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
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Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny; Proposed
statewide authorization and direct payment would further diminish
accountability and oversight for public tax dollars
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
"The more any quantitative social
indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will
be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt
the social processes it is intended to monitor."
The social
science principle of Campbell 's law is
sometimes used to point out the negative consequences of high-stakes testing in U.S.
What
Campbell
“Mr. Himes quoted U.S.
Department of Labor Statistics that said that in calendar year 2011, 10,538
elementary and secondary school jobs of all kinds declined in Pennsylvania, a
3.8 percent cut from the prior year.”
Teacher layoffs help create state budget surplus for state
Teacher layoffs help create state budget surplus for state
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh April 13, 2013 12:21 am
School payrolls statewide have
decreased enough that the total payroll projections by the Pennsylvania School
Employees Retirement System were about $1 billion too high in 2011-12.
That means there is about $69
million more than needed in the state Department of Education's budget for
reimbursing the PSERS employer contribution rate to school districts, according
to PSERS. It is up to the governor and
the Legislature to determine how to spend this money.
State surplus may provide temporary relief
for Pa.
By
The Associated Press Published: Friday,
April 12, 2013 ,
8:57 p.m.
HARRISBURG — Smaller-than-expected payrolls for many school districts have left a surplus of state funds that could help ease Pennsylvania's public pension problems and also undercut legislative support in the first test of Gov. Tom Corbett's pension-reform agenda.
HARRISBURG — Smaller-than-expected payrolls for many school districts have left a surplus of state funds that could help ease Pennsylvania's public pension problems and also undercut legislative support in the first test of Gov. Tom Corbett's pension-reform agenda.
The state reimburses school
districts for an average of 56 percent of their payrolls. If payrolls shrink,
so do the payments.
Roebuck Discusses Charter Schools
Comcast
Newsmakers Published on Apr 12, 2013 YouTube video runtime 4:31
Democratic Chairman of the Pa.
House Education Committee James Roebuck discusses the future of charter schools
and cyber charter schools in this episode of Comcast Newsmakers.
Teplitz
pushing for six-month study on fixing charter school tuition rates
By Emily Previti | PennLive.com on April 11, 2013 at 8:39 PM
State Sen. Rob Teplitz,
D-Dauphin is pushing for a study he hopes will adjust tuition costs for Pennsylvania
Charter school reform discussed on PCN
PCN Video
runtime 59:18 4/12/2013
Rep. James Roebuck, who is the
Democratic Chair of the House Education Committee, says his bill that addresses
Charter and Cyber school funding and oversight, could save school districts
$365 million per year. Rep. Roebuck and Lawrence Jones, president of the PA
Coalition of Public Charter Schools, discuss this and other proposals to revise
Charter School
Charter school operators defend performance
While
State Representative James Roebuck’s recent report and legislation is aimed at
reforming the state’s charter school system - especially in light of several
reports that have cast a pall of suspicion on numerous charter school operators
– there are operators who view Roebuck’s legislation as an attack on properly
run and executed alternative education programs.
Roebuck’s
report and legislation, introduced last month, calls for a withdrawal of state
funds from the charter school system, pointing to the obstacles and fiscal
mismanagement of dozens of charter schools throughout the state.
Special Education Funding Reform Bill Sent
to Governor
PA
Senate GOP Press Release April 10, 2013
A
measure that will provide long overdue reform to Pennsylvania
The
legislation does not establish a new funding formula and it does not reduce the
current level of special education funding received by local school districts.
David Mekeel: Booze for schools OK with
Corbett
Reading
Eagle April 12,
2013
Gov. Tom Corbett cares a lot
about public education. How do I know? Well, he told me himself. And why would he
lie about something like that?
The governor visitedBerks
County
Sounds like some pretty worthwhile endeavors.
But with the sale far from assured and the current lack of any guarantee that the money would go to education, I started wondering exactly what the governor's definition of important is.
So I asked him how he would fund them if the liquor bill doesn't pass.
Turns out, he won't.
The governor visited
Sounds like some pretty worthwhile endeavors.
But with the sale far from assured and the current lack of any guarantee that the money would go to education, I started wondering exactly what the governor's definition of important is.
So I asked him how he would fund them if the liquor bill doesn't pass.
Turns out, he won't.
WaPo
Ranks PA Guv Race 5th in the Nation, Up from 6th
The official entrance of
Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz onto the 2014 gubernatorial stage was enough for
the Washington Post to name Pennsylvania Pa.
In Philly:
The Coalition for Effective Teaching
The Coalition for Effective
Teaching is a broad coalition of youth-focused, non-profit organizations
calling on both the School District of
Philadelphia and the teachers’ union
to support measures to bolster more effective teaching in Philadelphia
More info at: http://effectiveteachingphilly.org/
What about Women?
We just wrapped up women’s
history month in March. You might not think there is much connection to public
education, but I spent a good portion of the month giving talks on our
grassroots movement. I spoke at a women’s history conference at Sarah Lawrence
College in New
York ; gave the keynote for a women’s history month symposium at Bowling Green State
University in Ohio
“Teaching requires a professional model, like we have in medicine, law, engineering,
accounting, architecture and many other fields. In these professions,
consistency of quality is created less by holding individual practitioners
accountable and more by building a body of knowledge, carefully training people
in that knowledge, requiring them to show expertise before they become
licensed, and then using their professions’ standards to guide their work.”
Teachers:
Will We Ever Learn?
New York Times OP-ED By JAL
MEHTA Published: April
12, 2013 53
Comments
Jal
Mehta, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education, is theauthor of
the forthcoming book “The Allure of Order: High Hopes, Dashed Expectations, and
the Troubled Quest to Remake American Schooling.”
IN April 1983, a federal
commission warned in a famous report, “A
Nation at Risk,” that American education was a “rising tide of mediocrity.”
The alarm it sounded about declining competitiveness touched off a tidal wave
of reforms: state standards, charter schools, alternative teacher-certification
programs, more money, more test-based “accountability” and, since 2001, two big
federal programs, No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
But while there have been
pockets of improvement, particularly among children in elementary school, America
Academic Gains in NYC, D.C., and Chicago
Overstated, Report Contends
Education Week District Dossier
Blog By Lesli A. Maxwell on April
11, 2013 5:50 PM
The school improvement
strategies highly touted by leaders such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former District of Columbia
schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, have produced overwhelmingly disappointing
results for the poor and minority children in Chicago, New York, and the
District of Columbia, a forthcoming report written by a national group that
favors a more holistic approach to improving public schooling, contends.
Each of those leaders—including
Duncan, who was the head of the Chicago school system before he was appointed
education secretary by President Barack Obama—have exaggerated the success
stemming from policies such as using test scores in teacher evaluations,
opening more charter schools, and shutting down failing schools, the report
argues.
And at the same time, the
report suggests that these same leaders have largely ignored the positive
benefits of other strategies used to counterbalance the effects of poverty on
children in their cities, such as early childhood services, extended learning
opportunities, and smaller schools.
Market-oriented
education reforms’ rhetoric trumps reality
Executive Summary By Elaine
Weiss and Don Long
The impacts of test-based
teacher evaluations, school closures, and
increased charter-school access
on student outcomes in Chicago
“No one wanted to get at the
truth in Washington DC
MSNBC All
In with Chris Hayes video runtime 7:58
Memo warns of widespread
cheating in DC; interview with John Merrow of PBS
“A USA
Noyes is one of 103 public
schools here that have had erasure rates that surpassed D.C. averages at least
once since 2008. That's more than half of D.C. schools.”
When standardized test scores soared in D.C.,
were the gains real?
By
Jack Gillum and Marisol Bello, USA
Because of the remarkable
turnaround, the U.S.
Department of Education named the school in northeast Washington a National
Blue Ribbon
School Washington
Why not subpoena everyone in D.C. cheating
scandal — Rhee included?
Several investigations into
suspicions of widespread cheating by educators in D.C. schools on student
standardized tests during Michelle Rhee’s tenure as chancellor turned up
precious little, but a
newly released memo (see below) by a data analyst raises questions
that warrant a new probe — this time by investigators with subpoena
powers.
Michelle Rhee's Terrible Awful Day
Esquire
By Charles
P. Pierce April
12, 2013
Well, this may just be enough to make Charlie Rose cry.
District of Columbia Public
Schools officials have long maintained that a 2011 test-cheating scandal that
generated two government probes was limited to one elementary school. But a
newly uncovered confidential memo warns as far back as January 2009 that
educator cheating on 2008 standardized tests could have been widespread, with
191 teachers in 70 schools "implicated in possible testing infractions." The
2009 memo was written by an outside analyst, Fay "Sandy" Sanford, who
had been invited by then-chancellor Michelle Rhee to examine students'
irregular math and reading score gains. It was sent to Rhee's top deputy for accountability.
If I'm that "top
deputy," I'm finding me a lawyer right quick, and I'm staying away from
the starboard rail, because the phrase "thrown overboard" suddenly
has meaning in my life.
Read more: Michelle
Rhee Cheating Scandal - Michelle Rhee's Terrible Awful Day - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/michelle-rhee-cheating-scandal-041213#ixzz2QHMlQKc2
2013
Conference on the State of Education in Pennsylvania
A Call for Equitable and
Adequate Funding for Pennsylvania
Media Area Branch NAACP
Saturday, May 11, 2013 9:00 am – 2:30 pm (8:30 am registration)
Marcus Foster Student Union 2nd
floor, Cheyney University of PA, Delaware County Campus
Information and registration
at: http://www.naacpmediabranch.org/2013_conference.html
Obama Administration Budget Makes Major
Investment in Early Learning
US Department of Education
Homeroom Blog Posted on April 10, 2013 by Jonathan Schorr
Studies prove that children who
have rich early learning experiences are better prepared to thrive in school.
Yet the United States United States
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/04/obama-administration-budget-makes-major-investment-in-early-learning/
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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