Daily postings from the Keystone State Education
Coalition now reach more than 3060 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?
Debating charter school
reform in Pennsylvania
WHYY Radio
Times with Marty Moss-Coane - Audio runtime 52:01
“And
we have unequal funding, so that we give more money to the education of rich
kids than poor kids.”
Budget
no-brainers: A deficit at hand, Corbett must welcome all ideas
It’s that time of year again. Not Christmas or
New Year’s, but time for the state budget secretary’s midyear appraisal. The forecast, like so much winter weather, is
not good. Budget Secretary Charles Zogby said that, although Gov. Tom Corbett’s
administration expects to balance the books on a $28.4 billion budget by the
end of the fiscal year, it faces a $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion deficit in
2014-15, which begins July 1. The annual
projection comes when Democrats and Republicans are sharpening their proposals
for the coming budget debate, a months-long process that will kick off in
February when Mr. Corbett releases his fourth spending plan.
2014's
tougher GED test spurs year-end rush to IU13
55
percent more students take test in 2013; demand exceeds supply of testing time
slots
Intelligencer Journal Lancaster New Era Updated
Dec 26, 2013
15:37 By KARA NEWHOUSE Staff Writer knewhouse@lnpnews.com
Christmas shoppers weren't the only ones
battling crowds this month.
People seeking a GED diploma showed up in
throngs at Intermediate Unit 13's testing center.
They were rushing to finish the GED before a harder exam arrives in January and old scores are wiped out. "There's been a huge scramble for people to try to pass the test before the end of this year," said Tim Shenk, director of IU13's Adult Education Program.
They were rushing to finish the GED before a harder exam arrives in January and old scores are wiped out. "There's been a huge scramble for people to try to pass the test before the end of this year," said Tim Shenk, director of IU13's Adult Education Program.
Court
rules against Delco
Charter School
Delco Times By LINDA REILLY, Times
Correspondent 12/26/13 ,
9:15 PM EST
UPPER DARBY — The Delaware County Court of
Common Pleas ruled against the appeal of the Delco
Charter School
and in favor of Upper Darby
School District . Upper Darby School District Manager of Media
Services Dana Spino announced the results of the appeal.
“The Upper Darby
School District learned late last week
of the favorable ruling of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas regarding
the charter school application of Delco
Community Charter
School ,” Spino said. “The
Nov. 21 trial and decision rendered by the court on Dec. 20 are the latest
developments in a one-and-one-half-year process that began in the summer of
2012.”
Officials with the charter school have not
decided whether to appeal the latest ruling and are exploring options including
filing an appeal of the ruling.
“And we
have unequal funding, so that we give more money to the education of rich kids
than poor kids.”
Darling-Hammond Deplores Failure of No Child Left
Behind and Test-and-Punish
Blog Posted on December 27, 2013 by janresseger
This morning, December 26, Linda
Darling-Hammond spoke with Steve Inskseep on National Public Radio’s Morning
Edition. You can listen or read the transcript here.
Darling-Hammond is the Stanford
University professor who was
considered seriously by President Barack Obama back in 2008 to be his Secretary
of Education, although Obama eventually went with his Chicago buddy, Arne Duncan.
Here Darling-Hammond looks at the
failure—evident after ten years—of President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind
Act that set the bar for test score passage so high that, without the waivers
now being offered by Arne Duncan’s Department of Education, all schools in the
United States would be rated a failure in 2014, the deadline the 2002 law
established as the time all children across the United States would be
proficient.
“As the
district has been active in closing and defunding public schools, a flurry of
new charter schools has sprung up across the city. Just last week, CPS proposed
the addition of 21 new charter schools.”
Amid
mass school closings, a slow death for some Chicago schools
MSNBC By Trymaine Lee 12/26/13 09:16
AM—UPDATED 12/26/13 09:24 AM
“Phasing-out” is a euphemism for slow death in
a district that has become increasingly aggressive about closing public schools
in poor and African-American neighborhoods. Dyett is scheduled to close at the end of
next school year, at which point, community groups say, there will be no other
viable public high school in the neighborhood–essentially creating a “school
desert.”
Parrish Brown, 17, is a senior at Walter Dyett
High School in Chicago ’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood.
Dyett is on the list of schools being phased-out by Chicago Public Schools.
When the school closes there will be no other viable public high school in the
neighborhood, creating what critics of the closure call a “school desert.”
Mass school closings have become a growing
trend in major cities across the country, including Philadelphia, New York City, Oakland and
Detroit . But in
Chicago , the
school board has struck more broadly and with a heavier axe than any other
school district in the country. For more than a decade the school district has
been on a mission to close underperforming and underutilized schools, mostly in
minority neighborhoods on the city’s south and west sides. Since 2001 the
district has shuttered or phased-out about 150 schools, including 49 over this
past summer. It was the largest single mass school closing in American history
and affected more than 30,000 students who were either displaced or whose
schools absorbed the massive spillover.
11
telling stories about 2013 school reform
I know it’s more common to do a Top 10 list
but here are 11 of The Answer Sheet’s most popular posts in 2013, some that I
wrote and others that some of my wonderful guest writers have authored. I have
chosen posts that seem to me to be revealing about the path that
corporate-influenced school reform took in the past year and about what is
ahead for 2014. The subjects include the Common Core State Standards, the
demoralization of teachers, Teach For America and the standardized testing
obsession.
2014
PA Gubernatorial Candidate Plans for Education and Arts/Culture in PA
Education
Policy and Leadership
Center
Below is an alphabetical list of the 2014 Gubernatorial Candidates and
links to information about their plans, if elected, for education and
arts/culture in Pennsylvania . This list will be updated, as more information becomes available.
FEBRUARY 1ST, 2014
The DCIU Google Symposium is an opportunity for teachers,
administrators, technology directors, and other school stakeholders to come
together and explore the power of Google Apps for Education. The
Symposium will be held at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. The
Delaware County Intermediate Unit is one of Pennsylvania ’s 29 regional educational
agencies. The day will consist of an opening keynote conducted by Rich Kiker followed
by 4 concurrent sessions.
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.
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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