Daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 3250 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?
Majority of Ivy League’s recent classes
have come from public high schools.
"Under legislation that Christiana, R-15, Beaver, could
introduce as early as Monday, the state -- through the Pennsylvania Department
of Education (PDE) -- would directly pay students' tuition to cyber schools
instead of having school districts make those payments."
Christiana bill would alter PA cyber
school funding model
State
Rep. Jim Christiana plans to introduce legislation this week that would
drastically change the way Pennsylvania
cyber charter schools receive tuition payments.
Under legislation that Christiana, R-15, Beaver, could introduce as
early as Monday, the state -- through the Pennsylvania Department of Education
(PDE) -- would directly pay students' tuition to cyber schools instead of
having school districts make those payments.
This change, Christiana said, would remove the burden of paying tuition
from school districts and keep district property tax revenue at the local level
instead of being used to pay cyber tuition to schools that could be nowhere
near the district.
March 14th Letter from Acting PA Ed
Sec'y Dumaresq: PDE not developing additional Keystone Exams
March 31 Letter to Members of PA Senate from PASBO, PASA,
PSBA, PARSS and PSEA
While the members served
by our collective associations listed above encourage you to enact needed reform
of the current charter school law, we urge you to oppose Senate Bill 1085 as currently
drafted. The bill does contain some positive
reforms to the charter school law, however, these provisions are outweighed by the
negative consequences of expanding the list of charter school authorizers and limiting
the financial relief to school districts from the elimination of the pension double
dip.
Our associations oppose
Senate Bill 1085 due to the inclusion of the language permitting institutions of
higher education to authorize charter schools.
This expansion of authority beyond local school districts effectively undermines
local control and disenfranchises local taxpayers. Such a proposal permits critical financial decisions
to be made by entities with no connection to or understanding of the needs of the
local community, thereby eliminating all accountability for decisions that will
have a significant and negative financial impact on a school district and its local
taxpayers. Our associations also believe
that the elimination of the pension double dip is critical and that such relief
must accrue to school districts, not to the state.
F&M
Poll: Education Most Important Issue
PoliiticsPA Written by
Brittany Foster, Managing Editor April 3, 2014
Education and schools
lead the concerns of Pennsylvanians by a wide margin, according to a new poll
out from Franklin and Marshall. 32% of
respondents said that education was the biggest issue facing Pennsylvania
today, followed by unemployment and personal finances at 23%.
There’s a major drop
off after these issues: 10% say government, 6% say taxes, 5% say energy issues,
5% say economy, 3% say health care, 3% say crime, 2% say roads, 2% say social
issues, 1% say senior issues, 1% say environment and 9% say other or don’t
know.
City’s New “Portfolio Model”
Of School Governance Comes In For Harsh Criticism
By Pat Loeb April 5, 2014 8:20 AM
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia ’s new “portfolio model” of school governance
came in for some harsh criticism at the American Educational
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Association’s annual conference being held at the Pennsylvania Convention
Center America should
be that students have a right to an education'
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.”
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” comes from the investment world, where it refers to a
group of stocks. The model’s biggest proponent, Mark Gleason of the
Philadelphia School Partnership, says it translates to keeping high-performing
schools and closing low-performers. “Schools
shouldn’t have a right to exist,” Gleason says. “The right in '
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.”
Gleason's call to close
'loser' schools infuriates public ed advocates
Citypaper By Daniel
Denvir Published: 04/06/2014 | 0
Comments Posted
Philadelphia School
Partnership CEO Mark Gleason set off a deluge of criticism after he called for
the School District to close "loser"
schools. "You keep dumping the
losers and over time you create a higher bar for what we expect of our
schools," Gleason said Friday while speaking on a panel at the American
Educational Research Association conference, which has been held in Philadelphia over the
last week. Last year, Philadelphia closed 24 schools in the wake of
massive state budget cuts and the rapid expansion of charter schools. Parents United for Public Education leader
Helen Gym said that Gleason held "extremist" views on public
education.
"Mark Gleason is
not an educator, and I think that's one thing that should be pretty clear. He
has been a relentless promoter of questionable reform models that have really
wreaked havoc in other places. And he has unprecedented access to the Mayor's
Office of Education, to the School District ,
to push his agenda," she told City Paper.
Pa. Education Department
sides with SRC on work-rule changes
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Sunday, April 6, 2014, 1:09 AM POSTED: Saturday, April 5, 2014, 7:33 PM
The state is backing the
Philadelphia School Reform Commission's request for a court ruling that would
allow it to impose work-rule changes, including disregarding seniority for
teacher assignments, transfers, layoffs, and recalls. In documents filed with the state Supreme
Court late Thursday, the Department of Education said such changes were
"essential to the SRC's mission of stabilizing the district's
finances." Jerry Jordan, president
of the 10,000-member Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which has challenged
the SRC's position, said Saturday he was stunned by the Education Department's
filing.
House Bill
2124, Amendments to Public School Code - Planning and Construction. Testimony to the House Education
Committee, March 31, 2014
Good morning. My name
is John Callahan, senior director of government affairs for the Pennsylvania
School Boards Association. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is a
nonprofit statewide association representing the 4,500 elected officials who
govern the commonwealth's public school districts. PSBA is a membership-driven
organization, pledged to the highest ideals of local lay leadership for public
schools and working to support reform for the betterment of public education
that prepares students to be productive citizens, and promote the achievements
of public schools, students and local school boards.
On behalf of the 4,500
elected officials we commend Representative Seth Grove for addressing the
fiscal and process challenges of the School Construction Reimbursement Program
(PlanCon). Representative Seth Grove's legislation amends the Public School
Code to provide for a more modern, simplified, and financially sustainable process
of reimbursement. This legislation along with an additional appropriation of
State money will begin to address the backlog of school district construction
projects awaiting reimbursement.
Lawmakers need to work with
school districts to move issues forward: PSBA director
By on
April 03, 2014 at 11:58 PM
State politicians need
to communicate better with school boards in order to understand how poorly
written legislation can throw a monkey wrench into school operations. That was
the message Pennsylvania School Boards Association officials brought
Thursday night to Carlisle Area School Board's committee meetings. John Callahan, director of government affairs
with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said that's even more
pertinent when the state legislature is trying to tackle complex problems such
as suicide prevention, or pension and charter school reforms.
Papenfuse support for Key
Charter school is perplexing: Editorial
By on April 04, 2014 at
12:49 PM
Calling
for Harrisburg school recovery officer Gene Veno to be fired wasn’t the only strange and
poorly-justified move Mayor Papenfuse made this week. He also endorsed opening a huge new charter
school in Harrisburg, even though the school’s initial application was roundly
rejected as woefully sketchy and incomplete.
The mayor’s enthusiasm for the Key Charter proposal is perplexing,
because he is so uninformed about it. Asked at a press conference Thursday, he
admitted he had not read through all the
findings that led the Harrisburg school board to reject the application.
Controversy still dogs
Philadelphia Academy Charter School
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER POSTED: Sunday,
April 6, 2014, 1:09 AM
PHILADELPHIA Six years
after a Northeast Philadelphia charter school
was roiled by allegations of financial mismanagement and nepotism, it is in
turmoil again. Five board members at Philadelphia Academy Charter
School
PARENTS WILL GET FINAL SAY ON
CHARTERS
Philly Trib Written by Wilford
Shamlin III April 3, 2014
For the first time,
parents will have a say in whether their neighborhood school is converted to a
charter school under the Renaissance school improvement initiative, a district
spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Two
charter school operators, Mastery Charter Schools and ASPIRA of Pennsylvania,
have been selected to run Edward T. Steel Elementary School, 4301 Wayne Ave.,
and the Hon. Luis Munoz Marin Elementary School, 3300 N. 3rd St., respectively,
starting in September. The competitive
process considered Mastery and ASPIRA’s track record in producing dramatic
turnaround in as little as one year in a number of targeted areas, from
improved student scores on standardized tests in reading and math proficiency,
higher attendance rates and maintaining a school climate conducive to learning. In a new action plan guiding decision-making
in 2014, the public school district noted progress in turning around the
district’s lowest performing schools, but acknowledged room for improvement.
"Although matriculating data
was provided on only four of the college’s admissions websites, that
information, along with other secondary sources indicate the majority of Ivy
League’s recent classes have come from public high schools.
Public school grads make up 55% of
incoming freshman at Dartmouth and Yale, 58.7% at Princeton and
66% a tCornell University. Brown doesn’t have figures for its
undergrad program, but it does reveal that 67% of students accepted into its
medical school in 2013 hailed from public high schools. In a 2009 New York
Times piece, William R.
Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, noted that
public schools provided almost 70 percent of the incoming freshmen class that
fall."
The EDifier - Center for Public Education April 4, 2014
By now, you’ve all read about Kwasi Enin, the Long Island high school student
who applied and gained admission to all eight Ivy League schools. Scattered along the East Coast, the
universities— Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth,
Princeton and Cornell— are among the most selective in the country, admitting less than 9 percent of its collective applicants this
year. Harvard’s admit rate was the lowest at 5.9 percent, while Cornell was
the highest at 14 percent. Acceptance
into one Ivy League college is difficult enough, let alone all eight which is
why Enin’s feat has rightly garnered widespread media attention. And small
wonder all eight welcomed him. Besides participating in student government and
playing three instruments in the chamber orchestra, Enin throws discus and shot
put for the track and field team, acts in school plays and volunteers at a
local hospital. An extraordinarily gifted student from— can I point out— a
public high school. Fluke? Far from.
"Facing a Kansas
Supreme Court ruling that funding disparities between school districts
violated the State Constitution, Kansas
Kansas Legislature Passes
Education Finance Bill
New York Times By MONICA DAVEY APRIL 7, 2014
Facing a Kansas
Supreme Court ruling that funding disparities between school districts
violated the State Constitution, Kansas
lawmakers agreed late Sunday to direct more money to poorer districts. But the decision to resolve funding gaps
across the state was complicated by days of intense battling in Topeka, the
capital, over an array of other educational policy questions — whether to
finance Common Core academic standards, whether to ease the process for
dismissing teachers, and whether to offer tax breaks for families with children
in private schools.
In the end, as scores
of public-school teachers who had gathered at the State Capitol voiced
objections, the Legislature agreed to spend more than $120 million to solve
disparities as an answer to the courts, while also putting an end to a hearing
process granted to most teachers if they are to be fired. Lawmakers also
decided to allow tax breaks for corporations that donate to private school
scholarship funds aimed at low-income students.
Standing Up to Testing
New York Times By GINIA BELLAFANTE MARCH 28, 2014
In the coming weeks,
children in New York City and across the state will begin taking annual standardized
tests in math and language that will run over the course of many hours and
days, assuming a kind of onerousness once exclusive to the bar exam. Last year,
the first in which the tests were aligned with the Common Core, a set of
standards intended to determine whether a child is on track to becoming
prepared for college, a number of parents, here and nationally, maintained an
activist stance against them. About 270 children in the city’s public school
system did not sit for the tests, their parents believing that the burdens
imposed were hardly offset by the tests’ highly debatable value. This movement of refusal does not
evolve out of antipathy toward rigor and seriousness, as critics enjoy
suggesting, but rather out of advocacy for more comprehensive forms of
assessment and a depth of intellectual experience that test-driven pedagogy
rarely allows. In the past year, the movement has grown considerably among
parents and educators, across political classifications and demographics.
NPE is going old-school -
April mail-in campaign; write your letter to Congress now
On March 2, 2014, The
Network for Public Education issued a call for congressional hearings into the
overuse and abuse of tests in our schools.
Together, we have managed to catch the attention of Congress, we
created a Twitter Storm that sent out over 20K tweets and reached 400K people
via social media while trending #1, and the offices of Congress members were
flooded with phone calls from concerned constituents. We continue to bring
attention to the plague of over-testing and the media is beginning to take
notice!
For the next part of our campaign, we’re going old school.
During the month of April, we are asking our Friends & Allies to print out
and mail a copy of this
letter to the offices of our friends at Campaign for America ’s Future in Washington D.C.
Education Debate - Pittsburgh, April 8
by Yinzercation
March 20, 2014
Please mark your calendars now
and plan to be a part of this event:
Democratic candidates for
Governor of Pennsylvania
Tuesday, April 8th atPittsburgh 6-12 515 N. Highland Ave. , Pittsburgh
PA 15206
Tuesday, April 8th at
PSBA
nominations for offices now open!
Deadline April 30th
PSBA Leadership Development Committee seeks strong leaders for the association
Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to complete an Application for Nomination no later than April 30. As a member-driven association, the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) is seeking nominees with strong skills in leadership and communication, and who have vision for PSBA. Complete details on the nomination process, links to the Application for Nomination form, and scheduled dates for nominee interviews can be found online by clicking here.
PSBA Leadership Development Committee seeks strong leaders for the association
Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to complete an Application for Nomination no later than April 30. As a member-driven association, the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) is seeking nominees with strong skills in leadership and communication, and who have vision for PSBA. Complete details on the nomination process, links to the Application for Nomination form, and scheduled dates for nominee interviews can be found online by clicking here.
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
Public
Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Tuesday, April 29th,
12-4 p.m.
Wednesday, May 14th,
1-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.
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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