Daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 3150 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,
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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Auditor General concludes statewide
series of charter school hearings in Philly
A stronger region, strong schools and a clean environment: PennLive's
2014 Editorial Agenda
By PennLive Editorial
Board on March 14, 2014 at 12:32 PM
In late
January, as part of our effort to improve PennLive's Opinion and
Editorialpages, we
asked you what issues you wanted us to tackle in 2014. From global warming to healthcare reform to
spending and taxes, in vigorous discussion in the comments and in e-mails, you
sounded off on a variety of issues. And in equally vigorous internal
discussions, we evaluated your opinions and put them alongside our own agenda
as an Opinion Page. Part of any
newspaper’s mission is to reflect — and respect — the broad tapestry of voices
and opinions in the community it serves. That doesn’t necessarily mean that
we’ll always agree. But it does mean making room for as broad an array of
opinions as we possibly can. With that
in mind, here are some of the core components of PennLive’s Editorial
Agenda for 2014:
Dumaresq talks education budget in Erie
BY
ERICA ERWIN, Erie Times-News erica.erwin@timesnews.com MARCH 13, 2014
There's
a growing awareness that more pension reform is needed to help struggling
schools across the state, Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said. That awareness needs to turn into action, she
said. "It's got to happen
soon," Dumaresq said after a meeting Wednesday with the Erie Times-News
Editorial Board. "Everyone's aware of the problem. There's a growing
interest in doing something. I haven't seen a coalescing picture of what people
would like to do, but people are talking about it. I take heart in that." Most school boards wrestle with rising
pension costs. The Erie
School District
Advocates debate charter
school accountability at A.G. hearing
SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Sunday, March 16, 2014, 3:01 AM
EDUCATION ADVOCATES
CALLED for increased oversight and transparency of the state's charter schools,
while sparring over a state Senate proposal that would allow universities to
authorize new charters during a public hearing yesterday at City Hall. The hearing was the last of five held across
the state by Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on the topic of
charters, which have grown sharply during the last decade. DePasquale, who took
office last year, has chided state education officials for not holding charters
more accountable.
Some advocates yesterday
suggested that all charters should undergo yearly reviews, either by the state
or their authorizing districts, to ensure the schools are up to par
academically and financially.
Read more at
Hearing on charter schools
brings out varied opinions
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Saturday, March 15,
2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Friday,
March 14, 2014, 7:40 PM
PHILADELPHIA State
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale got an earful during a daylong
meeting in Philadelphia
on Friday on ways to improve the accountability and effectiveness of charter
schools. Paul Kihn, deputy
superintendent of the Philadelphia School District , warned that if Harrisburg passed pending legislation that
would permit the unlimited growth of charters, the cost to the district would
be so devastating that it might not be able to manage its own schools. Lawrence Jones Jr., head of Richard Allen
Preparatory Charter
School in Southwest
Philadelphia , said the state needs to provide equitable funding
for both district and charter schools.
"This grand experiment is one that is about to collapse under its
own weight, because we are doing such a poor job in oversight," said Donna
Cooper, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth.
Read more at
Letter: Pa.
Delco Times LTE by RICHARD
F. DUNLAP Jr., EdD, Superintendent, Upper
Darby School District
Most of us believe that expanded investment in early learning
is essential, because it helps ensure that every child has the best chance
possible for academic and social success.
The good news is that support for high-quality Pre-K is
reaching a tipping point in Pennsylvania .
This is one issue that has bipartisan support in the state legislature’s
127-member Early Childhood Education Caucus.
However, we have much further to go. Too many three and four-year-old
children in Pennsylvania
still miss the opportunity to arrive at kindergarten with the same learning
skills as their peers. Just under one in
six preschool-age children have access to publicly supported, high-quality
Pre-K, leaving behind many families who may have difficulty affording or
finding a good preschool for their child.
NAACP wants U.S.
MICHAELLE BOND, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Friday, March 14, 2014, 9:00 PM
POSTED: Friday, March 14, 2014,
7:23 PM
COATESVILLE Citing
allegations of bias against minorities in student discipline and special
education, the Pennsylvania NAACP has recommended that the U.S. Justice
Department monitor the Coatesville
Area School
District
The NAACP report,
released publicly Friday, also called on the school district to do a better job
of evaluating children with special needs, transporting them, designing their
school year, and providing alternative instruction.
Read more at
ASD union president: Teacher
cuts likely to come from layoffs
Union president says
there won't be enough retirements to save 74 jobs.
By Adam Clark, Of The Morning Call 9:39
p.m. EDT, March 14, 2014
The district has had an
unusually high 85 teacher retirements over the past two years and retirement
incentives previously offered by the district expired at the end of last year,
Tretter said.
The district has fewer
teachers who have reached retirement age and many of them willing to retire to
help a younger teacher keep his or her job have already done so, Tretter said.
By Mary
Niederberger / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette March 13, 2014 10:59 PM
The 375
students in grades K-6 in the Duquesne
School District Duquesne Elementary School East
Allegheny or West Mifflin Area schools. Of the 11 districts, only the Pittsburgh
Public Schools indicated an interest in discussing the possibility. However, those plans did not come to fruition
for the 2013-14 school year, and no recent talks between Pittsburgh and Duquesne have been held.
Justin
Vacula's Blog March 14, 2013
The Scranton
School District recently entered into
a lease agreement with the Scranton
Sarah
Hofius Hall, writing for the Scranton-based The Times-Tribune, reports that
on Monday — March 10, 2014 — members of the Scranton
School District school board unanimously voted to approve a
$3000/month lease agreement allowing the district to use property owned by
the Diocese of Scranton to
potentially house elementary school students. Further, a portion of the lease
stipulates the school district must refrain from “any activity that violates
any teachings or policies which in any way is contrary to the teachings of the
Roman Catholic faith and the Diocese of Scranton.”
- See
more at: http://justinvacula.com/2014/03/12/scranton-school-district-stop-funding-religion/#sthash.RRVGla3H.dpuf
Follow
this new group on twitter: @CaucusofWE
Veteran educators form a
caucus and call for member-driven teachers' union
the notebook by David
Limm on Mar 14 2014 Posted in Latest news
Seeking to fortify the
ranks of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which is currently
waiting out contract negotiations with the School
District , a number of veteran teachers and school staff have
announced the formation of a group within the union called the Caucus of Working Educators. The
caucus, which also includes nurses, counselors, librarians, and other support
staff, says it wants to make clear to a district seeking major salary and
work-rule concessions that teachers' working conditions translate
as students' learning conditions.
The group's platform lists six guiding ideals, the first of
which is a union empowered by a strong member base, not by top-down
leadership. Other principles include educational equality, transparency, and
teacher autonomy. "The objective
of the caucus is to support and further the mission of the PFT by tapping into
the energy of its members," said a Friday press
release announcing the group's launch.
Philly education activists
ask Council to hike school funding
SEAN COLLINS WALSH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER WALSHSE@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-4172 POSTED: Friday, March 14, 2014, 12:16 AM
AS CITY COUNCIL gaveled
into session yesterday, a group of education activists gathered across the
hallway to call on the lawmakers to increase funding for the School District of Philadelphia
Read more at
Rep. Chaka Fattah, Diane Ravitch,
Helen Gym Added as AERA Annual Meeting Speakers
alt="Rep. Chaka Fattah, Diane Ravitch, Helen Gym Added as AERA Annual Meeting Speakers"
class=justimagebox v:shapes="_x0000_s1026">
Congressman Chaka Fattah
(D-Pa), ranking Democrat on the House science appropriations subcommittee;
noted education historian and researcher Diane Ravitch; and Philadelphia
public education advocate Helen Gym join a compelling line-up of major speakers
at the American Educational Research Association 2014 Annual Meeting, April
3-7, in Philadelphia , Pa.
Fattah, whose district
covers much of the Philadelphia
metro area, will address "Congress and Connecting Research to STEM
Education and Innovation." In a session titled "Rising to the
Challenges of Quality and Equality: The Promise of a Public Pedagogy,"
Ravitch will speak about the unanticipated consequences of educational
innovations, while Gym will discuss what educational research means for the
lives of school children in Philadelphia .
Ravitch is a research
professor of education at New York University and author of Reign of Error: The Hoax of
the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America 's Public Schools. Gym is
cofounder of Parents United for Public Education. All three join a program that features an
impressive array of speakers, sessions, and original research presentations.
"Pennsylvania
In one potty-mouthed tirade,
a senator reveals all that's wrong with Harrisburg
By on
March 14, 2014 at 10:54 AM
So here’s all you need to know about what’s wrong with Harrisburg :
“I’m the [expletive deleted] senator. I do what the [expletive
deleted] I want, how I want, and ain’t nobody going to change me. I have been
doing it like this for 17 years. So stop trying to change me.” The architect of that deathless prose was
state Sen.
LeAnna Washington .
That 2012 outburst came in response to an entirely sensible suggestion from her
then chief-of-staff, Sean McCray, who thought it might not be such a
great idea to have Washington ’s
taxpayer-funded staff — in the middle of the work day — send out invitations to
a birthday fund-raiser. What, with that
kind of activity being illegal and all.
For his troubles, McCray, who’d been protesting steadily for a month about Washington’s habit of using her staff
do political work on the taxpayer’s dime, had his pay docked by
$10,000. And it eventually got him fired.
According to a grand jury presentment, which includes Washington ’s
outburst, McCray went to law enforcement in Montgomery County
Netflix’s Reed Hastings
BY VALERIE
STRAUSS March
14 at 6:00 am
There seems to be no end to the expertise that America ’s
billionaires possess and are happy to share with the rest of us about public
education. Apparently making a fortune in the business world makes them experts
on how to educate children. Bill Gates,
Eli Broad, Mark Zuckerberg, various Waltons — these are just some of the
prodigiously wealthy who have decided that they know how public education can
be “fixed” and have plowed big money into it. And after billions of their
dollars have been spent for their pet projects, the real problems facing public
schools remain. The newest bit of
“wisdom” for public education comes to us from Netflix Chief Executive
Officer Reed Hastings, who is a big charter school supporter and an investor in
the Rocketship Education charter school network. At a meeting of the California
Charter Schools Association on March 4, he said in a keynote speech that the
problem with public schools is that they are governed by elected local school
boards. Charter schools have boards that are not elected and, according to his
logic, have “a stable governance” and that’s why “they constantly get better
every year.”
Google under fire for
data-mining student email messages
by thenotebook on Mar 14 2014 Posted in Latest news
by Benjamin Herold for Education Week
As part of a potentially
explosive lawsuit making its way through federal court, giant online-services
provider Google has acknowledged scanning the contents of millions of email
messages sent and received by student users of the company’s Apps for Education tool suite for schools.
In the suit, the
Mountain View, Calif.-based company also faces accusations from plaintiffs that
it went further, crossing a “creepy line” by using information gleaned from the
scans to build “surreptitious” profiles of Apps for Education users that could
be used for such purposes as targeted advertising. The U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of California is hearing the complaint, which alleges that the
data-mining practices behind Google’s Gmail electronic-messaging service
violate federal and state wiretap and privacy laws.
Big business takes on tea
party over Common Core
Politico By STEPHANIE SIMON |
3/14/14 5:00 AM EDT
Tea party activists have been waging war for months against the
Common Core academic standards. Now, in a coordinated show of muscle, Big
Business is fighting back — and notching wins.
The urgent effort stems from a sense among supporters that this is a
make-or-break moment for the Common Core, which is under siege all over the
country. A coalition including the
Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a national
advertising blitz Sunday targeted at Republicans skeptical about the standards.
Spots promoting the Common Core will air on Fox News and other conservative
outlets.
Bill Gates Tries to Fashion
Teacher Support for His Beloved Common Core
deutsch29 Blog by
Mercedes Schneider March 14, 2014
One would think that if
teachers supported the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), then teachers would
take the initiative to rally around said CCSS.
Not so. It seems that we need Bill Gates to tell us that we need
CCSS. He
did so today (Friday, March
14, 2014), in Washington , DC
Got that? Teachers
support CCSS to such a degree that they need Bill to tell them to do so.
It seems that Gates has
once again bought himself an audience; he offered his CCSS-indulging speech to
the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) at its Teaching
and Learning conference. Why is Gates, a
non-teacher, offering his non-expertise to an audience of nationally-certified
teachers? Consolation prize for millions
donated.
Gates has paid
NBPTS $5
million in the form of two grants, one in 2010, and one in 2013:
School Board Members
interested in running for PSBA officer positions must file applications no
Later than April 30th
PSBA's website Electing PSBA Officers
All persons seeking nomination for elected positions of the
Association shall file with the Leadership Development Committee chair during
the month of April, an Application for Nomination on a form to be provided by
the Association expressing interest in the office sought. The Application for
nomination shall be marked received at PSBA Headquarters or mailed first class
and postmarked by April 30 to be considered and timely filed. If said date
falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, then the Application for Nomination
shall be considered timely filed if marked received at PSBA headquarters or
mailed and postmarked on the next business day." (PSBA Bylaws, Article IV,
Section 5.E.).
Details and position descriptions: https://www.psba.org/elections/index.asp
Live Chat with PA's Major Education Leadership Organizations on Twitter
Tuesday March 25th at 8:00 p.m.
PSBA
website 3/11/2014
On Tuesday,
March 25 at 8 p.m., Pennsylvania's major education leadership organizations
will host a live chat on Twitter to share the opinions of school leaders from
throughout the state and invite feedback.
Join the conversation using hashtag #PAEdFunding and
lurk, learn or let us know what you think about the state of support for public
schools. If you've never tweeted before,
join us. It's a simple, free and fast-paced way to communicate and share
information. Here are directions and a few tips:
- See
more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=7286#sthash.OGonknCO.dpuf
How the Business Community Can Lead on
Early Education
Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia
Join
business and community leaders to learn about how you can help make sure every
child arrives in kindergarten ready to succeed. On April 29th, the Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and
Southern New Jersey will host a forum featuring business leaders from around
the country talking about why they’re focused on early childhood education and
how they have moved the needle on improving quality and access in their states.
Featured
Speakers
- Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of The
Vanguard Group
- Phil Peterson, Partner, Aon Hewitt and
Co-Chair of America’s Edge/Ready Nation
- And more to be announced!
- Date & Time Tuesday, April
29, 2014 | 5-7 PM
Registration begins at 5 PM;
program from 5:30 to 7:00 PM
- Location Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia
10 North Independence Mall West Philadelphia,
PA 19106
Registration:
http://worldclassgreaterphila.org/worldclasscouncilforum
PILCOP Special Education Seminars 2014
Schedule
Register Now! EPLC’s 2014 Education Issues
Workshops for Legislative Candidates, Campaign Staff, and Interested Voters
EPLC’s Education
Issue Workshops Register Now! – Space is Limited!
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program forPennsylvania
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program for
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 in Monroeville ,
PA
Thursday, March 27, 2014 inPhiladelphia ,PA
Thursday, March 27, 2014 in
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.
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