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?
What the charter and choice
movement has done is sell the line, 'All you have to do is look out for your
own child.' So escape if you can and leave everyone else behind. Public
education is a civic obligation,"
Before PA expands
cyber-charters, take a look at the data: All 11 cybers scored among the lowest
schools in the state
“All 11 cybers scored among the lowest schools in the state. Not one of these cyber schools met or exceeded the average performance of
Before state officials expand cyber-charters, take a
look at the data: As I See It
Adam Schott is Director of Policy
Research at Research for Action and a former Executive Director of the State
Board of Education. James Jack is a Senior Research Associate at RFA.
Patriot-News Op-Ed By Adam Schott and James Jack November 24, 2013
at 10:15 AM ,
If it was
viewed as a single school district, Pennsylvania ’s
expansive cyber charter sector would represent Pennsylvania 's second-largest district, with
more than 35,000 students attending 16 schools statewide. Cyber charters
received approximately $366 million in taxpayer funds in 2012-13—drawing
payments from 498 of the state’s 500 school districts. The sector’s presence may grow further still:
in addition to the 16 cyber schools authorized by the state Department of
Education, six more have been proposed, with applications currently pending
before the agency.
Issue Brief: An Analysis of Pennsylvania ’s Cyber Charter Schools
Research
for Action by James Jack, John Sludden and Adam Schott, November 2013
“RFA
compared School Performance Profile scores among traditional public schools,
bricks-and-mortar charters and cyber charters. Traditional schools scored an
average of 77.8, charter schools scored 67.3 and cyber charters, 44.7. That's not good news for the 35,000 students
enrolled in virtual schools around the state - or for the taxpayers who shelled
out $366 million for such schools.”
Philly Daily News
Editorial: CY-BURIED EDUCATION
POSTED: Monday, November 25, 2013 , 3:01
AM
WITHIN the
herd of public-education options, cyber charter schools are clearly the black
sheep. From the time they first appeared on the scene soon after Pennsylvania legalized
charters in 1997, cyber charters have been subject to lawsuits, pushback from
districts that have refused to pay for cyber students and, more recently,
federal probes and grand-jury indictments of some cyber operators. Last week, the Education Law
Center , a nonprofit
group, called on the state to issue a one-year moratorium on authorizing any
more cyber schools. They make a convincing case, with findings from a study by
Research For Action, an educational research center. That research shows the
state's 16 cyber charters to be on the bottom rung of academic achievement.
Read more
at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20131125_DN_Editorial__CY-BURIED_EDUCATION.html#jMWtBeo5QsRqujQb.99
TFA: Novice teachers are not the solution
Cash-challenged
schools like Pittsburgh ’s
need experienced teachers
Post-Gazette
Opinion By Helen F. Ladd November 24, 2013 12:00
AM
Helen F. Ladd is a professor of
public policy and economics at Duke University ’s Sanford School
of Public Policy and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network
(hladd@duke.edu).
In an effort to keep educational costs in check,America ’s cash-strapped states,
local school districts and charter schools are hiring less costly novice
teachers. I understand that Pittsburgh Public Schools may soon be among them. Superintendent Linda Lane
has said she hopes to find new college grads in the two-year Teach for America program
to help fill 15 to 30 teaching vacancies next fall.
In an effort to keep educational costs in check,
In the late
1980s, most of the nation’s teachers had considerable experience — only 17
percent had taught for five or fewer years. By 2008, however, about 28 percent
— or more than one in four of America ’s
teachers — had less than five years of experience. The proportions of novices
in the classroom are particularly high in schools in underprivileged areas.
Some
observers applaud the rapid “greening” of the teaching force because they think
that experienced teachers are not needed. But this view is short-sighted.
Although a constant flow of new recruits is healthy, research shows that
teacher experience matters in important ways:
TFA: Too Few Answers
Yinzercation
Blog November
22, 2013
Right now
in the debate over whether Pittsburgh ought to
sign a contract with Teach for America ,
“TFA” stands for Too Few Answers. Two weeks ago I posted six questions that our
school board ought to be asking before it agrees to any deal with the
organization. [See “Six
Questions for Teach for America”] That piece generated considerable
discussion and just got picked up nationally. [AlterNet.org,
11-21-13]
The Great
Public Schools (GPS) Pittsburgh coalition also launched a petition asking the
school board to delay a vote on the Teach for America contract (and two other
issues), until the four new board members are seated in three weeks. As that
petition states, “This newly elected board represents the largest board
turnover in over two decades, and the new board, duly elected by Pittsburgh
voters, should have its say in these important issues.” Over 1,000 people have
now signed the petition on-line and in hard-copy formats. (Please sign here and spread the word
through your networks.) That is over one thousand Pittsburghers
who are paying attention to this issue and have spoken up about a school board
matter – that’s not something that happens everyday in this city.
Since I
posted the original TFA piece two weeks ago, I have also heard from numerous
teachers, teacher-educators, teachers in training, former TFA members, TFA
employees, concerned parents, and more. I met with Nicole Brisbane, TFA’s New
York-based managing director for new site development, who helped answer a
number of my questions. But for every answer, I have heard many new questions,
which I have tried to organize into themes below.
“Churchill
calls the requirement "a tragedy" that will only widen the equity
gaps among the state's students. Pennsylvania 's
wealthier districts invest as much as $250,000 more per student over 12 years
of education than districts in poorer areas.
"All students, if they're going to be held to the same standards,
deserve the same resources," Churchill said. "I think there are
many people who are utterly callous on what the impact [of the new graduation
requirements] will be on students."
Keystone Exams: Pa. state graduation
test draws fire as unfair to kids in poorly funded schools
WHYY
Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
NOVEMBER 22,
2013
Beginning
with the class of 2017, students in Pennsylvania
will have to pass a state standardized test to earn a high school diploma. The Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory
Review Commission approved the Keystone graduation test requirement Thursday in
a 3-2 vote that broke down along Republican-Democrat party lines. In the wake of the decision, some education
advocates are calling the requirement an "unfunded mandate."
Testimony of Michael Churchill on behalf of The
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia to Philadelphia City Council, November 20, 2013
Determining
what school districts need to educate their students and setting a fair
division between state and local sources, that is what is meant by a funding
formula. Pennsylvania is one of only
three states that does not do that—instead last year it arbitrarily decided
that it could afford $90 million additional dollars to be distributed to all
500 districts and that it could afford $30 million to go to 21 districts which
were essentially indistinguishable from many other districts in terms of need,
but were distinguishable in terms of being represented by republican
legislators in leadership positions.
This $120 million might sound substantial unless you knew that funding
to districts was cut by nearly $1 billion in 2010 because of the lack of state
revenues. At this rate it will be 2020 until the state restores all of the
cuts.
“Parkland
and Salisbury officials say because the state doesn't reimburse 100 percent of
what it costs them to transport charter and private school students, they have
to find the money elsewhere in their budgets.
Charter
schools are funded on a per-pupil basis using local and state taxes. After the
2011-2012 school year, Gov. Tom Corbett ended a partial reimbursement the
state had been paying to school districts that lose students to charters.
Salisbury
and Parkland officials say the state capped the reimbursement they receive for
transportation, so as costs rise, the burden increasingly falls on local
taxpayers.
"I am
not against choice but I will tell you that choice costs," Salisbury
Superintendent Michael Roth said. "People seem to believe that we can put
this choice into place and it's not going to have an effect. But it is having
an effect because the money needs to come from somewhere."
Busing to other schools
burdens districts
By Margie
Peterson, Special to The Morning Call December 1, 2013
By Pennsylvania law, public
school districts that bus their own students are required to transport students
to charter and private schools that are up to 10 miles outside of a district's
borders.
By Mary
Niederberger / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette November
23, 2013 10:18 PM
Since the
2010-11 school year, the Wilkinsburg School District has spent nearly a half a million
dollars on two educational consultants, flying them from Louisiana for one week a month and paying
for hotels and meals while they were in town to provide professional
development or plan retreats. The
consulting firm, Bel-Mor Associates, gained public attention by attending a
two-day retreat of district administrators in August in Nemacolin Woodlands
resort, which cost the district $15,665.50.
The spending on Bel-Mor has continued into this school year -- with a
contract calling for a "minimum" of $110,000 -- even though
Wilkinsburg, a district of 930 students, is in such financial straits that it
borrowed $3 million in the spring to pay its bills and was placed on a
financial watch list by the state Department of Education.
Pay-to-play athletics fees gain popularity in Pennsylvania
By Sara K. Satullo | The Express-Times
on November 25,
2013 at 6:00 AM ,
A survey of
500 Pennsylvania
school districts found that 38 percent charged some sort of sports
participation fee in 2012, up from 13 percent in 2010, according to a joint
survey by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State
Athletic Directors Association. The survey had a 37 percent response rate.
Tom Corbett for Governor: Investing in Education
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.)
“All five
were asked to speak on topics ranging from education to health care to
retirement security. They repeated many of the same pledges: Medicaid will be
expanded; public schools and pensions will be funded - some with more gusto
than others.”
Would-be Democratic Pa. governors lace into Corbett
Would-be Democratic Pa. governors lace into Corbett
JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER Sunday, November 24, 2013 , 12:08 AM
PHILADELPHIA
Five of the eight Democrats seeking to unseat Gov. Corbett next year lobbied
for the limelight and lit into the incumbent Saturday at a candidate forum that
exposed few gaps between them on policy and yawning chasms separating their
styles.
Some had
the raucous crowd of union members and community activists fired into a frenzy,
while others left the auditorium at Temple
University 's Performing
Arts Center lukewarm.
Allyson Schwartz for
Governor” One Pennsylvania: Quality
Education for Every Pennsylvania Student - Allyson Schwartz’s Plan to Restore
Our Commitment to Public Education
Tom Wolf for Governor: Making Pennsylvania 's Charter Schools Work for
Students and Taxpayers
Fighting for Public Education
John Hanger for
Governor: Top education policy goal -
stop the war on public education
Hanger for
Governor website Posted On November 20, 2013
Katie McGinty for Governor: Education
Katie
McGinty released her K-12 education plan ---
"Strong Schools. Bright Futures." --- that reverses Governor Tom
Corbett's $1 billion in education cuts, overhauls the school funding formula,
provides expanded access to pre-K and full-time kindergarten, reduces class
size, restores support for gifted students, and provides teachers with
additional training.
Katie’s
plan calls for:
Schmotzer's hiring by
Baldwin-Whitehall 'apparently an illegal appointment,' Dept. of Education
spokesman says
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review By Melissa
Daniels Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013 , 12:01 a.m.
The appointment of former board member Martin Michael Schmotzer to a $120,000-a-year administrative position withBaldwin-Whitehall
School District may violate Pennsylvania law, but
the state Department of Education said Friday that it has no authority to do
anything about it.
The appointment of former board member Martin Michael Schmotzer to a $120,000-a-year administrative position with
“It appears
to be an illegal appointment of an individual,” department spokesman Tim Eller
told the Tribune-Review. The Public
School Code says school board directors cannot be employed by their district
“during the term for which he was elected or appointed.” The state interprets
“during the term” to apply to all four years, even if directors have resigned,
Eller said, meaning they can be hired only after their term has expired.
In Philadelphia
schools, is the ‘right to know’ the new ‘pay for play’?
In this
post, Helen Gym, a Philadelphia
public school parent, writes about parents’ efforts to try to get the Philadelphia school
district to release to the public basic information about how schools were
selected for closure this year. Gym is founder of Parents United for
Public Education, a citywide parent group focused on school budgets and funding
to improve achievement and accountability in the public schools. She is a
former editor of The
Notebook, an independent Web site about Philadelphia public schools. She is also a
board member at Asian Americans United, a Chinatown-based community
organization active in education, youth leadership, immigrant rights, and
community development. Gym was named the Philadelphia Inquirer’s “Citizen of
the Year” in 2007 for her work in education, immigration and community
activism. This appeared on
the website of Parents United for Public Education in Philadelphia .
Common Core Unrest
Obvious in 17 States
Deutsch29
Mercedes Schneider’s Blog November 23, 2013
Proponents
of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are fond of saying that CCSS “has
been adopted by 45 states and the District
of Columbia .” However, it seems that they refuse to
mention the CCSS resistance that has found its way into state offices–often
resulting in formal hearings. Below
I offer the latest in CCSS unrest from 17 states, compliments of my
esteemed fellow teacher, Vicky Johnston. Each of the following CCSS, “state of
the states” articles is from September-November 2013, thereby representing
fresh unrest.
For each
state, I include an excerpt from the linked article. Follow the link for
additional details.
Over
one-third of the states whose governors and state superintendents signed the
CCSS Memorandum of Understanding as part of US Department of Education Race to
the Top (RTTT) funding are now percolating with CCSS misgivings.
That is
what happens with top-down reform. The “bottom”– those directly affected
by the “top’s” decisions– eventually seethe.
Consider
the excerpts below as a “catalogue of seething.”
“But The
Cardinal Newman Society has discovered 13 grants from the Gates Foundation
amounting to more than $10.5 million to develop Common Core curricula, some
even apparently made before the nationalized standards were released. "The claim that Common Core was all
about standards but not curricula was never believable, because standards can
only impact education when they influence teaching methods and curricula,” said
Patrick J. Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “And for the
Gates Foundation to effectively nationalize education, it can’t stop at broad
standards and testing. These grants prove this, and anyone who claims Common
Core is simply a standards initiative should be challenged with the facts."
Common Core Is Curriculum, Contrary to Advocates’
Claims
Catholic
Education Daily November
19, 2013 By Joe Giganti, Matthew Archbold |
The Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation has made grants totaling more than $10.5 million
to develop Common Core-compliant curricula—including by the non-profit group
Common Core, Inc.—demonstrating the foundation’s intent to reach far beyond
broad educational standards with its Common Core initiative to remake America’s
schools.
Responding
to parents and educators who have expressed concerns about the academic quality
and experimental aspects of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Common Core
advocates have often claimed that the initiative seeks only to nationalize school
standards, allowing total freedom over curriculum.
At the same
time that the Gates Foundation was funding curriculum development, Bill Gates
himself was publicly speaking as though no curriculum needed to be
intentionally developed. “When the [standardized] tests are aligned to the
common [core] standards, the curriculum will line up as well,” Gates said in a
talk at the 2009
National Conference of State Legislators.
More states delay Common Core testing as concerns
grow
Massachusetts
and Louisiana, both seen as important in the world of school reform, have
decided to delay the implementation of high-stakes standardized tests aligned
to the Common Core State Standards in the face of growing concern about
the initiative. The two states follow nearly 10 others — including Florida , the pioneer of
corporate-influenced school reform — to slow or rethink Core
implementation, actions coming amid a growing movement led by educators and
parents who have become skeptical of the standards and the new related
standardized tests.
Following Common Core money: Where are millions of
dollars going?
In this
post, award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South
Side High
School in New York
raises some new questions about the Common Core State Standards and curriculum
being developed around them. Burris has for
more than a year chronicled on this blog the many problems with the test-driven
reform in New York (here,
and here and here and here,
for example). She was
named New York ’s
2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association
of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in
2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the
School Administrators Association of New York State. She is the co-author of
the New York Principals letter of concern regarding the evaluation of teachers
by student test scores. It has been signed by more than 1,535 New York principals and more than 6,500
teachers, parents, professors, administrators and citizens. You can read the letter by clicking here. And she is a
co-author of a new open letter to parents from superintendents concerned
with Common Core testing, which you
can read about here.
By MOTOKO RICH Published: November 22, 2013
The Texas
Board of Education on Friday delayed final approval of a widely used biology
textbook because of concerns raised by one reviewer that it presents evolution
as fact rather than theory.
The monthslong
textbook review
process in Texas has been controversial because a number of people
selected this year to evaluate publishers’ submissions do not accept evolution
or climate change as
scientific truth.
New York
Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 22, 2013
A federal
judge has given state and federal lawyers 60 days to come up with possible
modifications to a longstanding court order in a 1970s civil rights case to
make sure that the state’s private school voucher program does not lead to
segregation of schools. The judge, Ivan L. R. Lemelle of Federal District Court in New Orleans , gave his order on Friday in a case involving Louisiana ’s distribution
of taxpayer-funded vouchers to some students attending private schools. The
state contends that the vouchers have no effect on desegregation efforts and
that no federal oversight by the Justice Department is needed. The Justice
Department is seeking to review the state’s assignments of student vouchers to
make sure they do not promote segregation in violation of an order from the
1971 case of Brumfield v. Dodd.
NPE National Conference
2014
The Network for Public Education November 24, 2013
The Network for Public
Education is pleased to announce our first National Conference. The event will
take place on March 1 & 2, 2014 (the weekend prior to the world-famous
South by Southwest Festival) at The University of Texas at Austin .
At the NPE National Conference 2014, there will be panel discussions,
workshops, and a keynote address by Diane Ravitch. NPE Board members –
including Anthony Cody, Leonie Haimson, and Julian Vasquez Heilig – will lead
discussions along with some of the important voices of our movement.
In the coming weeks, we
will release more details. In the meantime, make your travel plans and click
this link and submit your email address to receive updates about the NPE
National Conference 2014.
PCCY’s Public Education County Reports
Public Citizens for Children and Youth November
2013
Congratulations! Getting elected to the school
board was the easy part…..
PSBA New Board Member Training: Great Governance, Great Schools !
November 2013-April 2014 Register Online » Print Form »
November 2013-April 2014 Register Online » Print Form »
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
offices. One intern will support education policy work including the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign. The second
intern position will support the work of the Pennsylvania Arts Education Network. Ideal
candidates have an interest/course work in political science/public policy,
social studies, the arts or education and also have strong research,
communications, and critical thinking skills. The internship is unpaid, but
free parking is available. Weekly hours of the internship are negotiable. To
apply or to suggest a candidate, please email Mattie Robinson for
further information at robinson@eplc.org.
The Last Waltz Philly benefit for Philadelphia School
Children at the Trocadero on Saturday, November 30th
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
school children. Producers of the event Fergus Carey (owner of Fergie’s, Monk’s
Cafe, Belgian Cafe and Grace Tavern), Bryan
Dilworth (of Bonfire Booking), singer-songwriter Andrew Lipke, and musician and
producer Kevin Hanson. The Last Waltz, a concert by rock group The Band and featuring numerous
guest musicians including Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Joni
Mitchell, Dr. John, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond and others, was held on
Thanksgiving in 1976. The Last Waltz Philly will celebrate the music of The
Band’s farewell show all for an excellent cause.
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. Our
first time back in New Orleans
since the spring of 2002!
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
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
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