Daily postings from the Keystone State Education
Coalition now reach more than 3050 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?
SB1085: Charter school reform bill now positioned for Pa.
“Chalker, a former
kindergarten teacher, worked for Brown for more than 25 years. Until stepping
down in March, she was chief executive of Planet Abacus in the city's Tacony
section, one of Brown's four charters.
During more than four hours on the stand, Chalker recounted instances of
manufacturing charter board meeting minutes, preparing phony resolutions, and
forging a signature on a doctored contract between Planet Abacus and
AcademicQuest L.L.C., a management company Brown owned.”
Another Brown
charter school employee says he forged signature
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER UPDATED: November 21, 2013, 2:01 AM
After one of Dorothy June Brown's former top aides testified in federal court Wednesday about creating bogus documents to help Brown profit from the four charter schools she founded, another former key employee came forward to say he had done the same.
After one of Dorothy June Brown's former top aides testified in federal court Wednesday about creating bogus documents to help Brown profit from the four charter schools she founded, another former key employee came forward to say he had done the same.
Grassroots
Advocates Gym, Poyourow, Ramey, Spicka:
What
Democratic Candidates for PA Governor Should be Saying about Public Education
Keystone Politics Posted on November 20, 2013 by Jon Geeting #
(This guest post comes to us from Helen
Gym, Rebecca Poyourow, Jessie B. Ramey, and Susan Spicka – four public
education advocates we respect immensely for their vigilance on behalf of high
quality public schools in the Commonwealth. The following represents their
ideal public education platform for the Democratic candidates for Pennsylvania
Governor.)
What They
Should be Saying
Yinzercation Blog November
20, 2013
It’s a lot of chilly heads as eight Democratic
candidates for Pennsylvania
Not surprisingly, that same poll found, “Nearly one
in four (22%) registered voters believes unemployment and the economy is the
state’s most important problem, followed closely by schools and school funding
(21%).” With education consistently rated as Pennsylvania
To give them a boost, the education grassroots
community has developed this handy guide. Here’s the list of Democratic
candidates for Governor and what they should be saying about public education:
Here’s one……..
“Hanger says he will
redirect $700 million per year from poor performing charter schools into public
schools and charter schools with good student performance. “I am the only
candidate who unapologetically opposes funding charter schools that have poor
student performance,” the paper states. “The huge amount of money going
to all charter schools – more than $1 billion annually – is the major reason
why both school taxes are going up and the quality of public education is
deteriorating.”
Hanger: Top
education policy goal - stop the war on public education
Hanger for Governor website Posted On November 20, 2013
· Flag
In the policy paper, which can be found at the Hanger
for Governor website, Hanger points out that all the Democratic candidates
for Governor promise to restore the $1 billion in state school aid that Corbett
has cut and to return to a fair and full funding formula, similar to what the
Rendell administration used.
“Even if a local
university authorizes a charter school, the board of the university is legally
obligated to their own schools, and not to the local taxpayers who will pay
tuition bills. It is taxation without representation,” Spicka said.”
SB1085: Charter
school reform bill now positioned for Pa.
By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com on November 19, 2013 at 7:20 PM
Controversial legislation that would overhaul the
state’s 16-year-old charter school law is now positioned for a vote in the
state Senate in the coming weeks. The
Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amended
version of the billon Tuesday by a 15-11 near-party-line vote. While this bill will continue to be a work in
progress, supporters hailed it as a positive step forward toward addressing
flaws that have emerged from the state's experience with these independent
public schools.
SB1085: PCNTV
November 19: Charter Schools with Sen. Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster and York
PCN By Larry
Kaspar on Nov
19, 2013 Video runtime 27:41
(VIDEO) Lawmakers believe that fifteen years of
charter school experience in Pennsylvania
SB1085: PSBA
Legislative Update on Charter Reform Bills
PSBA website Nov. 19, 2013
The Senate Appropriations Committee
approved an omnibus amendment to charter school reform legislation under Senate
Bill 1085, and the measure will now go to the Senate floor where
further changes are anticipated. While PSBA remains concerned with
components of Senate Bill 1085, the association had a key role in the
negotiations process yesterday and is continuing to work directly with Senate
leaders and the bill's prime sponsor, Sen. Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster) to
achieve further changes to the bill on the Senate floor. If Senate Bill
1085 is approved by the end of the year, it will then move to the House of
Representatives where negotiations will continue early next year.
Bill advances
in Pa.
By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com on November 19, 2013 at 11:11 AM
School boards would be required to give the public a
48-hour heads up about what a proposed labor agreement with employees contains
before voting on it under a bill that won House Education Committee approval on
Tuesday. The bill, sponsored
by Rep. Fred Keller, R-Union, was approved by a 15-9 party-line vote. It is now
positioned to be considered by the full House.
It would require districts to post the proposed
agreement on their website 48 hours before a board vote and keep it on the site
for 30 days after the vote.
If the school district
is responsible for paying the salaries what does TFA do with the $750K in Gates
money? Does 5 weeks of training for 30
college grads cost $750K?
“Pittsburgh
would pay Teach for America
Bringing
Teach for America to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review By Bill
Zlatos Nov.
20, 2013 , 9:21 p.m.
Pittsburgh Public Schools is thinking of hiring up to 30 recruits annually for the next three years from Teach for America to work here next school year — an idea that upsets the teacher's union and some parents and board members. “We have some areas where we're really struggling to fill positions,” saidSuperintendent
Linda Lane
Pittsburgh Public Schools is thinking of hiring up to 30 recruits annually for the next three years from Teach for America to work here next school year — an idea that upsets the teacher's union and some parents and board members. “We have some areas where we're really struggling to fill positions,” said
Teach for America
is a nonprofit group based in New York
City Philadelphia is the only city in Pennsylvania
"Next year,"
Stanski told Council, "our costs are expected to increase by $75 million
to $100 million, due to higher pensions and health benefits, utility expenses,
charter school payments, and salaries."
Philadelphia
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER UPDATED: November 21, 2013, 2:01 AM
PHILADELPHIA Even as it limps through this school year with a shortage of staff, supplies, and programs, the Philadelphia School District must plan for another crisis on the horizon - a hole that could reach $400 million or more for 2014-15.
PHILADELPHIA Even as it limps through this school year with a shortage of staff, supplies, and programs, the Philadelphia School District must plan for another crisis on the horizon - a hole that could reach $400 million or more for 2014-15.
As it does this year, the district will likely need
$300 million just to open schools at bare-bones levels, plus as much as $100
million more to pay next year's bills.
By Angie Mason Daily
Record/Sunday News 11/19/2013
09:47:44 PM EST
Several New Hope
Academy Charter
School parents and one student have
filed a federal lawsuit against the York
City School
District
The complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. Middle District
Court by seven parents and one student, alleges that the district and board
members made up their minds about not renewing New Hope New Hope
Rep. Aument: Linking
Spending with Student Progress
By State Representative
Ryan Aument, 41st Legislative District 11/19/2013
Last year, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
During the last three state budget debates, education discussions have centered on spending. Unfortunately, what has been lost is a meaningful conversation on how those dollars are being used. We need to be concerned with whether our kids are actually benefiting from those dollars, not just how much or how little they are receiving. Far too often, government spending serves to deter genuine reform, efficiency, innovation and improvement. Spending alone is never the solution. We cannot solve our school district financial challenges with an unlimited supply of taxpayer money. To ensure our children are receiving a quality education, we need to look closely at how well current resources are being deployed to support student achievement. Currently, policy makers have no reliable and uniform way of analyzing how resources are used, how spending is prioritized or how to identify and share best practices in spending efficiency.
During the last three state budget debates, education discussions have centered on spending. Unfortunately, what has been lost is a meaningful conversation on how those dollars are being used. We need to be concerned with whether our kids are actually benefiting from those dollars, not just how much or how little they are receiving. Far too often, government spending serves to deter genuine reform, efficiency, innovation and improvement. Spending alone is never the solution. We cannot solve our school district financial challenges with an unlimited supply of taxpayer money. To ensure our children are receiving a quality education, we need to look closely at how well current resources are being deployed to support student achievement. Currently, policy makers have no reliable and uniform way of analyzing how resources are used, how spending is prioritized or how to identify and share best practices in spending efficiency.
More PA districts
require fees for sports participation
PSBA Press Release Steve Robinson, Director of
Publications and PR11/20/2013
The percent of school districts reporting sport
participation fees has tripled from 13% in 2010 to 38% in 2013. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association
(PSBA) partnered with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association
(PSADA) to survey all 500 school districts in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=6615#sthash.8l893fUi.dpuf
NPR: Kids Pay
The Price In Fight Over Fixing Philadelphia Schools
NPR Morning Edition by CLAUDIO SANCHEZ November 21, 2013 3:25
AM
Audio for this story from Morning
Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET.
This is the first in a three-part report on Philadelphia
Sharron Snyder and Othella Stanback, both seniors at
Philadelphia
Education Week On Special Ed By Christina
Samuels on November 20, 2013 4:58 PM
Parents of students in the financially
troubled Philadelphia school district have filed hundreds of special
education and educational-adequacy complaints with the Pennsylvania Department
of Education, saying that insufficient funding is denying children the
education they are guaranteed under state and federal law. More than 800 complaints have been filed as
part of an effort led by the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and
Parents United for Public Education. The organizations are directing parents toa website where they can file complaints
electronically. The goal, they say, is to show the state that inadequate
funding is having real, and damaging, effects on the 136,000-student
district.
How Poverty
Impacts Students' Test Scores, In 4 Graphs
Huffington Post Posted: 11/19/13
EST | Updated: 11/19/13 EST
Earlier this month, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that
while national test scores are slightly improving, most fourth- and
eighth-graders around the country are not proficient in math and reading, and a
sizable portion only have a basic understanding of the core subjects. But how do these numbers look when you break
them down based on social class? Below
we have created graphs comparing how the NAEP results looked for students who are eligible for free and
reduced-price lunch based on their families’ income versus how they
looked for students whose families’ are of a higher social strata.
The graphs unsurprisingly indicate that poverty is
bad for learning, as students eligible for free and reduced lunch did
significantly worse on the tests than their wealthier counterparts. Clearly, if
we want to raise our nation’s test scores and reach a higher level of global
competitiveness, lifting vulnerable learners out of poverty would be one way of
doing so.
N.Y. school
principals write letter of concern about Common Core tests
A group of eight prominent school superintendents
from around New York State have drafted a letter to parents expressing their
deep concerns about the validity of new Common Core-aligned standardized tests
that state education officials are giving to students in grades three
through eight — and in just a few weeks more than 530 other principals and
nearly 3,000 parents and teachers have signed in support.
Virginia
Group backs cutting some of 34 SOL tests
BY ZACHARY REID Richmond
A group of 12 Virginia Virginia
The plan they presented would eliminate some of the
34 SOL tests that students take between third and 11th grades and would
increase use of other means of assessment and other ways of gauging the success
or failure of schools, teachers and administrators.
"The members of all 12 education organizations
… believe that holding educators accountable for student achievement is
important, but not the way that it's currently done by the state by testing
students 34 times," Virginia Education Coalition Chairman Steven R.
Staples said in a statement.
"Educators welcome evaluation in order to
receive constructive feedback," he said. "However, the state's method
of evaluating their performance based on improvement in test scores by
comparing entirely different groups of students is statistically invalid."
The coalition includes state associations for
teachers, principals, superintendents and school boards, among others.
http://m.staffordcountysun.com/news/local/article_e9a9cf48-51fa-11e3-bd89-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=jqm
Campaign
Seeks to Recruit Top Students to Become Teachers
New York Times By MOTOKO RICH Published: November 20, 2013
If you can’t do, teach. The three best things about
teaching? June, July and August.
With so much teacher bashing, who in the world would
want to teach?
Seeking to combat such sentiments, the Department of
Education — in partnership with the Advertising Council, Microsoft,
State Farm Insurance, Teach for America, the
nation’s two largest teachers’ unions and several other educational groups — is
unveiling a public service campaign this week aimed at recruiting a new
generation of classroom educators.
Expanded
Learning Organization Names Former Treasury Secretary to Board
Education Week Time and Learning Blog By Alyssa
Morones on November 20, 2013 3:00
PM
Lawrence H. Summers, a former U.S. Boston Massachusetts to California Charlestown neighborhood
of Boston
Rhee Cancels
Debate with Ravitch at Lehigh
University
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianeravitch November 20, 2013 //
I earlier
posted that Michelle Rhee and I would debate at Lehigh
University in Pennsylvania
My choices were the Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg
(a visiting scholar at Harvard this year) and Philadelphia
Louisiana
school vouchers case still on, federal court says
By Danielle
Dreilinger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune updated November 19,
2013 at 6:39 PM
Politicians sent out a flurry of news releases
Tuesday morning to say the U.S. Justice Department had dropped its school
desegregation lawsuit against Louisiana
State Superintendent John White said the same thing,
despite announcements of victory in the case by the man who picked him for the
post, Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Religious
Schools Struggle As Charters Expand in Urban Centers, Report Says
Education Week Charters and Choice BlogBy Katie Ash on November
20, 2013 2:14 PM
The newly formed National
Commission on Faith-Based Schools has released
a report detailing the steady decline of religious schools in urban
centers throughout the United
States
Expanding vouchers, the report argues, is a key to
preserve faith-based educational institutions.
Catholic schools have been hardest hit, partly
because of the
introduction of charter schools in urban centers—a mainstay source of
students for Catholic schools. Another factor: a sharp decline in the number of
teaching nuns has raised overall costs for operating the schools, says Peter H.
Hanley, the author of the paper and executive director of the American Center
Between the 2001-02 and 2009-10 school years, the
number of students in Catholic schools declined by nearly nine percent, according
to federal data.
PCCY’s Public
Education County Reports
Public Citizens for Children and Youth November 2013
- Bucks
County
- Delaware
County
- Montgomery
County (updated
11/14/13)
Congratulations! Getting
elected to the school board was the easy part…..
PSBA New
Board Member Training: Great Governance, Great Schools
November 2013-April 2014
November 2013-April 2014
Announcing School Board
Academy ’s New Board Member Training:
Great Governance, Great
Schools
You will need a wealth of information quickly as you
jump out of the starting block and hit the ground running as a newly elected
member of the board of school directors. New board members, as well as veterans
who might like a refresher, will want to make the most of the opportunity to
attend PSBA's New Board Member Training Program: Great Governance, Great Schools
EPLC is recruiting current undergraduate or graduate students to
serve as part-time interns
EPLC
is recruiting current undergraduate or graduate students to serve as
part-time interns beginning January or May of 2014 in the downtown Harrisburg Pennsylvania School Pennsylvania
The Last Waltz Philly benefit for Philadelphia School
WXPN The Key November
5, 2013 | 12:25 PM |
By Bruce
Warren
On
Saturday, November 30th the Trocadero Theatre hosts The Last Waltz Philly, a benefit
for Philadelphia Bryan
Proceeds
will benefit four Philadelphia organizations that focus on education: Parents
United for Public Education, the Passyunk Square Civic Association Education Committee, theFriends of Horatio B. Hackett School and the School
District of Philadelphia’s Music Education Instrument Repair Program.
The National School Boards Association 74th Annual
Conference & Exposition April 5-7, 2014 New Orleans
The
National School Boards Association 74th Annual Conference &
Exposition will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans , LA. New Orleans
General Session speakers include education advocates
Thomas L. Friedman, Sir Ken Robinson, as well as education innovators Nikhil
Goyal and Angela Maiers.
We have
more than 200 sessions planned! Colleagues from across the country will present
workshops on key topics with strategies and ideas to help your district. View
our Conference Brochure for highlights on sessions
and focus presentations.
- Register now! – Register for both the conference
and housing using our online system.
- Conference Information– Visit the NSBA conference
website for up-to-date information
- Hotel List and Map - Official NSBA Housing Block
- Exposition Campus – View new products and
services and interactive trade show floor
Questions? Contact NSBA at 800-950-6722 (NSBA) between
the hours of 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST.
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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