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
Busting Early Childhood Education Myths – The
Fadeout Myth
Thirty-five years of longitudinal data: Disadvantaged children who
receive quality early childhood education are more likely to persist
in school, enjoy better career outcomes, higher wages and healthier
lifestyles
Busting
Early Childhood Education Myths – The Fadeout Myth
First Five Years Fund Starting Point Blog DEC 27, 2013
Early childhood education opponents are
upping their efforts in the wake of federal early childhood initiatives
such as the recently introduced Strong
Start for America’s Children Act.
Unfortunately, they’re touting the same tired,
debunked lines that critics have trotted out for years. Today
we set the record straight about one of the most common myths cited
by critics of early childhood education - that the gains made in early
childhood education disappear by third grade.
Changes
Coming to Charters in New York City , Philadelphia
Education Week Charters & Choice Blog By Katie Ash on December
27, 2013 2:06 PM
The new year may bring changes to charter
schools in some large, urban districts. New legislation in Philadelphia
and new leadership in New York Chicago
Two
PA reps make Top 12 lawmakers to watch list
What are the odds of two Pennsylvania
Rep. Mike Fleck (R.,
Huntingdon) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Phila.) both got the
nod from Governing
magazine, the premier periodical for local and state governments.
That's out of 7.383 state lawmakers across the
country, according to a press release from Fleck.
12
State Legislators to Watch in 2014
It’s a tough time to be a politician, but these
state lawmakers are really making a mark.
Governing Magazine BY LOUIS JACOBSON | JANUARY
2014
On a list of the most hated jobs, politicians
consistently rank up there with telemarketers, used car salesmen, lawyers,
parking enforcement officers and taxmen. And obviously, coming off a year that
saw sequestration and the federal shutdown, the occupation is more unpopular
now than ever with the general public. But President Theodore Roosevelt once
said that good people should enter politics or else be governed by those who
do. And despite what many may think of politicians, there are a number of good
men and women working in the nation’s 50 state legislatures. Two years ago, we compiled a similar list of
legislators to watch. Now we’re doing it again. Here are a dozen state
lawmakers, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, who are
considered players by political experts in state capitals across the country.
Vacancies
to bring change to Pa. Legislature
AP State Wire by MARK SCOLFORO December 28, 2013
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania Legislature's two-year election cycle circles back around in the coming year, as new district boundaries, a spate of retirements, death and ambition appear destined to usher in more than the usual share of turnover in the 253-member body.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania Legislature's two-year election cycle circles back around in the coming year, as new district boundaries, a spate of retirements, death and ambition appear destined to usher in more than the usual share of turnover in the 253-member body.
Now is the time of year when the campaign
battlefield begins to take shape, with candidates rounding up support and
making plans to start gathering signatures on nominating petitions by
mid-February. The legislative election
picture will be even more complicated than usual in 2014 because it will
involve House and Senate district maps the state Supreme Court approved in
March after lengthy litigation. Incumbents must decide if they want to run in
their newly drawn districts and 10 lawmakers in the House have the additional
challenge of having been shifted into the same district as another sitting
member.
Educator’s
indictment surprised the community
By JO ANN BOBBY-GILBERT - Staff Writer Morning
Journal News December
29, 2013
Editor's
note: This was voted the No. 4 story of 2013 by the Morning Journal news staff.
Distrust
of government keeps school district consolidations at bay
TribLive.com By Adam Smeltz and Richard
Gazarik Published: Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013
They squeezed more kids into classrooms, cut field trips and combined high school athletics.
They squeezed more kids into classrooms, cut field trips and combined high school athletics.
But for all the expenses Pennsylvania
“It's the nature of Pennsylvania
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5110399-74/district-districts-state#ixzz2ornEZ8Mn
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
Duquesne
charter school proposal submitted
By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh December 27, 2013 11:17 PM
Former Duquesne school director Connie Lucas
struck out in her first attempt to start a charter school in the academically
and financially troubled district earlier this month when the state Charter
Appeals Board rejected the application she filed in May 2012.
But she was back at bat again Friday with a
second proposal for a K-6 charter school that was aired at a public hearing
before Paul Long, the state-assigned receiver for Duquesne.
Here the PPG editorial board seems to think that college grads with
virtually no teaching experience and just 5 weeks of training would be more
effective than experienced teachers who are teaching out of their subject
areas…..
Wilkinsburg’s
woes: A troubled district could use Teach for America
Just when residents of the Wilkinsburg School District
In the spring, Wilkinsburg ’s
financial straits prompted it to borrow $3 million to pay bills, which in turn
caused the state Department of Education to put the district on a financial
watch list.
“In a recent political
loophole, Congress approved Teach For America
In other words, a graduate in government can teach P.E., an art
major can teach science, or a person with a major in business can teach special
education. TFA instructors arrive at a
school with little to no experience in teaching methods, educational psychology
or a substantive pre-service teaching experience.”
Teach
For America
ISU Bengal December 18, 2013 By
Levi Cavener
“We all know that we aren’t yet providing a
world-class education for every child with a disability. And we won’t rest
until we do that,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2010 while
celebrating the anniversary of the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA).
Indeed, there is good reason for Duncan
This is particularly true when ensuring that a
“highly qualified” educator — not just on paper, but in practice — is leading
the head of every special education classroom; such is my concern with an
organization inaptly named, Teach For America (TFA).
New York Times Letter by RANDI WEINGARTEN, President,
American Federation of Teachers Published: December 24, 2013
“Why
Other Countries Teach Better” (“Numbers Crunch” series, editorial, Dec. 18)
really nailed what needs to happen. For far too long, the United States
The new Program for International Student
Assessment data, when you look under the hood — as you have — makes clear that
the nations that outperform us take an entirely different approach, an approach
I’ve seen firsthand while visiting places like Finland, Singapore and Canada.
Four
tough questions about charter schools
Mark Naison, a professor of African American Studies
and History at Fordham University and director of Fordham’s Urban Studies
Program, has some important questions about charter schools. He is the author
of three books and over 100 articles on African American History, urban
history, and the history of sports, and he is a founder of the Badass
Teachers Association. A version of this appeared on his blog, With
a Brooklyn Accent.
The powers that be in the Democratic Party,
including President Obama, have made charter schools their main vehicle for
educational renewal in low-income communities, and there are more than a few
civil rights leaders and elected officials in black and Latino communities who
view them as a chance to give families in their neighborhoods better
educational opportunities. We have now had six years of strong support for
charters from the Obama administration, backed up by Race to the Top money.
It is time to ask some hard questions.
THE
YEAR IN REVIEW The 10 Most-Viewed EdWeek Stories of 2013
Education Week By The Editors Published
Online: December
26, 2013
To provide a sense of what was high on our
readers’ priority lists in 2013, the editors at Education Week compiled
a list of our ten most-viewed articles. Below, those stories are ordered by the
number of online page views they generated. Take a look at what other readers
saw as the most interesting pieces of the year, and catch up on news you may
have missed in 2013.
THE
YEAR IN REVIEW The 10 Most-Viewed EdWeek Commentaries of 2013
Education Week By The Editors Published
Online: December
26, 2013
In 2013, Education Week published
in print and online more than 100 thoughtful Commentaries on education issues.
To give a sense of which opinion essays our readers found most compelling, the
editors at Education Week have compiled a list of our 10
most-viewed Commentaries. Below, they are ordered by the number of online page
views they generated. Revisit these Commentaries and examine perspectives you
may have missed in 2013.
Public
Education Under Siege
"Most of the fire in the national debate
over school reform has come from those in favor of high-stakes testing of
students, charter schools, and weakening of teachers' unions—until now. The
very timely essays in Public Education Under Siege challenge
the assumptions and goals of the so-called school reform movement. If you want to
understand why the movement will not bring serious change to the schools that
need it most and may even make things worse, read this book. This is an
extraordinarily valuable contribution to the national debate."—Michael K.
Brown, Race, Money and the American Welfare State
Proponents of education reform are committed
to the idea that all children should receive a quality education, and that all
of them have a capacity to learn and grow, whatever their ethnicity or economic
circumstances. But though recent years have seen numerous reform efforts, the
resources available to children in different municipalities still vary
enormously, and despite landmark cases of the civil rights movement and ongoing
pushes to enact diverse and inclusive curricula, racial and ethnic segregation
remain commonplace. Public Education Under Siege examines why
public schools are in such difficult straits, why the reigning ideology of
school reform is ineffective, and what can be done about it.
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
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
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
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. 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
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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