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?
Pennsylvanians Want a School Funding
Formula
Press Event Monday September 23rd, 11:30 am Capitol Rotunda, Harrisburg
Every child in Pennsylvania
Grassroots Advocacy by
Education Voters PA; Education Matters in the Cumberland
Valley and the Keystone State
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
With lawmakers returning, it's time
to stand up for public education: As I See It
Patriot-News Op-Ed By Susan Gobreski, Lawrence September 22,
2013 at 5:15 AM
Susan Gobreski writes on behalf of Education
Voters of PA.
Susan Spicka writes on behalf of Education
Matters in the Cumberland
Valley
WHYY
Newsworks By Mary Wilson, @marywilson September 23, 2013
Education
advocates will welcome Pennsylvania lawmakers
back to Harrisburg Harrisburg
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 Pennsylvania
Did you
miss our weekend posting?
Pa. Auditor General Calls
For Changes In Charter Schools
KDKA Reporting Andy Sheehan
September 20,
2013 6:44 PM
PITTSBURGH
(KDKA) — The abuse of public money is spotlighted in the indictment of former Pa. Cyber Charter
School
head Nick Trombetta. He’s accused of siphoning off at least $8
million in public money for personal expenses, a condo in Florida
head Nick Trombetta. He’s accused of siphoning off at least $8
million in public money for personal expenses, a condo in
Pennsylvania
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale says the problem is not limited to him.
“It’s not
everyone, it’s not every school, but we some people basically
syphoning money off that’s supposed to go to the classroom, and we found… now
has even bought a jet plane for one of their owners,” said DePasquale. “That
money is supposed to be used to help our kids get better opportunities for the
future; instead, it’s lining pockets of some individuals.”
, but we some people basically
syphoning money off that’s supposed to go to the classroom, and we found… now
has even bought a jet plane for one of their owners,” said DePasquale. “That
money is supposed to be used to help our kids get better opportunities for the
future; instead, it’s lining pockets of some individuals.”
New school report cards
due
'Adequate Yearly Progress' will be
replaced in public schools by a simplified grading scale.
By Adam Clark and Steve Esack, Of The Morning Call September 21, 2013
Every
September for the past decade, Pennsylvania
Known by
educators as AYP, the title was a measure of whether schools, and school
districts, had a high enough percentage of students who scored proficient or
advanced on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. The threshold for
making AYP inched closer to 100 percent each year, and schools and parents
complained the goals were impossible and the determinations of success versus
failure were confusing and inaccurate.
This
September, AYP and the benchmarks needed to achieve it are gone. On Sept. 30,
the state Department of Education plans to roll out the Pennsylvania School
Performance Profile, a grading system made possible through a federal order
that creates waivers from the mandates of No Child Left Behind. While schools are welcoming a reprieve from
what they see as the increasingly impossible standards, they aren't completely
sold on its replacement — a single score issued for every public, charter and
career-technical school in the state.
By Sara K. Satullo | The Express-Times on
September 22,
2013 at 5:53 PM
Anyone will
then be able to log on to a website that will include report cards for every
school building in the state. Each school will be scored on a 100-point scale
through a complex formula that accounts for state test scores, graduation
rates, student growth, closing achievement gaps and other factors.
Voters in three towns to decide on merging into South Hunterdon regional school district
Residents
from three south Hunterdon
County
The Lambertville, Stockton, West Amwell Township and South Hunterdon Regional High School districts
would be retooled into one if voters in those municipalities approve the ballot
referendum.
Teachers
Lead Philly member Kathleen Melville Testifies Before PA House Democratic
Policy Committee
Teachers
Lean Philly website 09/22/2013
On September 10th,
Representative Brian Sims of Philadelphia
SRC chief learned early to put education first
Jane M. Von
Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer POSTED: Monday, September 23, 2013 , 2:01 AM School Reform Commission
Chairman Pedro A. Ramos, 48, must lead Philadelphia's school system through its
worst fiscal crisis in memory - $220 million deficit, thousands laid off, barely
enough money to operate the schools this year. Most counselors, secretaries,
and vice principals will be missing. No wonder SRC meetings are loud and tense.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130923_SRC_chief_learned_early_to_put_education_first.html#T40313I8hbJIjrbI.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130923_SRC_chief_learned_early_to_put_education_first.html#T40313I8hbJIjrbI.99
Digital Notebook Blog by Evan Brandt Sunday, September 22, 2013
We've had a
spate of crimes in the area in the past week.The McDonald's on High Street
suffered an early Friday morning robbery in which one
person was injured. That same early
Friday morning the South Coventry Sunoco station at the intersection of
routes 100 and 23, just a couple hundred yards from the entrance to Owen J.
Roberts High
School
All of which got me thinking about crime and how to prevent it.
All of which got me thinking about crime and how to prevent it.
Reign of Error: Diane
Ravitch in Philadelphia
teacherbiz
blog SEPTEMBER
21, 2013 · 6:29 PM
On
September 17th, just one day after a comparatively poorly-attended
“Teacher Town Hall” hosted by Michelle Rhee, Steve Perry, and George Parker at
Temple University, Diane Ravitch spoke to a full auditorium—and via simulcast
to a section of overflow seating populated with audience members who didn’t get
a seat at the sold-out event—at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Dr.
Ravitch’s presence in the city, which is a hotbed for political, economic, and
social debates that center around the city’s troubled school system, was
celebrated by thousands of educators—both those who were able to attend the
event and those who weren’t. Ravitch was introduced by Randi Weingarten,
Ravitch’s friend of many years and President of the American Federation of
Teachers, who has spent a significant amount of time in Philadelphia in recent
weeks to defend the city’s public school teachers from attacks on the
profession that are all too common across the country–and to support the PFT’s
efforts to negotiate a meaningful contract with the School Reform Commission,
which has cut thousands of teachers and support staff, closed buildings, and asked
teachers to take pay cuts of up to 13%.
Do American public
schools really stink? Maybe not
Politico By STEPHANIE SIMON |
9/21/13 5:12 PM EDT
The
drumbeat is hard to miss: Our schools are failing. Public education is in
crisis. Our students are falling further and further behind.
The
rhetoric comes from the left and right, from educators and politicians and
lobbyists and CEOs and even Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The deep
dysfunction of our public schools is said to threaten not only America
But a vocal
group of contrarians is challenging that conventional wisdom. The latest weapon
in their arsenal: A new book out this week by education historian Diane
Ravitch, who argues that the biggest crisis facing public education is the
relentless message that public education is in crisis. It’s a debate with broad power to shape the
nation’s $600-billion-a-year investment in public education. Where’s the truth?
That’s not always easy to discern. Here’s a look at four key talking points —
and the facts (and spin) behind them.
Here’s what does really
stink:
“With the
exception of Romania , no
developed country has a higher percentage of kids in poverty than America America
That so many of our political
leaders tolerate so much misery amid so much plenty is one of the great
scandals of our age.
The Nation by Sasha Abramsky September
18, 2013
The latest
Census Bureau figures on poverty in America
1.7 million in Pa.
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review By Kari
Andren Sept.
21, 2013 , 9:54 p.m.
A slate of proposed changes in how food stamp benefits are calculated and a tightening of states' flexibility in running the programs could impact more than a million Pennsylvanians receiving the assistance. The changes are part of a measure approved by the U.S. House on Thursday that would cut nearly $4 billion a year for the next 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps one in seven people nationally and statewide buy groceries. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if the Democrat-controlled Senate approves it. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, has vowed to fight the proposal.
A slate of proposed changes in how food stamp benefits are calculated and a tightening of states' flexibility in running the programs could impact more than a million Pennsylvanians receiving the assistance. The changes are part of a measure approved by the U.S. House on Thursday that would cut nearly $4 billion a year for the next 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps one in seven people nationally and statewide buy groceries. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if the Democrat-controlled Senate approves it. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, has vowed to fight the proposal.
Casey said
data show $1 in SNAP spending generates $1.70 in economic activity.
“Over the
last few years, the Senate has pushed for substantial reforms to the SNAP
program to improve efficiency and effectiveness,” Casey said. “Despite these
steps, the House is intent on further eroding a program that is vital to
thousands of Pennsylvania
About 1.7
million Pennsylvanians receive food stamps, with about 68 percent being
families with children, slightly under the national level of 72 percent.
Read
more: http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/4741187-74/stamps-stamp-bill#ixzz2fcjAVq4d
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
“The
result, according to the analysis by economists from the University of
California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University, who
looked at 1913 onward, is the broadest income gap between super-rich and
everyone else since just before the Great Depression.”
Study Says America
NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN September 10, 2013 5:39
PM
The gap
between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is growing, according to an analysis
of IRS figures by an international group of university economists, and it
hasn't been so wide since 1928.
The incomes
of the very wealthiest 1 percent of Americans increased by 31.4 percent from
2009 to 2012. By contrast, the bottom 99 percent saw their earnings in the same
period go up by just 0.4 percent. In 2012, the top 1 percent collected 19.3
percent of all household income and the top 10 percent took home a record 48.2
percent of total earnings, The
Associated Press reports.
Why Investor Whitney
Tilson Is Betting Against K12, Inc.
When the profit motive forces action
EdSurge by Tony Wan September 21, 2013
Nothing
should unite both critics and fans of education technology more than reports of
companies making big money from shoddy products. But what about when the critic
may also make a profit by betting that an edtech company will tank because of its
lackluster service and results? At the
Value Investing Congress held in New York City on September 17, hedge fund
manager Whitney Tilson, who manages
Kase Capital, delivered a whammy of a case against online school provider, K12 Inc., with a 110-slide talk on "An Analysis of K12
(LRN) and Why It Is My Largest Short Position," shared on
BusinessInsider. He said that K12 is his portfolio’s biggest short position.
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 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
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
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
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
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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