Daily postings from the Keystone
State Education Coalition now reach more than 3000 Pennsylvania education
policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and
congressional staffers, Governor's staff, 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
The Keystone State Education
Coalition is pleased to be listed among the friends and allies of The Network for Public Education. Are you a member?
Pennsylvania
Education Policy Roundup for September 21, 2013 : School Funding Formula Press Event on Monday
9/23 at 11:30 am Capitol Rotunda
Pennsylvanians Want a School
Funding Formula
Press Event Monday September 23rd,
11:30 am Capitol Rotunda, Harrisburg
Every
child in Pennsylvania
deserves an opportunity to learn, whether they are from large or small, rich or
not-so-rich, urban, suburban or rural school districts, charter schools or
cyber schools; whether their legislator is a freshman state representative or a
senate officer.
Grassroots
Advocacy by Education Voters PA; Education Matters in the Cumberland
Valley and the Keystone State
Education Coalition
Sign up here if you may be able to join us to
represent your schools and community: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/104e0endYpVYcPxSyfG9V_DOIVAB0J3AVI0-20Q8Yylw/viewform
Lehigh Valley education advocates to
call for funding reform at Harrisburg event
By Precious Petty | The Express-Times
on September 20, 2013 at 7:45 PM
Representatives
from three Lehigh County school districts are heading to Harrisburg on Monday
to push for education funding reform. Parkland, Southern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh school
district representatives plan to join advocates from across Pennsylvania during
a news conference at the Capitol Rotunda, organizers said.
The
group is slated to highlight problems schools face due to state funding cuts
and the absence of a "rational" education funding formula as they
call on lawmakers to make the issue their top priority in the fall legislative
session, organizers said.
The
news conference is scheduled to run from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday. The
state House and Senate are set to reconvene at 1 p.m.
Statewide test errors worry Allegheny
County districts
Testing results affect a school's
academic reputation, influence teacher evaluations
By
Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 21, 2013 12:09 am
With
less than two weeks before the state's scheduled announcement of school
performance, at least 14 school districts in Allegheny County have found what
they believe are errors in some of their test data. While some local officials initially were
told it was too late to correct the data, Allegheny Intermediate Unit executive
director Linda Hippert said acting state education secretary Carolyn Dumaresq
has assured her the districts will have an opportunity to fix it.
Tim
Eller, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the problem will
not delay the anticipated Sept. 30 release of school performance data.
Trombetta tried to sign Franciscan
University to contract
By
Rich Lord / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 21, 2013 12:08 am
Two
top officials at the Franciscan University of Steubenville were wooed, but
ultimately not swayed, by cyber school founder Nick Trombetta at a Florida
condominium that is now a subject of a federal indictment. A joint FBI and IRS affidavit unsealed
Thursday said that Mr. Trombetta used the Bonita Springs condo, allegedly
purchased with funds that originated with the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter
School, to "entertain" university personnel, in hopes of getting a
contract for an unnamed business he controlled.
Education
standards set bar right
Hazelton Standard Speaker Opinion Published: September 19, 2013
Some
lawmakers and educators worried last week, after the state Board of Education
overwhelmingly approved new "common core" education standards, that
the protocol would raise the graduation bar too high for some districts and
students. That's not a frivolous
concern. Some of Pennsylvania 's
districts are deeply stressed and lack the resources they should have to help
students. Many students lack the family, social and financial resources they
need to achieve proficiency. But
education must be aspirational, especially in an age when education is more
necessary than ever for individuals and the nation to succeed.
North Penn
School District discusses impact of ending No Child Left Behind in Pennsylvania
Montgomery News By Jennifer Lawson jlawson@21st-centurymedia.com September 19, 2013
Adequate
Yearly Progress is a thing of the past in the North
Penn School
District and in districts across Pennsylvania after the U.S. Department of
Education approved the state’s request to ignore parts of No Child Left Behind.
Assistant Superintendent Diane Holben gave the school board and the community a summation of what this means and its implications to the school district Sept. 10. Replacing Adequate Yearly Progress — the measuring stick included in No Child Left Behind that assesses a school’s academic performance based on standardized tests — is the recently developed School Performance Profile. This will measure how schools are performing by looking at students’ achievement and growth through various indicators.
Assistant Superintendent Diane Holben gave the school board and the community a summation of what this means and its implications to the school district Sept. 10. Replacing Adequate Yearly Progress — the measuring stick included in No Child Left Behind that assesses a school’s academic performance based on standardized tests — is the recently developed School Performance Profile. This will measure how schools are performing by looking at students’ achievement and growth through various indicators.
http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/2013/09/19/north_penn_life/news/doc5237bb38a3e67087203136.txt
An
insiders look at the Philadelphia public school crisis
WHYY Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane September 20,
2013 Audio runtime 52:01
It’s
been two weeks since the start of school in Philadelphia. Many students
returned to the classroom with fewer teachers, fewer support staff like nurses
and counselors, and in some cases, an increased building enrollment due to
closings and consolidations. We’ll start off the hour talking parent MAURICE JONES and high school
junior MAUREEN SMITH about
the situation in their schools. Then we’ll talk with DENNIS DORFMAN, a recently
retired school counselor, and recently retired school nurse ANGELA LEEabout their roles in the
lives of Philadelphia public school students and how the budget crisis is
complicating the work of their colleagues.
-
See more at: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2013/09/20/an-insiders-look-at-the-philadelphia-public-school-crisis/#sthash.7sj0soZV.dpuf
Philly
students, parents persist in fight for more school funds
WHYY
Newsworks By Holly Otterbein, @hollyotterbein September 20, 2013
The
start of classes for Philadelphia's 134,000 public school kids is not at
all slowing down student and teacher activists who are furious about this
year's budget cutbacks. Every Friday,
the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools is setting up camp at
a school to demand more funding from City Hall and the state government. The group rallied today at the Feltonville
School of Arts and Sciences, waving down cars and passing out fliers
urging residents to file a formal complaint with the state's education
department over the cutbacks.
Newly Released Economic Well-Being
Indicators
A
project of the Anne E. Casey Foundation
Have you signed this petition for a
fair and equitable funding formula yet?
Have your friends and colleagues?
Interested in keeping the “public” in
public education? Sign up for text grassroots
alerts from the Network
for Public Education.
Join
NPE's NIXLE Group by texting "4NPE" to 888777. After sending the initial text, NIXLE will
ask for a "zipcode" - providing a zipcode will limit messages to
local interest of each subscriber. Leave the zipcode blank if you want to
receive all grassroot alerts from NPE.
PA Special Education Funding Formula
Commission Public Meeting Sept 26th at Alvernia
College in Reading from 9:30 am – 3:00 p.
To
consider charter and cyber special education funding
October 15-18, 2013 | Hershey Lodge & Convention Center
Important change this year: Delegate Assembly (replaces the
Legislative Policy Council) will be Tuesday Oct. 15 from 1 – 4:30 p.m.
The
PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference is the largest gathering of elected
officials in Pennsylvania
and offers an impressive collection of professional development opportunities
for school board members and other education leaders.
Registration:
https://www.psba.org/workshops/?workshop=17
The Penn Stater Conference Center
Hotel, State College , PA
The
state conference is PAESSP’s premier professional development event for
principals, assistant principals and other educational leaders. Attending will
enable you to connect with fellow educators while learning from speakers and
presenters who are respected experts in educational leadership.
Featuring
Keynote Speakers: Charlotte Danielson, Dr. Todd Whitaker, Will Richardson &
David Andrews, Esq. (Legal Update).
PASCD
Annual Conference ~ A Whole Child Education Powered by Blendedschools
Network November 3-4, 2013 | Hershey Lodge & Convention Center
We
invite you to join us for the Annual Conference, held at an earlier date this
year, on Sunday, November 3rd, through Monday, November 4th,
2013 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center. The Pre-Conference
begins on Saturday with PIL
Academies and Common Core
sessions. On Sunday and Monday, our features include
keynote presentations by Chris Lehmann and ASCD Author Dr. Connie Moss, as well
as numerous breakout sessions on PA’s most timely topics.
Click here for the 2013 Conference Schedule
Click here to register for the conference.
Building One Pennsylvania
Fourth
Annual Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony
THURSDAY,NOVEMBER 21,
2013 6:00-8:00 PM
THURSDAY,
IBEW Local 380 3900 Ridge
Pike Collegeville, PA 19426
Building One Pennsylvania
is an emerging statewide non-partisan organization of leaders from diverse
sectors - municipal, school, faith, business, labor and civic - who are joining
together to stabilize and revitalize their communities, revitalize local
economies and promote regional opportunity and sustainability. BuildingOnePa.org
Join
the National
School Boards
Action Center
Friends of Public Education
Participate
in a voluntary network to urge your U.S.
Representatives and Senators to support federal legislation on Capitol Hill
that is critical to providing high quality education to America ’s schoolchildren
PSBA
members will elect officers electronically for the first time in 2013
PSBA 7/8/2013
Beginning
in 2013, PSBA members will follow a completely new election process which will
be done electronically during the month of September. The changes will have
several benefits, including greater membership engagement and no more absentee
ballot process.
Below
is a quick Q&A related to the voting process this year, with more details
to come in future issues of School Leader News and at
www.psba.org. More information on the overall governance changes can be found
in the February 2013 issue of the PSBA Bulletin:
Electing
PSBA Officers: 2014 PSBA Slate of Candidates
Details on each
candidate, including bios, statements, photos and video are online now
PSBA Website Posted 8/5/2013
The 2014 PSBA Slate of Candidates is being
officially published to the members of the association. Details on each
candidate, including bios, statements, photos and video are online at http://www.psba.org/elections/.
Proposed
Amendments to PSBA Bylaws available online
PSBA website 9/17/2013
A special issue of the School Leader News with
the notice of proposed PSBA Bylaws amendments has been mailed to all school
directors and board secretaries.
This issue also is available online in the Members
Only section by clicking here. Voting on PSBA Bylaws changes will take
place at the new Delegate Assembly on Oct. 15, 2013 , at the Hershey Lodge &
Convention Center from 1-4 p.m. All member school entities should have
appointed their voting delegates and submitted names to PSBA. Details on
selecting an entity's voting delegate can be found in previous issues of
the School Leader News.
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