contrasts policies and practices.
Philly considers hiking liquor-drink tax to
15 percent
SEAN
COLLINS WALSH, Daily News Staff Writer walshSE@phillynews.com, 215-854-4172
POSTED: Friday,
April 5, 2013 ,
5:43 AM
NEED A REASON to drink? How
about improving the futures of Philadelphia
Mayor Nutter and City Council
are rarely on the same page these days, but the possibility of increasing the
"liquor-by-the-drink" tax to help pay for the School Reform
Commission's request for $60 million seems to be gaining traction on both
sides.
Discrimination lawsuit filed against North Philadelphia Turkish-run charter school
Martha
Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer POSTED: Saturday,
April 6, 2013 ,
3:01 AM
Regenna A. Jalon, who worked at
the North Philadelphia school for four years,
said in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in late February the school
engaged in a pattern of hiring, promoting, and paying less-qualified Turkish
nationals more than American-born educators who were certified and had more
experience. A Truebright lawyer said the
school denied any wrongdoing when the suit surfaced during a hearing Thursday
on the charter school's renewal.
Jalon was one of at least nine
Truebright staffers who filed initial discrimination complaints with the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2011. She filed her suit in federal
court after the EEOC issued a letter in January that said she could proceed
with the action.
“Duncan called
the Atlanta Houston , New York , and Detroit Washington , DC
during the tenure of Michelle Rhee, who refused to speak to the USA
How
education reform's "no excuses" motto causes cheating
The
New Republic BY DANIEL
DENVIR April
5, 2013
Last
Friday, erstwhile all-star Atlanta Schools superintendent Beverly Hall and 34
Atlanta administrators, principals, teachers and other staff were indicted on
multiple counts, including conspiracy charges under a RICO
statute often used to prosecute organized crime figures and drug
dealers. The indictment lays out the conspiracy in lurid detail: Teachers
gathered in a locked windowless room to pencil in the right standardized test
bubbles and erase the wrong ones, hoping to win bonuses for high marks and
living in fear that poor scores would cost them their jobs. One principal even
wore gloves when handling the tampered tests so that she would not leave
fingerprints behind. In all, 43 Atlanta
In the prosecution’s
disciplined prose, Atlanta America
“The problem is that any school systems that have accomplished great
turnarounds of schools are going to become suspect, and people will assume that
there must have been some cheating involved.”
Education
Week By Lesli
A. Maxwell Published Online: April 4, 2013
The criminal indictments last
week of retired Atlanta
Gates
Foundation: Proceeding With Care on Tying Evaluations to Teacher Pay
Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation by LYNN
OLSON, VICKI
PHILLIPS April
05, 2013
For more context, The Washington
As states and districts begin
putting new teacher support and evaluation systems in place, they’re asking how
the information from those systems should inform teacher compensation. That’s
an important question given how much money we spend on education and how to
ensure the best results for students. But states and districts should proceed
cautiously as they move into this uncharted territory.
You might think that’s surprising
coming from us. People sometimes assume that because Bill came from the private
sector, the foundation supports awarding merit pay or bonuses to teachers
annually based on test scores. Actually,
we don’t think that’s the right solution for education. We’ve looked closely at
lessons from education and other sectors in the U.S.
Bill Gates: A fairer way to evaluate
teachers
Bill Gates is co-chair of
the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
Tom Brady may be the best
quarterback in football, but he is also infamously, hilariously slow. YouTube videos of
his 40-yard dash have gotten many thousands of hits from sports fans looking
for a good laugh. If the New England
Patriots had chosen a quarterback based only on foot speed, they would have
missed out on three Super Bowl victories. But National Football League teams ask
prospects to run, jump and lift weights. They interview them for hours. They
watch game film. In short, they use multiple measures to determine the best
players.
In much the same way that
sports teams identify and nurture talent, there is a window of opportunity in
public education to create systems that encourage and develop fantastic
teachers, leading to better results for students.
Efforts are being made to
define effective teaching and give teachers the support they need to be as
effective as possible. But as states and districts rush to implement new
teacher development and evaluation systems, there is a risk they’ll use hastily
contrived, unproven measures. One glaring example is the rush to develop new
assessments in grades and subjects not currently covered by state tests. Some
states and districts are talking about developing tests for all subjects,
including choir and gym, just so they have something to measure.
Accountability for Mr. Gates: The Billionaire
Philanthropist Evaluation
By Anthony Cody on April 5,
2013 12:24 AM
Bill Gates, who is more
responsible than anyone for the absurd evaluations by which teachers are now
being held accountable, had the gall to write this week in a
tone of exasperation about the results of his own advocacy for these very
practices.
Yesterday I asked when Mr. Gates, the
great enthusiast for accountability for others, might hold himself accountable
for his own handiwork.
As wealth has concentrated in
the accounts of individuals such as the Gates, Walton and Broad families, they
have used this to wield unprecedented power over the lives of those of us
without access to such resources. They pay for research that creates the very "facts" upon
which public debate is based. They pay for their own media outlets, and heavily
subsidize others. Their money redirects existing grassroots groups, and
underwrites new ones. They work with ALEC to write legislation, and funnel
money through PACs to buy off politicians to move it forward across the
country. They are utterly insulated from any sort of accountability. They do
not face voters in any election. Nobody "evaluates" them. They cannot
be fired. They may on occasion choose to engage in a dialogue,
but they are not obliged to respond to the substance of the criticisms raised.
As my question indicated, this accountability they demand from teachers is a
street that goes one way only.
“Charter schools deserve credit for their accomplishments, but they play
by a completely different set of rules. Not only do most charters require
parents to sign a contract that outlines their responsibilities, but they also
reserve the right to counsel out underperforming students. These students
invariably end up in traditional public schools, which become the schools of
last resort. It's little wonder, therefore, that some charter schools can post
the results that Rees heralds.”
Questioning Charter School
Education Week Reality Check
Blog By Walt Gardner on April 5,
2013 7:15 AM
It's not often that I get a
chance to appear in the same column on the same day as the leader of a major
movement in education. But on Mar. 3, my views about the success of charter
schools were published right below those of Nina Rees, the president and chief
executive of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ("Inside the World of Charter Schools,"
The New York Times).
In her letter to the editor,
Rees wrote that "charter students from low-income families are
outperforming their traditional public school peers." This is the claim
she repeated in an op-ed on Mar. 27 ("Will Obama's Budget Recognize Charter Schools?"
The Wall Street Journal). To support her view in the essay, Rees cited a
multiyear study of KIPP that was released in February by Mathematica Policy
Research. According to investigators, after three years students in KIPP were
11 months ahead of their traditional public school peers in math, 14 months
ahead in science, and 11 months ahead in social studies.
“Truth” - National Review does
the Common Core…..
The Truth about Common Core
Why are prominent conservatives criticizing a set of rigorous educational standards?
Why are prominent conservatives criticizing a set of rigorous educational standards?
National Review By Kathleen
Porter-Magee & Sol Stern APRIL 3, 2013 4:00 A.M.
The new Common Core math and
reading standards adopted by 45 states have come under a firestorm of criticism
from tea-party activists and commentators such as Glenn Beck and Michelle
Malkin. Beck calls the standards a stealth “leftist indoctrination” plot by the
Obama administration. Malkin warns that they will “eliminate American
children’s core knowledge base in English, language arts and history.” As
education scholars at two right-of-center think tanks, we feel compelled to set
the record straight.
Here’s what the Common Core
State Standards do: They simply delineate what children should know at each
grade level and describe the skills that they must acquire to stay on course
toward college or career readiness. They are not a curriculum; it’s up to
school districts to choose curricula that comply with the standards. The
Fordham Institute has carefully examined Common Core and compared it with
existing state standards: It found that for most states, Common Core is a great
improvement with regard to rigor and cohesiveness.
“If you want to know how your
child is doing in school, ask his or her teacher. Do not ever believe that your
child’s potential for success in college and in life can be demonstrated by an
elementary, or even a middle-school test. Even SAT’s have limited value in
predicting college success. The rigor of the courses a student takes in high
school is a far better predictor.”
Principal warns parents: ‘Don’t buy the
bunk’ about new Common Core tests
I recently wrote
a piece about why the standardized assessments that are being designed
to align with the Common Core State Standards will not be as “game changing” as
supporters, such as Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have promised. Here, an
award-winning New York South
Side High
School in New York New
York
No more pencils…..
Cursive handwriting disappearing from
public schools
The curlicue letters of cursive
handwriting, once considered a mainstay of American elementary education, have
been slowly disappearing from classrooms for years. Now, with most states
adopting new national standards that don’t require such instruction, cursive
could soon be eliminated from most public schools. For many students, cursive is becoming as
foreign as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In college lecture halls, more
students take notes on laptops and tablet computers than with pens and
notepads. Responding to handwritten letters from grandparents in cursive is no
longer necessary as they, too, learn how to use email, Facebook and Skype.
PCN Focus on Education: PA School Boards Wed
April 10 at 9:00 pm
Find
out just what is is that your local school board does and what it takes to
serve on the board.
Calendar: PCN
Public Affairs Start Time: 9:00
pm End Time: 10:00 pm
Produced by PCN and the
Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Location: PCN in Camp Hill Closed Captioning: Yes
URL: http://www.eplc.org/
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny
Proposed statewide
authorization and direct payment would further diminish accountability and
oversight for public tax dollars
PBPC Launches New Policy Webinar
Series
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center April 3, 2013
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy
Center is launching a new webinar
series that will connect you — direct from your computer — to the latest policy
debates in Harrisburg
Here’s the first one in the PBPC webinar series:
Webinar: Selling Snake Oil to the
States: ALEC’s State Tax and Budget Agenda at Work in Pennsylvania April 9, 2013 ,
4-5 p.m.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC — a leading voice
for state Voter ID and Stand Your Ground laws — is a driving force behind state
budget and tax policies that benefit the wealthy and corporations at the
expense of public investments. ALEC’s hand is evident in legislative proposals
in Pennsylvania
Join Greg Leroy, Director of Good Jobs First, and Dr. Peter Fisher of the
University of Iowa Pennsylvania
Network for Public Education
Webinar: How to Organize a
Grassroots Group; Saturday, April 13 at 2:30
pm EDT
Many of those who have joined our network want to get involved in
grassroots work to change the direction of education in our communities. We are
now planning a series of web forums to share concrete ways to do just that. The
first will focus on how to organize grassroots groups.
Phyllis Bush and members of the North
East Indiana Friends of Public Education will share their experiences
in getting organized. Formed just two years ago, this group helped elect
teacher Glenda Ritz as state superintendent of education.
The webinar will take place on Saturday, April 13, at 2:30 pm Eastern time, 11:30 am Pacific time. You can register
here. You will be emailed a link to the webinar a day or two before the
event.
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