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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
September 18, 2014:
Auditor
General DePasquale Expands Ongoing Audit of Pennsylvania Department of
Education
The one issue Pa.
Signe cartoon SIGN17e Cigarette
Tax (Signe Wilkinson)
on September 17, 2014 at 8:45 AM,
updated September
17, 2014 at 8:50 AM
SB76: Senate panel advances property tax elimination
bill PA House has said it can’t consider.
Capitolwire.com —
Under The Dome™ Wednesday, September
17, 2014
The Senate Finance
Committee on Tuesday voted 6-5 to report out legislation aimed at eliminating school
property taxes in Pennsylvania
Encouraging movement on aid
to Philly schools. Now lawmakers need to get the job done: Penn Live Editorial
By PennLive Editorial
Board on September 17, 2014 at 10:33 AM
The state House is expected to take an encouraging step on
Monday to help Philadelphia 's
public school students when it casts a likely vote on a $2-per-pack cigarette tax aimed
at helping the cash-strapped district close an $81 million deficit. With the looming threat of both teacher
lay-offs and a late opening for the current school year, lawmakers were
nonetheless unable to reach agreement on a bill before they broke for their
summer recess in June. Republican Gov.
Tom Corbett floated the district the state money it needed to continue
operating, but city and school district officials stressed that the new cash
raised by the cigarette tax was still badly needed.
Local officials approved the tax hike earlier this year, but
the Legislature must give its formal authorization for it to take effect.
Auditor General DePasquale
Expands Ongoing Audit of Pennsylvania Department of Education
Adds review of PDE oversight of employees and
contractors
PA Auditor General's Office Press Release September 17, 2014
HARRISBURG (Sept. 17, 2014) – Auditor General Eugene DePasquale
today announced that he has amended an ongoing comprehensive performance audit
of the Pennsylvania Department of Education to include a review of the PDE’s
oversight of certain employee classifications and consultants and
contractors. “We launched our
current audit of the education department in February with the goal of
determining whether it is doing everything in its power to ensure that our
children are receiving the best education possible and that Pennsylvanians are
getting the best value for our tax dollars,” DePasquale said. “This new audit objective will enable us to
assess PDE’s oversight of certain employee classifications and their effective
use of contractors and consultants. It is critical that PDE direct all
available resources toward student achievement in the classroom.”
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY
WILSON SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
An ongoing audit of Pennsylvania 's
Department of Education will now also look into certain employees, including
Ron Tomalis, the former secretary and special adviser to the governor who
resigned under a cloud of criticism this past August. Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale,
the state's top fiscal watchdog, said Wednesday the in-progress audit will
review special advisers, contractors, and short-term employees. "It's not just about Mr. Tomalis,"
said DePasquale. "It's an issue broadly about are people being hired and
they don't have an actual role to play?"
OXFORD >> Just as they are getting used to the new
experience of starting high school, 20 ninth graders at the Oxford Area High
School are also adapting to their first college experience.
In a new partnership between Cecil
College and the Oxford
Area School
District , the students have the opportunity to be both college
and high school students at the same time as the first participants in the Early College
Academy
By Mary Grzebieniak New
Castle News Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 3:30 am
The Wilmington
school board unanimously went on record opposing Common Core.
The action Monday makes it the second district in Pennsylvania to publicly
object to the new federal education standards.
The West Jefferson Hills district in Allegheny County Haverford Township ’s school district in Delaware
County , has publicly opposed certain
aspects of Common Core such as testing and curriculum, according to Wilmington board member
Lynn Foltz. Board president Dr. Bo
DiMuccio said he hopes the action “sends a message” although he acknowledged it
probably won’t have any effect unless many more districts take action. “This won’t change anything overnight,” he
said, but added, “I think there is a wave of change happening.” The resolution states that private groups,
including the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State
School Officers, spent millions of dollars advocating the new academic
standards which were developed through a process “not subject to any freedom of
information acts or other sunshine laws ...”
The result, according to the resolution, is “neither research based nor
internationally benchmarked ...” And costs to local districts and the state
were never analyzed, the resolution continues.
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on September 17, 2014 at 8:00 PM,
updated September 18, 2014 at 6:07 AM
Lehigh
Valley Dual Language Charter School seventh- and eighth-graders will
be in school on Saturdays and holidays as its expansion battle plays out in the
courts. The South Bethlehem-based
charter school has outgrown its current location at 551 Thomas St. and seeks to
open a middle school in the former Seton Academy.Bethlehem
Area School District has been blocking its efforts, arguing only
charter schools in Philadelphia
can operate out of two locations. The
dispute has been playing out for months in the Pennsylvania court system. The district has
agreed to schedule a Sept. 29 hearing on the move but won't vote on the matter
until at least Nov. 17.
Palmer Charter seeks
immediate relief from court
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Thursday, September 18,
2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Wednesday, September 17, 2014, 6:00 PM
The school year at a city charter could come to an abrupt end
this week for its nearly 1,300 students.
The troubled Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning
Partners Charter
School on Wednesday asked Common Pleas Court
to order the Philadelphia
School District
That was the message of a public protest Wednesday where more
than 100 people carried signs opposing the "corporate takeover" of
city schools and chanted phrases like, "Our kids are not for profit!" Dozens of parents, students and supporters
joined teachers in the march before a scheduled board meeting.
Crowd urges "say
no" to charter operators
Teachers and other
community members marched before a board meeting
York Daily Record By
Angie Mason amason@ydr.com @angiemason1
on Twitter UPDATED: 09/17/2014 11:58:39 PM EDT
A crowd of York City School District employees and other
community members rallied before a school board meeting Wednesday, asking board
members to "say no" to bringing in charter operators to run district
schools. The school board has been
exploring that possibility, an option under its financial recovery plan. Those
involved with the rally included the employee unions, the York NAACP, and York
Concerned Clergy.
Possible York PA
Politico By CAITLIN EMMA |
09/17/14 10:03 AM EDT
With help from Allie Grasgreen and Maggie Severns
POSSIBLE CHARTER TAKEOVER SPARKS PROTEST: Two for-profit
charter school corporations are in talks to take over financially troubled York City School District in Pennsylvania — but teachers, parents and
others are pushing back. The York City School Board meets tonight to review
proposals from Mosaica Education, Inc., and Charter Schools USA York City
teacher and organizer, told Morning Education he’s going to spread the message
of what happened in Muskegon Heights ,
Mich.
— In 2012, Mosaica took over Muskegon Heights York
City
The report is the result of a two-year
study by grassroots organizers and education leaders nationwide who, under the
auspices of AISR and Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER), examined
the impact of rapid charter expansion on parents, students and communities. “The group found some common concerns: Uneven
academic performance; practices that pushed or kept students out of charter
schools; overly harsh discipline policies; funding patterns that destabilized
traditional schools; and a lack of representative governance, transparency, and
adequate oversight, leading to potential conflicts of interests and instances
of fraud and other problems,” the report stated.
Annenberg Institute for School Reform Published
on September 17, 2014
New Report from Brown
University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform Cites Lack of Access,
Transparency & Accountability
PROVIDENCE – A new report on charter schools from Brown University’s
Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) recommends updates and adjustments
to states’ charter legislation and charter authorizer standards to eliminate
policies that result in student inequities, and that achieve complete
transparency and accountability to the communities served. “It is time to revisit and tune-up state
charter laws and authorizer practices to allow the best features of chartering
to flourish while weeding out the practices and loopholes that have cost states
and taxpayers so much in both dollars and public trust,” notes the report,
titled “Public Accountability for Charter Schools: Standards and Policy Recommendations
for Effective Oversight,” issued today.
Thompson: Value-Added True
Believers Should Listen to Principals
Scholastic Administrator This Week in Education September 17,
2014 Author: john thompson Sadly, a new Gates-funded study, "Principal Use of Teacher Effectiveness Measures for Talent
Management Decisions," provides an ideal metaphor for what
is wrong with value-added evaluations, in particular, and corporate school
reform, in general. I do not question
the quality of work of its authors - Ellen Goldring, Christine M.
Neumerski, Mollie Rubin, Marisa Cannata, Timothy Drake, Jason A. Grissom and
Patrick Schuermann, or its findings. The
problem is that the report seems to assume that principals who do not
agree with the Gates Foundation are incorrect and need retraining; it doesn't
consider the possibility that value-added models aren't appropriate for
teacher evaluations. Goldring et.
al found that 84% of the principals they interviewed
believed teacher-observation data to be valid "to a large
extent" for assessing teacher quality, but only 56% viewed student
achievement or growth data to be equally valid. The study acknowledged that
value added is perceived to have “many shortcomings.” Principals have doubts
whether the data will hold up to official grievance processes. Principals
also perceive that teachers have little trust in teacher effectiveness data.
Four Common Core ‘flimflams’
Award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New
York was once a supporter of the Common Core but came
to be a critic after her state began to implement the initiative. (You can read
some of her work on the botched implementation in New York here,
here, here and here.)
Burris was
named New York ’s
2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association
of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in
2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the
School Administrators Association of New York State. In this post she looks at what
she calls the “Four Flimflams of the Common Core.”
Save the date: Bob Herbert
book event! Pittsburgh
Save the date – you don’t want to miss this! We are hosting the
national launch of Bob Herbert’s new book, Losing Our Way: An Intimate
Portrait of a Troubled America Pittsburgh
several times to interview parents and teachers in our local grassroots
movement and wound up writing three chapters on our fight for public education!
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014 Time: 5:30 – 6:30PM,
moderated discussion and Q&A.
Doors will open at 5 with student performances. Followed by book signing.
Doors will open at 5 with student performances. Followed by book signing.
Location: McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Ave. , Pittsburgh 15213
Hosted by: Yinzercation (we are
profiled in the book!)
Moderator: Tony Norman, columnist and
associate editor,Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PUBLIC Education Nation October
11
The Network for Public Education will hold a historic event in one month's time.
The Network for Public Education will hold a historic event in one month's time.
PUBLIC Education Nation will deliver the conversation
the country has been waiting for. Rather than featuring billionaires and pop
singers, this event will be built around intense conversations featuring
leading educators, parents, students and community activists. We have
waited too long for that seat at someone else's table. This time, the tables
are turned, and we are the ones setting the agenda. This event will be livestreamed on the web on
the afternoon of Saturday, October 11, from the auditorium of Brooklyn New
School, a public school. There will be four panels focusing on the most
critical issues we face in our schools. The event will conclude with a
conversation between Diane Ravitch and Jitu Brown.
Please join us for a symposium
on:
“Funding
Pennsylvania's Public Schools: A Look Ahead”
This event is co-sponsored by the
University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics and the Temple University
Center
When: Friday, October 3, 2014, 8:30 am to 12 pm
Where: Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh in Green Tree, PA
Session I:
"Forecasting the Fiscal Future of Pennsylvania's Public Schools"
A panel of legislators and public
officials will respond to a presentation by Penn State Professor William
Hartman and Tim Shrom projecting the fiscal trajectory of Pennsylvania’s 500
school districts over the next five years and by University of Pittsburgh
Professor Maureen McClure discussing the implications for school finance of an
aging tax base.
Session II: "Why Smart
Investments in Public Schools Are Critical to Pennsylvania's Economic
Future"
Following an address by Eva Tansky
Blum, Chairwoman and President of the PNC Foundation, a panel of business
and labor leaders will discuss the importance of public school funding
reform to the competitiveness of regional and state economies.
We look forward to your
participation!
Back to School
Special Education Boot Camp Saturday, September 20, 2014 8:30 A.M.- 3:00 P.M.
Public Interest Law Center of
Philadelphia
United Way Building 1709 Benjamin
Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, 19103
Join presenters from: Temple University · McAndrews Law
Offices · ARC
PA Education for All
Coalition · Delaware Valley Friends School
PA Dyslexia and Literacy Coalition
Attend workshops on: Early
Intervention · Dyslexia · Discipline · Charter
Schools
Inclusion · Transition
Services
Details and Registration: http://bit.ly/1nSstB7
The 2014 Arts and Education Symposium will be
held on Thursday, October 2 at the State Museum
of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, PA. Join us for a daylong convening of
arts education policy leaders and practitioners for lively discussions about
the latest news from the field.
The Symposium registration fee is $45 per person.
To register, click
here or follow the prompts at the bottom of the page. The Symposium will include the following:
Register Now – 2014 PAESSP
State Conference – October 19-21, 2014
Please join us for the 2014 PAESSP State Conference, “PRINCIPAL
EFFECTIVENESS: Leading Schools in a New Age of Accountability,” to be
held October 19-21 at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel, Pittsburgh,
Pa. Featuring Keynote Speakers: Alan
November, Michael Fullan & Dr. Ray Jorgensen. This year’s conference will provided PIL
Act 45 hours, numerous workshops, exhibits, multiple resources and an
opportunity to network with fellow principals from across the state.
PASA-PSBA School Leadership
Conference (Oct. 21-24) registration forms now available online
PSBA Website
PSBA Website
Make plans today to attend the most talked about education
conference of the year. This year's PASA-PSBA
School Leadership Conference promises to be one of the best with new
ideas, innovations, networking opportunities and dynamic speakers. More details
are being added every day. Online registration will be available in the
next few weeks. If you just can't wait, registration
forms are available online now. Other important links are available
with more details on:
·
Hotel
registration (reservation deadline extended to Sept. 26)
·
Educational
Publications Contest (deadline Aug. 6)
·
Student
Celebration Showcase (deadline Sept. 19)
·
Poster
and Essay Contest (deadline Sept. 19)
Voting for PSBA officers
and at-large representatives opens Sept. 9
PSBA Website 9/8/2014
The slate of candidates for 2015 PSBA officer and at-large
representatives is available online. Photos, bios and
videos also have been posted for candidates. According to recent PSBA
Bylaws changes, each member school entity casts one vote per office. Voting
will again take place online through a secure, third-party website -- Simply
Voting. Voting will open Sept. 9 and closes Oct. 6. One person from the school
entity (usually the board secretary) is authorized to register the vote on
behalf of the member school entity and each board will need to put on its
agenda discussion and voting at one of its meetings in September. Each person
authorized to cast the school entity's votes received an email on Aug. 13 and a
test ballot was sent to them on Aug. 28. In addition, a memo from PSBA
President Richard Frerichs will be mailed in the coming days to all board
secretaries and copied to school board presidents and chief school
administrators.
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