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
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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?
Keystone State Education Coalition
Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup
for May 14, 2014:
"little or no correlation between quality
teaching and the appraisals teachers received using VAM"
PA acting education
secretary: Pension reform needed
Scranton Times-Tribune
BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL Published: May 13, 2014
If the state weren’t saddled with ballooning pension costs, it
could afford construction reimbursements and budget help for school districts,
the state’s acting secretary of education said Monday. In a meeting with The Times-Tribune
editorial board, Carolyn C. Dumaresq outlined initiatives her department has
taken over the last three years, including implementing a more rigorous
curriculum and more extensive teacher evaluations and increasing accountability
with the new School Performance Profile system.
We will know all of this has worked when we see student achievement
climb,” she said. Ms. Dumaresq, who was
named acting secretary last August and previously served as the state’s deputy
secretary of elementary and secondary education, said school officials must
call for pension reform.
"Since 2008, when the program began, Quakertown has
gone from losing students to cyber charter schools to enrolling students from
across the state in its online classes. Graduation rates are up, the district's
budget is healthy again, and Quakertown is now showing several districts -
including Philadelphia - how it's done.
"We've had increases in our student achievement," said Cindy
Lapinski, the principal of Strayer Middle School in Quakertown. "I don't
know if it's technology, but I can say that kids outside of this building are
wired 24/7, and for many of our students, that's the way they think, that's the
way they operate."
Quakertown district is a
model for cyber education
SARAH GARLAND, HECHINGER
REPORT POSTED: Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 1:08 AM
The class on dramatic irony promised to be cool. Seniors in
Nicole Roeder's English class at Quakertown Community High School had to watch
a set of videos, including the trailers from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and
a scene from Othello as interpreted by two different theater
troupes. But the computer program wasn't
working, and the Othello scenes had stalled. So Cheyenne
Knight, 18, switched gears, to her physics class. First she stopped to chat
with the student next to her, a junior, who was slowly typing up a chemistry
lab with a Wikipedia article on magnesium oxide pulled up on his screen. Knight is one of Quakertown High's cyber
students. She takes her core academic classes online; the flexible learning
style of online classes fits her better, she says. Her grades are good, despite
the occasional distraction and technical glitch, and she's on track to graduate
this spring.
Auditor General's report says
state funding should repair relations between public and charter schools.
Capitolwire.com — Under The Dome™ Tuesday, May 13, 2014 (paywall)
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale knows one way the state can —
and should — repair tattered relations between public school districts and the
charters they say siphon dollars off their bottom line: restore a $219 million
cut from 2011 that reimbursed districts for the students lost to charter
schools. Compound that amount by the growth in charters during the three years
since, and Gov. Tom Corbett would need about $400 million to appease districts
and ease the tension. For more about the report and reaction to it, CLICK HERE (paywall) to read Capitolwire
Staff Writer Christen Smith’s story.
"The state Supreme Court in 2011 ruled that districts
don't have to pay charter schools for those students if the district doesn't
offer kindergarten until the students are 5."
Judge says insurer has to cover PA Cyber's defenses in school districts' lawsuit
Judge says insurer has to cover PA Cyber's defenses in school districts' lawsuit
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review By Brian
Bowling Published: Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 8:42 p.m.
Some of the claims four school districts make in a state class-action lawsuit against aBeaver
County cyber charter school could be
covered by its insurance policy, so a New
Hampshire insurance company has to cover the school's
legal defenses, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Some of the claims four school districts make in a state class-action lawsuit against a
Whether Peerless
Insurance Co. will have to pay any damages awarded against PA Cyber Charter
School depends on what claims the damages are based on, U.S. District Judge
Mark Hornak said in partially dismissing the insurer's federal lawsuit against
the school.
New grading system
more time-consuming but allows for more collaboration on best practices.
By Adam Clark,
Of The Morning Call 11:09 p.m. EDT, May 13, 2014
The final bell has rung at Liberty
High School , and seven of the Bethlehem school's best
teachers are gathered in a conference room.
It's a Friday, 2:35 p.m., and an English teacher wonders aloud whether
her feedback really helps students become better writers. Next to her, a
veteran science teacher worries about his students' lack of energy. "Should I change my teaching?" he
asks. For more than 30 minutes, the
veteran teachers trade advice and make plans to visit the others' classrooms. "They are much better at helping each
other than an administrator coming in for a lesson observation," Assistant
Principal Beth Guarriello says. In years
past, a meeting like this never would have happened, teachers say. But this
school year, Pennsylvania 's
teachers are being observed and assessed under the first remake of the state's
teacher evaluation system in more than four decades.
Good teaching, poor test
scores: Doubt cast on grading teachers by student performance
In the first large-scale analysis of new systems that evaluate
teachers based partly on student test scores, two researchers found little or
no correlation between quality teaching and the appraisals teachers received. The study,
published Tuesday in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a
peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association, is the
latest in a growing body of research that has cast doubt on whether it is
possible for states to use empirical data in identifying good and bad teachers. “The
concern is that these state tests and these measures of evaluating teachers
don’t really seem to be associated with the things we think of as defining good
teaching,” said Morgan S. Polikoff, an assistant professor of education at the
Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. He worked
on the analysis with Andrew C. Porter, dean and professor of education at the
Graduate School of Education at the University
of Pennsylvania
But in something of an irony, the new study, Instructional
Alignment as a Measure of Teaching Quality, which found little or no
correlation between quality teaching and the appraisals teachers received using
VAM, was also funded by the foundation. The authors, Morgan S. Polikoff at the
University of Southern California and Andrew C. Porter at the University of
Pennsylvania, question whether VAM data will be useful in evaluating
teacher performance and shaping classroom instruction.
The irony in new study that
bashes popular teacher evaluation method
They just keep on coming. Last month, a report was released by
the American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United
States representing statisticians and related professionals, that smacked the
“value-added method” (VAM) of evaluating teachers that has been embraced by
school “reformers” in most states. And now, there’s new research that does the
same thing. These reports support the
findings of other experts who have long warned against using for high-stakes
purposes VAM, which purports to be able to take student standardized test
scores and measure the “value” a teacher adds to student learning through
complicated formulas that factor out other influences on student achievement
(such as being hungry or tired or sick).
The newest one, as
my colleague Lyndsey Layton reported, which was published Tuesday in
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal
of the American Educational Research Association, looked at data collected
through a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called
the Measures of Effective Teaching. Gates has poured hundreds of millions
of dollars into projects that evaluate teachers in part by student scores on
standardized tests as a way that supposedly measures a teacher’s role in
“student growth.”
Evaluating Teachers with
Classroom Observations: Lessons Learned in Four Districts
Brookings Institution
Report By: Grover J. "Russ"
Whitehurst, Matthew M. Chingos and Katharine M. Lindquist May 13, 2014
The federal government
has spurred the creation of a new generation of teacher evaluation systems at
the state level through more than $4 billion in Race to the Top funding to 19
states and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability waivers to 43 states. A
majority of states have passed laws requiring the adoption of teacher
evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement data, but only a
handful of states had fully implemented new teacher evaluation systems as of
the 2012-13 school year. As the majority
of states continue to design and implement new evaluation systems, the time is
right to ask how existing teacher evaluation systems are performing and in what
practical ways they might be improved. This report helps to answer those
questions by examining the actual design and performance of new teacher
evaluation systems in four urban school districts that are at the forefront of
the effort to meaningfully evaluate teachers.
F&M poll: Wolf holds lead
as primary nears
A month ago the question was whether anyone could stop
front-runner Tom Wolf in his campaign to win the Democratic nomination in the
race to take on Tom Corbett in the fall.
The answer appears to be no. Based
on the results of a new Franklin & Marshall College
poll released Wednesday the York
County
Disciplinary proceedings
begin in Philly cheating probe
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 1:08 AM
POSTED: Tuesday, May 13, 2014,
4:30 PM
Disciplinary proceedings
have begun against four educators charged in the probe of cheating on
standardized tests at Cayuga Elementary. Evelyn Cortez, Rita Wyszynski,
Jennifer Hughes, and Ary Sloane were summoned Tuesday to Philadelphia School
District
Lancaster students were
threatened with suspension over planned Corbett protest: Tuesday Morning Coffee
By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com on May 13, 2014 at 7:49 AM
Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
Some students at a Lancaster County high school were allegedly threatenedwith suspension last week as school officials tried to curtail a planned protest over a visit by GOP Gov. Tom Corbett. The left-leaning blog ThinkProgress notes that:
Some students at a Lancaster County high school were allegedly threatenedwith suspension last week as school officials tried to curtail a planned protest over a visit by GOP Gov. Tom Corbett. The left-leaning blog ThinkProgress notes that:
"When Corbett held a press conference at JP McCaskey
(High School) last week touting a small chunk of funding for school resource
officers, students who planned to protest Corbett’s spending priorities say
they were intimidated by their school administrators into backing out.
“As soon as they found out that we were going to protest they
said that we were not allowed to come and that we did not have the permission
anymore,” said Brittani Carr, 17.
Civil rights complaints target
charter schools
A coalition of groups
opposed to charter schools says it is filing federal civil rights complaints
claiming discrimination by officials running school systems in New
Orleans , Chicago , and Newark , N.J.
Journey for Justice Alliance
"Jeffries, who is a founder of
a high-performing charter school in Newark
While the Newark mayor has no
control over the city's school system—the district has long been run by the
state of New Jersey—Baraka's election no doubt will be viewed as a repudiation
of former Mayor Cory Booker and his aggressive push to overhaul the schools
through the expansion of charters and forcing rule changes to make it harder
for ineffective teachers to keep their jobs. Booker left the mayor's office
several months ago after winning election to the U.S.
Education Week District
Dossier Blog By on May 13, 2014 11:35 PM
In a rancorous mayoral
campaign that often revolved
around the future of public schooling in
New Jersey's biggest city, Newark
voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly favored city councilor and former high school
principal Ras Baraka over Shavar Jeffries, a civil rights lawyer who chaired
the city's school advisory committee. Baraka,
who won decidedly with 54 percent of the vote over Jeffries' 46 percent, was
heavily backed by labor unions, including the local teachers' union and its
parent, the American Federation of Teachers.
"Newark’s schools, which have been under state control
for two decades, remain a fiercely contested topic. Indeed, under Mr. Booker,
the city became a laboratory for the education reform movement. And one of the
most contentious issues in the mayor’s race was a recent school reorganization
plan, One Newark
Newark’s Voters Choose New
Mayor and New Path
New York Times By DAVID W. CHEN and KATE ZERNIKE MAY 13, 2014
Councilman Ras Baraka, the fiery scion of a militant poet, was
elected mayor of Newark on Tuesday,
signaling a likely shift in the direction that New Jersey ’s largest city had embarked upon
for most of the last decade. Mr. Baraka
rebuffed a spirited late surge from a political newcomer, Shavar Jeffries,
a law professor with an improbable Horatio Alger-like life story, in a bitter
contest marred by incendiary rhetoric, arrests and charges of vandalism. With
96 percent of the precincts reporting, Mr. Baraka was leading with about 54
percent of the vote, compared with 46 percent for Mr. Jeffries, according to
unofficial results.
When School Reform And
Democracy Meet
MAY 13 2014, 5:46
PM ET
Three years ago
Facebook's CEO pledged $100 million to improve Newark 's schools. In this week's New Yorker, Dale Russakoff offers
an enlightening and depressing portrait of
how that money was spent and what it achieved. The story is a welcome
corrective to the bromide that "government should be run like a
business"—as though business is some unassailable fortress of
morality. School reformers
promised to clean up a bloated and corrupt school administration. But what
emerges in its place is a system in which various "consultants" are
paid millions to deliver minimal results. And those results are meant to
be delivered on a fast-food schedule:
Academics call for pause in PISA
Here’s an open letter
written by academics and school activists from around the world to Andreas
Schleicher, director of the Program of International Student Assessment, known
as PISA,
which tests 15-year-olds in dozens of countries and individual education
systems in math, reading and science every three years. The letter expresses concerns
about the impact PISA
is having on education systems around the world and asks him “to consider
skipping” the next exams and come up with an improved assessment. U.S. students historically score at best average
on international exams, including PISA .
Every time new results are released, we hear cries that this is proof of the
decline of American public education — even though, as already noted but is
worth repeating — Americans have never been at the top of international exams,
even when public education wasn’t being questioned. Shanghai
came out with the No. 1 international ranking in the 2012 PISA administration, though questions
emerged about whether
Shanghai deserved that ranking.
Read, Kids, Read
New York Times Opinion by Frank Bruni MAY 12, 2014
As an uncle I’m inconsistent about too many things.
Birthdays, for example. My nephew Mark had one on Sunday, and I
didn’t remember — and send a text — until 10 p.m., by which point he was
asleep. School productions, too. I saw
my niece Bella in “Seussical: The Musical” but missed “The Wiz.” She played
Toto, a feat of trans-species transmogrification that not even Meryl, with all
of her accents, has pulled off.
But about books, I’m steady. Relentless. I’m incessantly asking
my nephews and nieces what they’re reading and why they’re not reading more.
I’m reliably hurling novels at them, and also at friends’ kids. I may well be
responsible for 10 percent of all sales of “The
Fault in Our Stars,” a teenage love story to be released as a movie
next month. Never have I spent money with fewer regrets, because I believe in
reading — not just in its power to transport but in its power to transform.
Dinniman: Roundtable Discussion
on Education in Pa.
Senator Dinniman's website
MAY 13, 2014
WEST CHESTER (May 13) – State Senator Andy Dinniman
announced today that he is bringing together education professionals and
advocates from throughout the region for a roundtable discussion on critical
issues in education on Wednesday, May 21 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Technical College High School –
Brandywine Campus.
“Parents, teachers, students and education professionals from
suburban and urban school districts across Pennsylvania recently united against
the expansion of the Keystone
Graduation Exams,” Dinniman said. “Now, another pressing issue will bring
together suburban and urban schools from throughout the region – the need to
adequately support and sustain public education for the future.” The panel will feature education
professionals from Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Delaware and Philadelphia
counties as well as representatives from major education organizations,
including:
·
Joe Ciresi, President, Spring-Ford Area School
District Board of Directors.
·
Helen Gym, Parents United of Philadelphia.
·
Bill LaCoff, President-Elect of the Pennsylvania
School Board Association, Owen J. Roberts School District Board of Directors.
·
Larry Feinberg, Keystone State Education
Coalition, Haverford Township School District Board of Directors.
·
Joe O’Brien, Executive Director, Chester County
Intermediate Unit.
·
Joan Duvall-Flynn, President and Education
Committee Chair of the NAACP, Media Branch.
·
Hillary Linardopoulos, Philadelphia Federation
of Teachers.
·
Korri Brown, President, Southeast Region,
Pennsylvania State Education Association.
·
Mike Churchill, Public Interest Law Center of
Philadelphia.
·
Mark Miller, Director, Network for Public
Education, Vice-President of the Centennial School District Board of Directors.
PA Business-Education Partnership
Featuring:
Welcome By Governor Tom Corbett (invited)
Remarks Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq
(confirmed)
Perceptions & comments of business leaders, educators,
college presidents, and advocacy groups
Full agenda here: http://www.bipac.net/pbc/2014-PA-Education-Summit-Agenda.pdf
Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/pennsylvania-education-summit-tickets-11529363637?aff=eorgf
“How Public School Funding
Works in Pennsylvania—Or Doesn’t: What You Need to Know” When: Friday, May
30, 2014, 9 am to 12 pm Where: Marriott Hotel in Conshohocken, PA
Session I: "Funding Schools: What Pennsylvania Can Learn from Other States"
Key Pennsylvania legislators and public officials will respond to a presentation by Professor Robert C. Knoeppel of Clemson University, an expert on emerging trends and ideas in public school finance.
Session I: "Funding Schools: What Pennsylvania Can Learn from Other States"
Key Pennsylvania legislators and public officials will respond to a presentation by Professor Robert C. Knoeppel of Clemson University, an expert on emerging trends and ideas in public school finance.
Introduction: Representative Steve Santarsiero
Moderator: Rob Wonderling, President and CEO, GreaterPhiladelphia Chamber of Commerce
Panel:
Charles Zogby, Secretary of the Budget, Commonwealth of PA, Senator Patrick Browne, Senator Anthony Williams, Representative Bernie O'Neill, Representative James Roebuck
Session II: "Why Smart Investments in Public Schools Are Critical toPennsylvania
Moderator: Rob Wonderling, President and CEO, Greater
Panel:
Charles Zogby, Secretary of the Budget, Commonwealth of PA, Senator Patrick Browne, Senator Anthony Williams, Representative Bernie O'Neill, Representative James Roebuck
Session II: "Why Smart Investments in Public Schools Are Critical to
A discussion with a panel of CEOs who are major employers in
the region.
Introduction: Rob Loughery, Chair, Bucks County Commissioners
Panel (confirmed to date):
Michael Pearson, President and CEO, Union Packaging, Philip Rinaldi, CEO, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, Bryan Hancock, Principal, McKinsey & Company, and author: "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools"
You can register for this free event here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-public-school-funding-works-in-pennsylvania-or-doesnt-what-you-need-to-know-tickets-11527064761?ref=ebtnebregn
Introduction: Rob Loughery, Chair, Bucks County Commissioners
Panel (confirmed to date):
Michael Pearson, President and CEO, Union Packaging, Philip Rinaldi, CEO, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, Bryan Hancock, Principal, McKinsey & Company, and author: "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools"
You can register for this free event here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-public-school-funding-works-in-pennsylvania-or-doesnt-what-you-need-to-know-tickets-11527064761?ref=ebtnebregn
PILCOP Know Your Child’s Rights
Seminars
Join us on May 15th for one of three training sessions
on Assistive Technology and Settlements.
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
This
training series on special education law teaches parents, attorneys and
advocates how to secure education rights and services for students with special
needs. These seminars aim to bring together a diverse community of
advocates including parents, special education advocates, educators, attorneys,
and community members. Each session focuses on a different legal topic, service
or disability. Many sessions are co-led with guest speakers.
Next Trainings: Thursday May 15,
2014: Assistive Technology and Other Related Services; Settlements; Settlements
(Abbreviated Session)
PSBA members in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware
Counties
PSBA Buxmont Region 11 and Penns Grant
Region 15 Combined Region/Legislative Meeting -- Thursday, May 15, at William
Tennent High School
-
Buffet dinner/registration, 6 p.m. ($8 charge for dinner) - Program, 7:30 p.m.
-- Minority Senate Education Committee Chair Hon. Andy Dinniman will
introduce guest speaker Diane Ravitch, author and education historian, and
former Assistant Secretary of Education.
Retiring House Education Committee Chairman Paul Clymer will also be
honored for his long time (1981) public service.
2014 CONFERENCE ON THE STATE OF
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA
60 YEARS AFTER BROWN HOW ARE THE CHILDREN? WHAT ARE THE
ISSUES?
Saturday, May 31, 2014 - 9:00 AM
– 3:00 PM (8:30 Registration)
MARCUS FOSTER STUDENT UNION 2ND
FLR. CHEYNEY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, DE Co. Campus
Keynote
Speaker: Dan Hardy – Retired Reporter -Philadelphia Inquirer
Distressed Schools: How Did it
Come to This?
PANELS:
- The State of Education in Pennsylvania 60
Years after Brown
- Keystones and Graduation: Cut the
Connection
- How Harrisburg Cut District Funding,
Poured on the Keystones, and Connected them to Graduation
- Financing Our Schools: What Does it Cost
to Educate a Child in 2014 and How Should We Fund It?
- Effective Advocacy – How to be
Heard in Harrisburg - And - What We Need to be Saying
For
more info and registration: http://www.naacpmediabranch.org/#
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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