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, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, 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 and searchable 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?
Have You
Yelled At A School Board Member Yet Today?
SB1085 would give institutions of
higher education unfettered authority to authorize and provide oversight of new
charter schools without any input by the taxpayers footing the bill.
Zogby - We never cut $1b from public education:
Politics as Usual
By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com
audio runtime 21:53
onOctober 22,
2013 at 12:00 PM ,
updated October 22, 2013 at 12:14
PM
on
It's one of
the enduring narratives of the Corbett administration: Gov. Tom Corbett slashed $1 billion
from state support for public education during his first year in office,
prompting school districts to cut staff and programs in return. The administration has spent the last three
years pushing back against this narrative, insisting that its actions came in
response to the loss of federal stimulus money that the schools never should
have used to pay for long-term costs in the first place.
In this
week's edition of "Politics as Usual," Corbett administration Budget Secretary
Charles Zogby puts this political urban myth to rest once and for
all.
It’s not just the PA
Basic Education Subsidy…….
Since FY 2008-2009
(before the federal ARRA stimulus money):
$226.9
million in Charter School
Accountability
Block Grant has been reduced by $171 million
$65
million in tutoring budget line has been eliminated
$22.8
million in school improvement grants eliminated
$13
million in Science: It’s Elementary line eliminated
$10
million in high school reform line eliminated
$10
million in dual enrollment line eliminated
“This year was no testament to state
oversight. The schools opened with gaping holes - without nurses, counselors and
other essential support. There are no music or art classes, no athletics,
although $45 million finally being released by the governor - far short of what
the district needed - could restore some of those essentials. But for years the
schools have continued to lurch from crisis to crisis. Under state supervision,
the district has seen a rise in charters, a cut in funding (especially driven
by charter expansion, and an elimination of the reimbursement for charter
students) and falling achievement.
The question
remains, though, whether schools would fare better under city oversight.”
DN
Editorial: GRADUATION
Goodbye to Pedro Ramos
... and to state oversight, too?
POSTED: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 , 3:01
AM
PUBLIC
service takes on many stripes in this city - whether you're talking about
workers punching the clock at City Hall, or the social butterflies of
high-culture volunteers who go to black-tie galas, or block captains who
monitor their neighborhoods.
Pedro
Ramos, who announced yesterday that he'll be leaving his post as the chairman
of the School Reform Commission, was a public servant who spent countless, and
thankless, hours overseeing public education in the city at one of its more
contentious points in history.
Read more
at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20131022_DN_Editorial__GRADUATION.html#i86JVZKylgaqibOz.99
Committee of Seventy:
Governor should form panel to fill SRC seats
the
notebook by Wendy Harris on Oct 22 2013
The sudden
resignation of School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos
has many asking who his replacement will be.
For others, his departure raises the question of how the
five-member panel should be selected, especially because the term of
another commissioner is set to expire in about three months. Joseph Dworetzky, who was named to the SRC by
former Gov. Ed Rendell, will reach the end of his term in January 2014.
Dworetzky has been an outspoken commissioner, unafraid to challenge his
fellow SRC members and the District. Back in May, he voted against a
stripped-down budget that eliminated nearly everything from schools
except a principal and small number of classroom teachers. He also objected to
a number of Superintendent William Hite’s proposals to close schools.
At the news
of Ramos’ resignation – his term was also set to expire in January 2014
– the Committee of Seventy, a government watchdog group, promptly
sent a letter to Gov. Corbett urging him to appoint a nominating
panel that would help fill the chairman’s post and replace Dworetzky.
On eve of federal fraud
trial, charter school guilty plea
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER Tuesday, October 22, 2013 , 6:25 PM
PHILADELPHIA
As jury selection was getting underway in the federal fraud trial of
charter-school founder Dorothy June Brown and three former administrators, one
of the administrators decided to plead guilty.
Joan Woods Chalker, 75, a top lieutenant in Brown's school network who
worked with Brown for more than 20 years and served as a chief executive at one
of her charters, pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of obstruction of
justice.
She stood
accused of conspiring with Brown and the others in a scheme to defraud four
charter schools of $6.7 million, then staging a cover-up.
What Pittsburghers are
Really Saying about School Closures
It seems
like everyone is talking about the Pittsburgh
Public School
district
It turns
out, local people have a lot to say. But you have to ask them. And if you
really want to learn something, you have to listen. Now to be fair, the PPS administration has
made some attempts to engage the public in its “Envisioning” strategic planning
process, which we now know will include a list of proposed school closures. The
district had a few parents meet one-on-one with their consultants and there was
a handful of parents (and one student that I met) on the Envisioning advisory
board. The district also held a few open houses for the public to see
presentations on the Envisioning process; conducted an on-line survey (largely
focused on “school choice”); and deployed a new on-line tool to solicit
feedback.
Request causes Dover
A Dover Area School Board member was
ordered to turn over any personal emails that would amount to district records,
after a Right to Know request was filed by some other current and former board
members.
According
to an appeal decision from the state Office of Open Records, Bryan Rehm,
Bernadette Reinking and Phillip Herman filed Right to Know requests asking for
emails that are public records involving the district sent or received by board
member Dan Sindlinger since Dec. 5, 2011 . Rehm and Reinking are also board members and
Herman is a former member.
The
district gave access to the emails on district accounts, but denied the request
for emails on Sindlinger’s personal account, saying the district didn’t have
the opportunity to review those, according to the decision.
The
requesters appealed. Sindlinger argued the request was not specific and that he
had 6,200 emails that would have to be reviewed, saying it would be a “gross
misuse of time and cost” to the district.
The open
records office said that since the request was limited to one official and the
time frame was only a year and a half, the request is sufficient. The office
also noted that the number of records to be reviewed can’t be the basis for
denial.
By Sara K. Satullo | The Express-Times
on October 22,
2013 at 9:18 PM
The Saucon Valley School Board has
moved its next meeting up in anticipation of a forthcoming independent fact-finder's report weighing
in on its teacher contract dispute.
The
Tuesday, Nov. 12, meeting will be moved to Thursday, Nov. 7, in anticipation of
the issuance of the recommendations by the neutral, appointed fact-finder,
district solicitor Mark Fitzgerald said.
The two sides jointly agreed to enter the fact-finding process in
September, despite initial reservations by the district. The report will be
sent to both parties and then they have 10 days to accept or reject the
findings.
Constituents
can come express their concerns at any school board meeting or in line at the
supermarket or the bank. If they so
choose, they can vote us out of office.
Who do we yell at when
Agora Cyber/K12, Inc. spends our tax dollars on more than 19,000
local TV commercials?
Who do we yell at when
it appears that tax dollars intended for the state’s poorest school district are
being spent building a beachfront mansion?
Who do we yell at when
tax dollars from 500 school districts appear to be laundered
through a maze of companies?
T-Shirts: "Have You
Yelled At A School Board Member Yet Today?"
Scholastic
Administrator This Week in Education by Alexander Russo October 22, 2013
Given the
raucous school board meetings we've been reading about lately, my first thought
seeing Larry Feinberg's t-shirt was that he must be a #CCSS critic or some
other type who was encouraging others to make things loud. But @lfeinberg says it's not that at all -
that he's actually an elected school board member himself and that it "encourages taxpayers/voters not to
be bashful." See the full image below.
“Findings
show that students from City Connects schools significantly outperform their Boston Boston
Community Schools: Closing the opportunity gap with
data, systems, and support at City Connects
“Teachers cannot do the work of counselors and
social workers,” educators told Mary
Walsh when she inquired many years ago about how schools were addressing
the out-of-school challenges of students living in poverty. Along with these
educators, Walsh recognized that factors such as homelessness, inadequate
health care, and community violence may seriously affect academic achievement.
Over the past 15 years, Boston College Professor Mary Walsh has led the
development of an organized approach to addressing these and other barriers
that interfere with students’ ability to learn and succeed in school.
Collaborating
with Boston Public Schools
Why community schools are a no-brainer
This seems
so obvious that it shouldn’t have to be said, but with standardized testing
being the focus of school reform, here goes anyway: Children can’t become high
achievers in school if they arrive in class hungry, sick, exhausted,
traumatized. That’s why community schools should be a bigger part of the
school reform movement than they are.
Community
schools focus not only on academics but also, through partnerships with outside
organizations, child and youth development, family support, health and social
services, and community development. By aligning with non-profits,
businesses, and public agencies, community schools can streamline services to
their students while avoiding costly redundancies and gaps in delivery.
More info on community schools:
Pre-K education gets seat
— in political center
Politico By CAITLIN EMMA |
10/22/13
5:10 AM EDT
Expanding
access to high-quality preschool has joined government dysfunction as a
familiar campaign talking point — with a twist.
Though it’s
an issue traditionally loved by the left, pre-K has recently planted itself
solidly in the center with more federal, statewide and local Republican and
Democratic candidates extolling its benefits and calling for more on the
campaign trail. The issue has permeated
races across the country, and it is likely to have at least some kind of role
in the 2016 presidential race.
THIS IS HUGE!!! No
Testing at This School! Parents Say NO!
Diane
Ravitch’s Blog By dianerav October
22, 2013 //
Almost
everyone agrees that high-stakes testing for little children is a huge mistake.
The parents not only wrote their elected officials, they took direct action. More than 80%
of the parents of the children at the Castle Bridge Elementary School in
New York City
They opted
out. The tests were canceled.
Forget teaching to the
test — at this Washington
Heights
More
than 80% of parents voted to skip an exam that the state says helps evaluate
teachers. Move is believed to be unprecedented.
BY RACHEL
MONAHAN / NEW YORK OCTOBER 21, 2013 , 5:20 PM
A Washington Heights Castle Bridge
School parents — representing 83 of
the 97 students — rejected the new
city
Read
more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/parents-opt-city-test-article-1.1492127#ixzz2iS3MSc2s
“But this is
about so much more than lunch. It’s about millions of dollars in school
funding. That’s because Maryland
How free lunches pay off for schools
At
Rognel Heights Elementary/Middle School on the west side of Baltimore
“I
love the salad,” she says. “I get almost everything that’s on there.”
This
is not just any salad bar. It’s a trophy. Rognel Heights
“I
remember the first time I saw it,” Brianna says. “I was so, like, impressed.”
The
salad bar sweepstakes is part of a big push in Baltimore Baltimore
EWA/Hechinger
Report Common Core Project: Stories From Around the U.S.
National
Education Writers Association EdMedia Commons Posted by Glen Baity on
October 16, 2013
at 11:05am
The
new Common Core State Standards, fully adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia , are poised to remake the business
of schooling from Massachusetts to California
The
Hechinger Report, in partnership with the Education Writers Association, sent
reporters to states around the country to examine the ways that Common Core is
shifting how students learn and teachers teach. Those stories, exploring what's
working and what's not as the standards roll out, are all available on the Hechinger site. News outlets were free to customize and
localize the stories as they saw fit. EWA is collecting links on this page
from news outlets who partnered with us to publish the stories, often tailored
to their own audiences. Check back for regular updates.
Can We
Reverse the Wrong Course on Data and Accountability?
New NEPC report and model legislation offer a positive alternative
to today’s poor uses of student data and punitive approaches to accountability
National
Education Policy Center Press Release October 22, 2013
BOULDER, CO (October 22, 2013) – A new report by two professors at Boston College urges American schools to use data and accountability policies in the more successful ways now seen in high-performing countries and in other sectors of U.S. society.
In their report, Data-Driven Improvement and Accountability, authors Andy Hargreaves, the Thomas More Brennan Professor of Education in the Lynch school of Education, and Henry Braun, the Boisi Professor of Education and Public Policy in the Lynch School of Education, find that the use of data in the U.S. is too often limited to simply measuring short-term gains or placing blame, rather than focusing on achieving the primary goals of education. The report is published by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), which is housed at theUniversity
of Colorado Boulder
BOULDER, CO (October 22, 2013) – A new report by two professors at Boston College urges American schools to use data and accountability policies in the more successful ways now seen in high-performing countries and in other sectors of U.S. society.
In their report, Data-Driven Improvement and Accountability, authors Andy Hargreaves, the Thomas More Brennan Professor of Education in the Lynch school of Education, and Henry Braun, the Boisi Professor of Education and Public Policy in the Lynch School of Education, find that the use of data in the U.S. is too often limited to simply measuring short-term gains or placing blame, rather than focusing on achieving the primary goals of education. The report is published by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), which is housed at the
URL
for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/ksydtx9
US CEOs break pay record as top 10
earners take home at least $100m each
Pay gaps within
companies widen as top two earners, led by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, earn
billion-dollar paychecks
Zuckerberg's
total compensation topped $2.27bn – more than $6m a day.
For
the first time ever, the 10 highest-paid chief executives in the US all
received more than $100m in compensation and two took home billion-dollar paychecks,
according to a leading annual survey of executive pay. Mark Zuckerberg,
Facebook's co-founder, was the US
…All
told, the top 10 CEOs in this year's poll took home over $4.7bn between them
and for the first time ever none earned less than $100m. "I have never
seen anything like that," said Greg Ruel, GMI's senior research consultant
and author of the report. "Usually we have a few CEOs at the $100m-plus
level but never the entire top 10."
“When you break down the various test scores, you find the
high-income kids, high-achievers are holding their own and more,” Rebell said.
“It’s when you start getting down to schools with a majority of low-income kids
that you get astoundingly low scores. Our real problem regarding educational
outcomes is not the U.S.
Study: Poor
children are now the majority in American public schools in South, West
A
majority of students in public schools throughout the American South and West
are low-income for the first time in at least four decades, according to
a new
study that details a demographic shift with broad implications for the
country. The analysis by the Southern Education Foundation, the
nation’s oldest education philanthropy, is based on the number of students from
preschool through 12th grade who were eligible for the federal free and
reduced-price meals program in the 2010-11 school year.
Building Common Ground Summit October 26, 2013
Dickinson/PSU
School of Law ,
Carlisle , PA 333 W. South Street
Interactive
Panel Discussions
Senator
Pat Vance, Senator Rob Teplitz, Molly Hunter of Education Law Center, Richard
Fry, Superintendent of Big Spring School District
For
info and registration please email: buildingcommongroundpa@gmail.com
PCCY hosting a funding formula event in
Philly October 28, 5:00 pm
On
Monday, October 28th 2013, Public Citizens for Children and
Youth (PCCY) is hosting a funding formula event starting at 5pm. Pennsylvania United Way
Building 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia , PA 19103
Register
TODAY for the 2013
Arts and Education Symposium Wednesday, October 30, 2013
PA
Arts Education Network
The
State Museum of Pennsylvania 300
North Street , Harrisburg , PA 17120
Registration,
Networking, and Refreshments-8:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.
Program-8:45
a.m. to 5:15 p.m.; Lunch-12:00 p.m.; $40 Per Person
Details and registration: http://www.artseducationpa.org/events/the-arts-and-education-symposium-2013/
Details and registration: http://www.artseducationpa.org/events/the-arts-and-education-symposium-2013/
PA Budget and Policy Center Fall Webinar Series to
Tackle Property Taxes, Marcellus Shale, Health Care, Education
Posted by PA Budget and Policy
Center October 9, 2013
Pack your
brown bag lunch and join the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center noon to 1 p.m. Learn more about
the problems with legislative proposals to fully eliminate property taxes and
proven strategies to provide property tax relief where it is needed. Other
topics include the countdown to new health care options in 2014, the latest on
jobs in the Marcellus Shale, and what we can do to restore needed education
funding in Pennsylvania
More info
and registration here: http://pennbpc.org/webinars
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.
DISTINGUISHED LECTURER SERIES - DR. PEDRO
NOGUERA, NOV 5th
Where:
Abington Senior High School
When
November 5, 2013
8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Contact
Lynn Murphy, Delaware Valley
College
Join us as we celebrate their accomplishments!
Tuesday,November
19, 2013 5:30 pm
- 8:30 pm WHYY, 150 North 6th Street , Philadelphia
Invitations coming soon!
Tuesday,
Invitations coming soon!
Register: http://tinyurl.com/m8emc4m
Building
One Pennsylvania November
21, 2013 6:00-8:00 PM
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
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