Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3500 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Superintendents, PTO/PTA
officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business 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, Twitter and LinkedIn
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?
The Keystone State Education Coalition is an endorsing member of The Campaign for Fair Education Funding
Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for October
28, 2014:
Inky
Owner/Publisher Lenfest: No endorsement in PA governor's race
Meet the candidates in
general election: PennLive's 2014 Voters Guide
By Therese Umerlik |
tumerlik@pennlive.com on October 27, 2014 at 12:00 PM,
updated October 27, 2014 at 1:21 PM
Registered Republican, Democratic and independent voters will
head to the polls Nov. 4 for the general election. PennLive's Voters Guide provides information
on candidates who are in competitive races. In addition to races for governor
and lieutenant governor, the guide includes state House and Senate and
congressional races in districts representing constituents in Dauphin, Cumberland , York , Lebanon , Perry and Lancaster counties, among others.
The candidates were mailed letters inviting them to submit
information for Voters Guide.
The information in this guide was entered by the candidates and
is unedited. If we did not receive a response from a candidate, we noted that.
A change on election
editorials
Inquirer Opinion by owner and publisher GERRY LENFEST Sunday,
October 26, 2014
As owner and publisher of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily
News, and Philly.com, I am honored to ensure that this region has the benefit
of a free press. The public service that this company provides is a commitment
I take very seriously. I also know that we need to keep pushing and reviewing
every corner of our operation to make sure we are providing our readers and
users with the news and information they need most. To that end, Sunday's editorial represents a
shift in the way we will approach some elections. Instead of an endorsement for
governor, I asked the editorial boards of both The Inquirer and the Daily News
to provide a summary of where the candidates stand on the critical issues
facing the state, as well as the positions each paper has taken on those
issues, and then let the voters decide who they think is most qualified.
"The strange one is the Philadelphia
Corbett runs scary ad, Inky
punts on endorsement
WHYY Newsworks Commentary OCTOBER 27, 2014 DAVE DAVIES OFF
MIC
Bill Clinton's in Pittsburgh
today. Obama's coming to Philly over the weekend. Michael Bloomberg's writing
big checks. And the Republicans are telling you Tom Wolf even scares zombies.
Folks, we got ourselves an election.
As we enter the last week of Pennsylvania 's gubernatorial election, both
sides are running like they can win, and maybe they can. There's no poll that's
showed Corbett with a lead, but a Republican polling firm 10 days ago declared him to be within seven points of Wolf, the
Democrat. Both Franklin
& Marshall and Muhlenberg College Pittsburgh today, Obama here Sunday, and Wolf
on a bus tour of the whole damn state. Corbett is holding rallies among his
faithful in several western Pennsylvania
counties.
Corbett Friend Screwing with
Newspaper Endorsements
Huffington Post by Laura Goldman Posted: 10/27/2014 9:30
am EDT
Gerry Lenfest, the new sole owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily
News, andPhilly.com, has
jettisoned his paper's 185
year old tradition of political endorsements for this year's
elections. He announced the move in a note to readers, "A Change on Election Editorials," published in
Sunday's paper. Lenfest omitted an important fact from his announcement: he
donated $250,000 to one of the candidates' campaign, Republican Governor Tom
Corbett.
Lenfest, age 84, became the sole owner of the Philadelphia
Inquirer after the tragic plane crash of his former partner Lewis
Katz. Former Governor Ed Rendell hailed him and his wife Marguerite as the
region's biggest philanthropists since former Ambassador Walter Annenberg, who
was coincidentally the Inquirer's last sole owner. The editorial page has been the source of much
controversy at the paper. A former owner, George Norcross, also wanted to
reduce the amount of the space devoted to opinion, a change that Lenfest then
opposed. The paper will not ignore the upcoming election entirely, they will
publish a list of where the candidates stand on the issues.
School Choice: Trick
or Treat?
Boo! Halloween is a scary time of year, so I suppose it’s an
appropriate week to talk about “school choice.” Tomorrow evening, A+ Schools is
sponsoring a panel
discussion with Dr. Howard Fuller, a well-known advocate of charter
schools, vouchers, and tax-credit programs. Dr. Fuller will also be the keynote
speaker at a full-day seminar sponsored by the Heinz Endowments at the University of Pittsburgh
Curmudgucation Blog by Peter Greene Monday, October 27,
2014
and review the standards, item by item. They can give each individual item a check (for "that's just fine") or an X. With the X, you get four specific complaints that you can lodge:
* The statement should be broken up into several, more specific statements.
* The statement should be in a different grade level
* The statement should be rewritten
* The statement should be rewritten
These choices allow for written explanation, rationale, and/or suggested rewrites. You'll be asked for an email address and to explain why you have a stake in PA standards (so knock it off, you crazy carpetbaggers), and you'll only be allowed one comment per standard per device. Right now only the third grade math and ELA standards are up, but everything is supposed to be up within the next couple of weeks. The site will be available until January 15, 2015.
"Never before in recent memory has an
appointed body, acting without clear legislative authority, sought to rip up a
contract and impose new costs on public workers."
Cash-starved district's
action seen as new threat to unions
Education Week By Benjamin
Herold Published Online: October 27, 2014
Hundreds of Philly students
displaced as Walter Palmer Charter shuts its high school
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN
MCCORRY OCTOBER 27, 2014
Two months into the school year, Walter Palmer Leadership
Learning Partners Charter has shuttered its high school — displacing the 286
students who attended the Tacony campus in what the school's founder called a
"human tragedy." The scene on Harbison Avenue was
the latest development in the charter's years-long scuffle with the Philadelphia School District
Despite the fact that Palmer signed a charter in 2005 limiting
enrollment to 675 children, when the academic year started, Palmer served
about 1,275 K-12 students at campuses in Northern Liberties and Tacony. For years, when Palmer enrolled students in
excess of that number, the district withheld payment, but the state Department
of Education instead funnelled that money directly to the charter. The district filed a lawsuit against Palmer
charter and, in May, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with the district's
rationale.
Based on the court's decision, the state Department of
Education has discontinued payment to Palmer for students above the 675 cap.
Embattled Walter D. Palmer
charter to close its high school
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Monday, October 27, 2014,
1:33 PM POSTED: Monday, October 27, 2014, 11:16 AM
The embattled Walter
D. Palmer
Leadership Learning
Partners Charter
School West Philadelphia
High School
"We're not here for a press op,"
one woman yelled, referring to TV news cameras, as Palmer tried to have seniors
describe their experience. "We want to know what's happening with our
kids."
Angry parents confront Palmer Charter
School
SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 3:01 AM
A CROWD OF angry parents confronted the founder of Walter D.
Palmer Leadership
Learning Partners
Charter School Harbison Avenue
near Sanger Street
- the location of grades 5-12 - to explain the decision to close the high
school immediately and help families of ninth- through 12th-graders find other
school placements. Palmer insisted that
the school had done all it could to stay open after losing a bitter court
battle with the Philadelphia School District over enrollment. But that was
little consolation to adults who blamed Palmer for leaving families in the
lurch seven weeks into the school year.
Great schools matter
What makes a community great? As an elected member of Cranberry Township
There are several secret ingredients in a great place. One of the most important is public education. A community’s schools, along with the job readiness of its workforce, are huge factors in determining where businesses choose to locate. Great schools and great jobs are closely connected. Evidence of this connection played out again with the recent announcement of PPG Coatings joining numerous other companies in choosing to locate operations in Cranberry.
Good schools and good jobs intertwine. An investment in a strong 21st century educational system is an investment in communities and our economy. Statewide, if we are interested in being an attractive option for businesses across the globe, we need to be competitive. A large piece of that is a strong public school system that is attractive to students, families and employers. A critical step in creating a strong public school system is the creation of a full and fair funding formula for schools acrossPennsylvania .
One of just three states currently without a fair funding formula, Pennsylvania recently
ranked 45th nationally in regards to support from the state level. In order to
create a statewide system of high-quality schools, we must support a funding
formula that allocates basic education dollars based on the student enrollment
of a school district as well as the needs of its students.
There are several secret ingredients in a great place. One of the most important is public education. A community’s schools, along with the job readiness of its workforce, are huge factors in determining where businesses choose to locate. Great schools and great jobs are closely connected. Evidence of this connection played out again with the recent announcement of PPG Coatings joining numerous other companies in choosing to locate operations in Cranberry.
Good schools and good jobs intertwine. An investment in a strong 21st century educational system is an investment in communities and our economy. Statewide, if we are interested in being an attractive option for businesses across the globe, we need to be competitive. A large piece of that is a strong public school system that is attractive to students, families and employers. A critical step in creating a strong public school system is the creation of a full and fair funding formula for schools across
- See more at: http://www.butlereagle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20141024/EDITORIAL02/710249901/-1/Editorial02#sthash.oisduH2M.F7Mvzy8a.dpuf
Heinz Endowments pushes for
parents' engagement
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette October 28, 2014 12:00 AM
How can more Pittsburgh
parents become engaged in their children’s education?
For the Heinz Endowments, an answer is training and organizing
parents through community groups to have the skills to advocate for what they
want in their children’s schools.
The foundation is spending $584,500 on an effort that will
provide 10 community groups with training from the Annenberg Institute for
School Reform at Brown
University
“Even if the schools were doing everything right, we do believe
parents deserve to create their own opportunities and methods in how they
engage in their children’s education,” said Melanie Brown, Heinz Endowments
education program officer. Rather than a
criticism of school-based opportunities for involvement, “this is about
building capacity within communities that can last beyond what might be a staff
person in a school,” Ms. Brown said.
By Adam Clark,Of The Morning Call October 27, 2014
Another school district outsourcing subs, citing Obamacare
mandate
In a decision prompted by low fill rates and Obamacare, the Allentown School District
Those who work between 15 and 89 cumulative days for an average
of at least 30 hours a week will now be hired through Substitute Teacher
Service Inc., which is based in based in Aston, Delaware County, but opened an
office in the Lehigh Valley.
"When the cigarette tax was approved as school-funding source,
it included a provision that opened a window for new charter-school
applications. Applications filed by Nov.
15 would then face a 45-day waiting period during which public hearings could
be held. The SRC, which is expected to
receive more than 40 applications, must decide which to approve within 75 days
of the waiting-period's onset."
WHYY Newsworks BY DANIEL
PASQUARELLO OCTOBER 28, 2014 GERMANTOWN
More than 20 Germantown
residents gathered at the Daniel E. Rumph II Recreation Center on Saturday to
learn more about the proposal to turn the now-empty Germantown High School Germantown Community
Charter School
Diane Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch October
27, 2014 //
Philadelphia Magazine invited the education activist Helen Gym
and the leader of the School Reform Commission Bill Green to debate
the condition of public education in that city, where public schools are in
desperate financial shape. A fascinating
discussion and dynamic between the two. Most interesting to me was Green’s
insistence that the state-controlled SRC was “democratic” and that having an
elected board, as 95% of districts in America do, would be a very bad thing for
Philadelphia. People would want counselors and nurses, and no one would be
willing to pay for them. Unasked was why Philadelphia is shortchanged by the
state, why the city should accept the status quo without fighting for the
needed funding for nurses, counselors, librarians, reduced class sizes, the
arts, and everything else that the students need.
Diane Ravitch's Blog by dianeravitch
October
27, 2014
Helen Gym, Philadelphia 's
leading activist for public education, complains that the School Reform Commission wrongly
canceled the teachers' contract while failing to fight for funding from the
state. She writes:
"Recently, I visited my brother-in-law at Radnor High
School Central
High School
"This is what a teacher’s contract was supposed to
prevent. "And it’s why the School
Reform Commission’s move last week to tear up that contract is about far more
than the dishonest suggestion of “shared sacrifice” and health care
contributions.
Bill Green Responds to Helen
Gym: Honest School Dialogue Requires All the Facts
Here’s how her attack
on the School Reform Commission’s actions was misleading.
In criticizing our decision to begin charging teachers for health
benefits and directing the $44 million annual savings to schools, Helen Gym makes an important point: Unless the School
Reform Commission is open to and responsive to public input, it cannot
meaningfully improve public education in Philadelphia (“SRC’s Contract Move Isn’t About Shared Sacrifice—It’s
Looting.”). I share the value Ms.
Gym places on winning “the public trust,” but she considerably weakens her
credibility with the sloppiness and bad faith of her attack on the SRC.
To wit, she opens by comparing an idyllic classroom in Radnor
to an overcrowded Philadelphia
school: “This is what a teachers' contract was supposed to prevent,” she says.
Perhaps, but class size in Radnor has nothing to do with the teachers'
contract. It is entirely at the discretion of the district’s administration;
the teachers' contract does not stipulate any class size limits.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/10/27/bill-green-helen-gym-src-facts/#vKjvikRR4G09H2ZE.99
Schools chief, D.A. meet with
Central Bucks West parents
Morning Call by By Ben Finley and Chris Palmer,The Philadelphia Inquirer
October 28,2014
Parents of Central Bucks High School West football players expressed
a variety of emotions Monday night during a private meeting with the school
district's superintendent and the Bucks
County
No matter how helpful, tech
will never replace actual teaching: Lloyd E. Sheaffer
PennLive
Op-Ed By Lloyd E. Sheaffer on October 27, 2014 at 2:00 PM
"The art of thinking is being lost because people can type
in a word and find a source and think that's the be all end all," lamented
Tom McCarthy in a New York Timesarticle explaining why his school
in Liverpool dropped the all-laptop all the time approach to education all the
way back in 2007, an eon ago in this digital age. Despite similar actions in states including Virginia , Massachusetts ,
Florida , and California , the onslaught continues for
schools to shift to a "paperless classroom" model. In a recent issue Time Magazine
offered the article "The Paperless Classroom Is Coming." The subheading proclaimed, "A
national push to get a computer into each student's hands will upend the way
American children are taught."
I suggest that rather than upend, the writer should
have used the word capsize to describe what will happen in our
school rooms if "paper" goes away. I submit our pupils and teachers
will lose much more than "paper" if this initiative continues.
INVITATION: Twitter Chat on Pennsylvania
The next monthly Twitter chat with Pennsylvania ’s major education leadership
organizations is set for Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. The October
chat will focus on Basic Education Funding and the work of new PA Circuit
Riders charged with statewide advocacy for re-establishing a fair, predictable
public school funding formula. Use hashtag #FairFundingPA.
On the last Tuesday of each month at 8 p.m., the following
organizations go to Twitter to discuss timely topics, ask questions and listen
to the public’s responses:
·
The Pennsylvania
Association of School Administrators (PASA);
·
The Pennsylvania
School Boards Association (PSBA);
·
The Pennsylvania
Association of School Business Officials (PASBO);
·
The Pennsylvania
Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS); and
·
The Pennsylvania
Association of Intermediate Units
Join the conversation. Share your ideas, lurk, learn and let us
know what you think about the state of support for public schools. It’s a
simple, free and fast-paced way to communicate and share information. If you’ve
never tweeted before, here are directions and a few tips:
Poverty and Achievement
Education Week Opinion By Jill Berkowicz and
Ann Myers on October 28, 2014 6:57 AM
Poverty can be clearly identified as a contributing factor in
the achievement gap. Over time, schools' responses to students living in
poverty have included early childhood intervention, education for parents,
breakfast and lunch programs, academic intervention programs, full day
kindergartens and so on. But the gap remains. Standardized test results hold up a mirror that reflects
this unchanged fact: students living in poverty are not improving enough in
their achievement to narrow and close the gap. The 2013 NAEP results reveal since 1998, scores in math and
reading have improved, but not for all students. "The disparity between
races and economic classes remain."
Measuring implementation of the Common Core Standards and using
standardized tests as part of teacher evaluation, has upped the ante and released
a distain and disrespect for the results from inside educational circles. In
spite of the current discourse about the value of these tests, when it comes to
information about our students living in poverty, these results are
consistent and they are a call for action.
This school paid
teachers $125,000 a year — and test scores went up
Vox.com Updated
by Libby Nelson on
October 24, 2014, 12:00 p.m. ET
It's common to hear that teachers should be paid better — more
like doctors and lawyers. In 2009, the Equity Project, a charter school in New York decided to try
it: they would pay all their teachers $125,000 per year with the possibility of
an additional bonus. The typical teacher
in New York
with five years' experience makes between $64,000 and $76,000. The charter
school, known as TEP, would pay much more. But in exchange, teachers, who are
not unionized, would accept additional responsibilities, and the school would
keep a close eye on their work.
Four years later, students at TEP score better on state tests
than similar students elsewhere. The differences were particularly pronounced
in math, according to a new study from Mathematica Policy Research. (The study
was funded by the Gates Foundation.) After four years at the school, students
had learned as much math as they would have in 5.6 years elsewhere:
The gains erased 78 percent of the achievement gap between
Hispanic students and whites in the eighth grade. The results are important in part
because TEP also appears to have sidestepped some common concerns about
charter schools. They didn't expel or suspend students out of school in the
first four years. There is no evidence that the school encouraged problem
students to leave or transfer on their own. And the students who attended were
roughly as likely to be low-income, and to have had similar levels of academic
achievement before they arrived. They could still differ in other ways — they
could have more involved parents, who get them into the charter school lottery,
for example — but TEP doesn't present some of the obvious factors that help
explain other charter schools' success.
White House Is Root of
Test-Reduction Rhetoric, Sources Say
Education Week Politics K-12 Blog By Alyson Klein on October
27, 2014 8:19 AM
President Barack Obama appears to be behind his
administration's recent rhetorical push on the need to reconsider the number of
tests students take, sources say. And the president's new thinking on tests
would seem to put U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a pretty awkward
position. For the first six years of his
term in office, Duncan
has bet
big on student scores on state tests,pressing states to use them in pivotal
decisions, such as teacher evaluations. That started to crumble with this
blog post in August, in which he wrote, among other things, that
"testing and test preparation takes up too much time." (More on Duncan 's waffly
rhetoric on testing in this very smart Curriculum Matters post.)
And earlier this month, when the Council of Chief State School
Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools said they wanted to take a
hard look at the number of tests states and districts require and consider
paring it back, Duncan
cheered. He also posted this
op-ed on the subject.
So what caused the secretary to (sort of) change his testing
tune?
New website offers closer
look into candidate' views on public education
PSBA NEWS RELEASE 10/6/2014
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) has created a
new website for its members and the general public to get a closer look into
candidates' views on public education leading up to the 2014 election for the
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Following
the primary elections, PSBA sent out a six-question questionnaire to all
Pennsylvania House and Senate candidates competing for seats in the November
election. Candidates are listed by
House, Senate seat and county. Districts can be found by visiting the 'Find My
Legislator' link (http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/).
Features include:
·
Candidate images, if provided
·
Candidates are tagged by political party and
seat for which they are running
·
Candidates who did not respond are indicated by
"Responses not available."
Visit the site by going to
http://psbacandidateforum.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the link tweeted out
by @PSBAadvocate.
Candidates wishing to complete the questionnaire before
election day may do so by contacting Sean
Crampsie (717-506-2450, x-3321).
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=8650#sthash.1vGGRff4.dpuf
Children with Autism - Who’s Eligible? How to get ABA services?
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 1:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
United Way Building 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway,
Philadelphia, 19103
Join us on November 19th, 2014 to discuss eligibility services for children with Autism. This
session will teach parents, teachers, social workers and attorneys how to
obtain Applied Behavioral Analysis services for children on the autism
spectrum. Presenters include Sonja Kerr (Law Center), Rachel Mann
(Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania), Dr. Lisa Blaskey (The Children's
Hospital of Pennsylvania), and David Gates (PA Health Law Project).
Registration: bit.ly/1sOY6jX
Register Now – 2014 PASCD
Annual Conference – November 23 – 25, 2014
Please join us for the 2014 PASCD Annual Conference, “Leading
an Innovative Culture for Learning – Powered by Blendedschools Network” to
be held November 23-25 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in
Hershey, PA. Featuring Keynote Speakers: David Burgess - - Author
of "Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your
Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator", Dr. Bart Rocco,
Bill Sterrett - ASCD author, "Short on Time: How do I Make
Time to Lead and Learn as a Principal?" and Ron Cowell.
This annual conference features small group sessions (focused
on curriculum, instructional, assessment, blended learning and middle level
education) is a great opportunity to stay connected to the latest approaches
for cultural change in your school or district. Join us for PASCD
2014! Online registration is available by visiting www.pascd.org
January 23rd–25th, 2015 at The Science Leadership
Academy , Philadelphia
EduCon is both a conversation and a conference.
It is an innovation conference where we can come together, both
in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will
be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the
big dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.