shouldn'tDaily 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?
School
Funding shouldn't depend upon how powerful your legislator is – Join us in Harrisburg
Pennsylvanians Want a School
Funding Formula
Sign up to join us in Harrisburg
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 more
details will follow.
“According to the Philadelphia Public School
Legislators give $30.3M to 21 school districts behind closed doors
Legislators give $30.3M to 21 school districts behind closed doors
Twenty-one
of Pennsylvania Allentown
schools, with nearly 19,000 students, the School
District of Lancaster ,
with 11,200, and a rural Potter
County
But cash-strappedColumbia
School District
But cash-strapped
PA One of Only Three
States Without Education Funding Formula
No
accuracy, fairness, or transparency possible without sound formula
PA Special Education Funding Formula Commission
Upcoming Meeting
Save the
date: September 19 tentative meeting date in Reading
To consider
charter and cyber special education funding
“The critics scoffed when
Shannon and Watkins announced their plans to lure kids back into district
schools. They’re not laughing anymore.”
Editorial: Persuasive
power fills desks of Chester Upland
schools
Delco Times
Published: Thursday, September
05, 2013
They rang
in a new era in the Chester
Upland School
District
The glorious sound of bells marked the start of another school year in the district that is struggling mightily to reverse decades of declines. A small group of school officials and dignitaries were on hand to greet students as they headed back to the classroom. Among them was new Superintendent Gregory Shannon. If the new boss was smiling, it was with good reason.
The glorious sound of bells marked the start of another school year in the district that is struggling mightily to reverse decades of declines. A small group of school officials and dignitaries were on hand to greet students as they headed back to the classroom. Among them was new Superintendent Gregory Shannon. If the new boss was smiling, it was with good reason.
Can for-profit education rescue Camden
WILLIAM
BENDER, Daily News Staff Writer benderw@phillynews.com, 215-854-5255 POSTED:
Thursday, September
5, 2013 , 12:16 AM
CSMI, the firm that runs the Chester and Camden schools, is a for-profit company founded by Vahan Gureghian, a politically connected Gladwyne lawyer who donated more than $300,000 to Gov. Corbett's gubernatorial campaign and served on the education committee of his transition team. CSMI has fought to prevent public disclosure of its finances - including how much taxpayer money ultimately goes to company officials. The company has argued that, unlike public schools or some other charter schools, its finances are a "trade secret" or "confidential information," because CSMI is a private company managing a school, and not a school itself. In 2009, Gureghian attorney Edmond George - listed in public records as a founder of the Camden Community Charter School - sought to silence the Inquirer by asking a judge to order the paper to "refrain from public comments" about the company, the school or Gureghian. The motion was denied. In a separate matter, a CSMI lawyer tried unsuccessfully to bar a reporter from an arbitration hearing in open court.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130905_Can_for-profit_education_rescue_Camden_s_kids_.html#YVROcSIqysY3hbDl.99
CSMI, the firm that runs the Chester and Camden schools, is a for-profit company founded by Vahan Gureghian, a politically connected Gladwyne lawyer who donated more than $300,000 to Gov. Corbett's gubernatorial campaign and served on the education committee of his transition team. CSMI has fought to prevent public disclosure of its finances - including how much taxpayer money ultimately goes to company officials. The company has argued that, unlike public schools or some other charter schools, its finances are a "trade secret" or "confidential information," because CSMI is a private company managing a school, and not a school itself. In 2009, Gureghian attorney Edmond George - listed in public records as a founder of the Camden Community Charter School - sought to silence the Inquirer by asking a judge to order the paper to "refrain from public comments" about the company, the school or Gureghian. The motion was denied. In a separate matter, a CSMI lawyer tried unsuccessfully to bar a reporter from an arbitration hearing in open court.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130905_Can_for-profit_education_rescue_Camden_s_kids_.html#YVROcSIqysY3hbDl.99
Over the past 3 years this
has been one of the most frequently visited links on the Keystone State
Follow the Money:
Contributions by Vahan Gureghian 1/1/07 - 5/31/11
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/06/follow-money-contributions-by-vahan.html
NAACP joins fight against
Keystone Exams
By JOHN KOPP jkopp@delcotimes.com @DT_JohnKopp September 04, 2013
The
Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches became the latest group to
oppose the use of state exams as graduation requirements, arguing they are a
human rights violation that denies students the opportunity to develop their
potential.
The NAACP mailed a statement Tuesday to the Pennsylvania Board of Education, urging it to reject a proposal requiring that students pass a series of Keystone Examinations before graduating. The board is expected to vote Sept. 12 on the proposal, which mandates students pass state exams in algebra, biology and English literature in order to graduate.
“One examination cannot identify whether or not a human being has learned well,” said Joan Duvall-Flynn, chair of the state NAACP Education Committee. “One test cannot do that. Some people don’t do well on paper and pencil tests, but they can demonstrate knowledge and they can use the information.”
The NAACP mailed a statement Tuesday to the Pennsylvania Board of Education, urging it to reject a proposal requiring that students pass a series of Keystone Examinations before graduating. The board is expected to vote Sept. 12 on the proposal, which mandates students pass state exams in algebra, biology and English literature in order to graduate.
“One examination cannot identify whether or not a human being has learned well,” said Joan Duvall-Flynn, chair of the state NAACP Education Committee. “One test cannot do that. Some people don’t do well on paper and pencil tests, but they can demonstrate knowledge and they can use the information.”
Letter from the Education
Committee of the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches regarding the
Keystone Exams
Philly teachers' union to
pull new ad attacking Mayor Nutter
WHYY
Newsworks By Holly Otterbein, @hollyotterbein September 4, 2013
The Philadelphia
"We
think we got [Nutter's] attention," said Jackson
School districts, teachers at a loss for solution to
labor strikes
Laws, tax limits
hinder negotiations
By Mary
Niederberger / Pittsburgh September
5, 2013 12:27 am
Gone are
the days when teachers stayed on strike until their contracts were settled and
school boards could raise taxes to fund the agreements. Now, it's not uncommon for negotiations to go
far beyond the expiration dates -- in some cases several years -- before a
settlement is reached.
The reason:
financial pressures on districts that include drops in state and federal
funding, large hikes in pension contributions and state-imposed limits on
raising taxes, coupled with a state law governing contract negotiations that
has no real teeth.
Seven facts you should
know about new Common Core tests
The Common
Core State Standards now being implemented in most states and the District of
Columbia will soon be accompanied by new standardized tests being developed by
two multi-state consortia — the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)
— with $360 million in federal funds. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has
said repeatedly that he expects these exams, due to be rolled out in
2014-15, to go beyond the familiar multiple-choice standardized tests students
have been forced to take for more than a decade and to be an “absolute
game-changer in public education.”
Is he
right? Not
so much. Here are seven myths and realities about the new tests, from FairTest, or The
National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to ending the misuse of standardized tests. You can find more here on
FairTest’s website.
The Wrong Kind of
Education Reform
Three new books
decimate the case for charter schools and vouchers.
Slate By David
L. Kirp Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013 , at
1:16 PM
The case
for market-driven reforms in education rests on two key premises: The public
school system is in crisis, and the solution is to let the market pick winners
and losers. Market strategies—high-stakes teacher accountability, merit pay,
shuttering “failing” schools—are believed to be essential if public schools are
ever going to get better. And these maxims underlie the commitment to charter
schools and vouchers. Freed from the dead hand of bureaucracy and the
debilitating effects of school board politics, the argument runs, schools are
free to innovate.
If you
follow education debates, you’ve heard that again and again. Here’s what’s new:
A spate of new books undercuts both propositions, simply decimating the
argument for privatizing education.
“Education
Nation is a magnificent concept, and always has been. But so long as the very
FACTS that guide the discussions are drawn from the Gates Foundation, and Gates
grant recipients are the chief experts featured, we do not have a true
dialogue, a real debate about the future of education in America
Education Nation, 2013:
Will NBC News Use the Gates Foundation's Facts Again? Or Can We Get a Real
Dialogue Going?
Education
Week Living in Dialogue Blog By Anthony Cody on September
4, 2013 10:57 AM
NBC News
will be presenting, for the fourth time, several days of programming focused on
education. Education Nation will take to
the airwaves from October 6 to 8, broadcasting from the New York Public
Library.
New York
Times By KARLA ZABLUDOVSKY Published: September 4, 2013
Diane Ravitch will be speaking in
Philly at the Main Branch of the Philadelphia 7:30 pm ..
Diane Ravitch | Reign
of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America
When: Tuesday,September 17,
2013 at 7:30PM
Where: Central Library
Cost: $15 General Admission, $7 Students
Ticket and Subscription Packages
Tickets on sale here:
When: Tuesday,
Where: Central Library
Cost: $15 General Admission, $7 Students
Ticket and Subscription Packages
Tickets on sale here:
Yinzers - Diane Ravitch will be
speaking in Pittsburgh on September
16th at 6:00 pm at Temple Sinai
Free and open to
the public; doors open at 5:00 pm
Hosted by Great
Public Schools (GPS) Pittsburgh : Action United,
One Pittsburgh , PA
Interfaith Impact Network, Pittsburgh
Co-sponsored byCarlow Univ. School
of Education, Chatham Univ. Department of Education, Duquesne
Univ. School
of Education, First Unitarian Church
Social Justice Endowment, PA State Education Association, Robert Morris Univ.
School of Education & Social Sciences, Slippery Rock
Univ. College
of Education, Temple Sinai , Univ.
of Pittsburgh School of Education
Children’s activities provided by the Carnegie Library ofPittsburgh
and Carnegie Mellon University
Co-sponsored by
Children’s activities provided by the Carnegie Library of
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 is accepting applications to fill vacancies in NSBA's grassroots
advocacy program. Deadline to apply is Sept. 6.
PSBA members: Influence
public education policy at the federal level; join NSBA's Federal Relations
Network
The
National School Boards Association is seeking school directors interested in
filling vacancies for the remainder of the 2013-14 term of the Federal
Relations Network. The FRN is NSBA's grassroots advocacy program that provides
the opportunity for school board members from every congressional district in
the country who are committed to public education to get involved in federal
advocacy. For more than 40 years, school board members have been lobbying for
public education on Capitol Hill as one unified voice through this program. If
you are a school director and willing to carry the public education message to Washington , D.C.
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/.
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).
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