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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
November 10, 2014:
NYT:
States Listen as Parents Give Rampant Testing an F
"Thorough and
Efficient" -The Public Interest Law
Center of Philadelphia
"Where once these frustrations were
voiced in murmurs, this year not only parents but also educators across Florida
NYT:
States Listen as Parents Give Rampant Testing an F
New York Times By LIZETTE ALVARE ZNOV. 9, 2014
Testing Resistance &
Reform News: October 29 - November 4, 2014
Fairtest Submitted by fairtest on November 4, 2014 - 12:42pm
It's Election Day, and public school testing policy is a hot
issue in many races. After you vote, check out the latest news from across the
country -- this week's update includes stories from 20 states and several
analyses of the testing resistance and reform movement's growing national
impact!
WE’RE SUING AGAIN
From 1989 to 1999 most of my life was taken up with a suit that
our organization, Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS)
entered against the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
calls for a “thorough and efficient “system, who then would interpret the
constitution. No one, I guess.
On Monday November 10, 2014, we will once again be plaintiffs
against the Commonwealth, especially, the legislature and the Governor. This
time, we will not be the protagonists. We will be among a number of school
district plaintiffs and actual parents and children. Although this sounds like
the same kind of case pointing out that children are being unfairly treated in
property and income poor places, it is somewhat different.
We claim that there is a claim that there is unequal protection
under the law (in PA’s constitution) and that we now have a definition of
“thorough and efficient.” We have had standards created by the State Board of
Education (people refer to it as Common Core, but it really is Pennsylvania
Standards) and testing done to see if these standards are met. It is given to
all school districts in Pennsylvania .
That means that we can compare schools and school districts across the state.
The number couldn't possibly
be right.
Kristen A. Graham / Inquirer Staff Writer November 8, 2014
The number couldn’t possibly be right, Marc Gosselin thought:
$160.
That was the total discretionary budget he was handed as the
brand-new principal of Anna Lane Lingelbach Elementary, a public school in Germantown . That’s all he’d have to pay for a whole
year’s books, supplies, staff training, after-school activities, and incidentals
— small but important items like postage and pizza parties. “You can’t even buy groceries for $160, let
alone run a school for 400 kids for a year,” Gosselin said. Principal Marc Gosselin takes a cell phone
photo of a missing ceiling panel and leak as he walks the hall at Lingelbach School
For many, Tom Wolf’s election as governor is a turning point, a
change that could finally address years of Philadelphia School
District
Delco schools score among
best in the state
By John Kopp, Delaware County
Daily
Six Delaware County public schools rank among the top 50 schools
in Pennsylvania ,
as determined by the state’s School Performance Profiles.
Movement afoot to create fair
school funding
Posted: Saturday, November 8, 2014 7:00 am
The Bradford Era By ALEX DAVIS Era Reporter a.davis@bradfordera.com | 0 comments
When it’s budget time, school district officials have to
estimate how much funding will come from the state government. But a movement afoot — called the
Pennsylvania Campaign for Fair Education Funding — is an attempt to erase the
guesswork, and at least some school officials in the four-county region appear
to support the effort.
“I think we all recognize, as well as school board members
recognize, that it is very difficult every year to enact a budget when we don’t
know what the state budget is going to be,” said circuit rider Pamela Lenz, who
spoke to officials at Bradford, Otto-Eldred, St. Marys and Northern Potter
school districts this week. She is leading the campaign in the four-county
region.
Let's get started.
Wolf Transition
Website November 06, 2014
We have big challenges facing us, and in the coming weeks, we
need you to be part of the conversation about how to move Pennsylvania forward. We're taking the first step in the transition
process by launching the Wolf Administration Transition website.
During the transition, we will work to bring together people
from diverse backgrounds who have new and innovative ideas for Pennsylvania . And we
want to hear from you. Take some time to reach out. Sign up for email alerts so
you can be the first to hear about exciting announcements. And if you're
interested in joining the team, you can submit your resume.
There are big challenges ahead. Tom wants to reestablish
education as a priority in Pennsylvania by
implementing a five percent severance tax to fund Pennsylvania 's
schools, make Pennsylvania 's
economy work for everyone, and level the playing field for all Pennsylvanians.
But it turned out Wolf didn't need the Philadelphia
He won the cumulative vote from the state's
other 66 counties by just under 45,000 votes.
Did Philly fizzle in Wolf
election?
WHYY Newsworks DAVE DAVIES OFF MIC A BLOG BY DAVE DAVIES NOVEMBER 9, 2014
There was considerable interest in the Philadelphia vote in Tuesday's gubernatorial
election for a couple of reasons. First, Democrat Tom Wolf had declined to give
"street money" to help fund city ward leaders Election Day field
effort, and there was some grumbling in the ranks about it.
Second, many expected a robust turnout from Philadelphia anyway because of anger at
incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett over education spending. So did Philly deliver?
Not really. About 44,000 fewer Philadelphians showed up to vote
Tuesday than cast votes four years ago when western Pennsylvania Democrat Dan
Onorato lost to Corbett.
Those who did vote gave Wolf a big margin of course, because
it's such a heavily Democratic city. In fact, the margin for Wolf was
higher than it was for Onorato because Corbett fared so poorly.
Inky Editorial: Back to
schools: Wolf's mandate
INQUIRER
EDITORIAL BOARD POSTED: Sunday, November 9, 2014, 1:10 AM
Education funding may have been the crucial issue that united Pennsylvania voters in
deciding to elect a new governor. A statewide coalition promoting more money
for schools had been struggling to get traction, but it found its strength on
Election Day.
Parents, students, and teachers will have to keep up the
pressure on the legislature if Gov.-elect Tom Wolf is to deliver on his plan to
impose a 5 percent tax on natural-gas extraction and spend most of the revenue
on education. The defeat of Gov. Corbett, who opposed a gas tax, should help
push the legislature in that direction. But nothing in Harrisburg is ever guaranteed.
Wolf is likely to face the same difficulties Corbett did as a
tenderfoot governor trying to press his agenda with legislators who have other
allegiances, not all of them political. Corbett never did find his groove.
Here's hoping Wolf can do better.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20141109_Back_to_schools__Wolf_s_mandate.html#xBqquc18K6kRCgw7.99
No coups in Pennsylvania
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com on November
08, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated November 08, 2014 at 11:02 PM
This story was updated at 11:02 p.m. Saturday to fix some
typographical errors.
While it doesn't necessarily have the high drama of the bloodless coup attempt playing out in the state
Senate, due to the retirement of Speaker of the House Sam
Smith, Pennsylvania 's
House Republicans will have a new set of floor leaders when the legislative
session resumes in January. As in the
Senate, the caucus leadership elections are important because these become the
players who set the legislative agenda and do most of the direct negotiating
with Gov.-elect Tom Wolf. So the
leaders' positions and priorities become very important.
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf, 'a
people person,' should select aides who can compromise, insiders say
Penn Live By The Associated Press on November 08, 2014 at 1:03 PM
John Hanger, the former state environmental protection
secretary who dropped out of the crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary race
that Wolf ultimately won, said Wolf will reach out to legislators early in the
transition because it's in his nature.
"Tom Wolf is a people person," Hanger said. "He
treats every person with dignity and grace and that will be true in the
Legislature, whether (they are) in leadership or not."
Former GOP state Sen. Robert Jubelierer, a long-time party leader,
said much hinges on the relationship between the executive and legislative
branches.
"The Republicans are in charge of the Legislature and you
can't get anything done without them, so compromise is going to be the order of
the day and the people who negotiate those compromises need to be the right
people," he said.
"Mr. Scaife’s will divided his trust
fund assets between the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Allegheny Foundation.
As a result, the Sarah Scaife Foundation is expected to roughly double in size
to have assets of about $800 million, and the Allegheny Foundation will have
about half that amount."
Scaife children seek details
on drained trust
The two children of Richard Mellon Scaife have demanded, in
court filings last week, an accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars that
they said was drained from a trust to cover the losses of the Tribune-Review
newspapers, despite the trustees’ duty to preserve funds for them.
Jennie Scaife, of Palm Beach , Fla. , and David N. Scaife, of Shadyside, filed similar
petitions in Orphans
Court of
Allegheny County
Their grandmother, the trust’s creator and namesake Sarah
Mellon Scaife, included language in its 1935 deed suggesting that the trustees
should have saved some of its principal for them, according to the petitions.
Scaife and Allegheny Foundations have been
major funders of Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Foundation, which advocates for
privatization of democratically governed public education via vouchers, charter
schools and tax credit programs.
Sourcewatch: Commonwealth Foundation
The Commonwealth
Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives is a right-wing pressure
group based in Pennsylvania
"On average, charter schools in Arizona
Mixed Results for Arizona’s
Charter Schools
Brookings By: Matthew M. Chingos and Martin R. West
November 6, 2014
Charter schools are more popular in Arizona Arizona Arizona
We provide the first recent, comprehensive look at Arizona ’s charter
schools in a new paperreleased today, which will be published in a
forthcoming issue of the peer-reviewed journalEducational Evaluation and
Policy Analysis. Our analysis is based on statewide, student-level
longitudinal data obtained from the Arizona Department of Education (AZDOE)
that contains information on test scores, school enrollment, and student
characteristics for the 2005-06 through 2011-12 school years.
Education, Inc.
Jacobin Magazine by George Joseph November 2014
A Jacobin investigation finds
widespread corruption at one of the nation’s largest charter school
networks.
Over the summer, FBI agents stormed nineteen charter schools as
part of an ongoing investigation into Concept Charter Schools. They raided the
buildings seeking information about companies the prominent
Midwestern charter operator had contracted with under the federal E-Rate program. The federal
investigation points to possible corruption at the Gulen charter network,
with which Concept is affiliated and which takes its name from the Turkish cleric Fetullah
Gulen. And a Jacobin investigation found that
malfeasance in the Gulen network, the second largest in the country,
is more widespread than previously thought. Federal contracting documents
suggest that the conflict-of-interest transactions occurring at
Concept are a routine practice at other Gulen-affiliated charter school
operators.
Philadelphia City Council Hearings
on High-stakes Testing and the Opt-Out Movement, Wednesday, November 19, 2014,
3—5 PM
Education Committee of Philadelphia City Council
Wednesday, November 19, 2014, 3—5 PM, Room 400 City Hall
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, Councilman Mark
Squilla and The Opt-Out Committee of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public
Schools urge all who care about the future of education to attend: Parents, students and educators will testify
on the effects of over-testing on students and teaching, including the crisis
of the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement.
Information: Alison McDowell or Lisa Haver
at: philaapps@gmail.com
DelCo Rising: Winning for
Education Nov18
7:00PM - 9:00PM
601 N. LANSDOWNE AVENUEDREXEL HILL, PA 19026
Delaware County students and taxpayers have sacrificed enough.
The state is not paying its fair share. Rising property taxes and school
budget cuts are not acceptable–help us change that.
Join your neighbors for a community workshop: Delco
Rising: Winning for Education
Learn about Pre-K for PA and the
Statewide Campaign for Fair Education Funding and how they can help your
community
Practice winning strategies to
advocate for your community
Create an advocacy plan that works
for you—whether you have 5 minutes or 5 days per month
This non-partisan event is free and open to the public.
Click here to download a PDF flyer to
share.
Webinar: Arts Education - Research Shows Arts Education Boosts
Learning, So Where's the Rush to Teach Arts?
Education Writers Association NOVEMBER 12, 2014
- 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Decades of research suggest that some types of arts education
can lead to academic improvements. But even though No Child Left Behind
designated arts a core subject, student access to dance, theater and visual
arts declined between 2000 and 2010. What are the challenges educators
face in teaching a discipline many researchers say spurs student achievement,
reduces absences and boosts graduation rates? This webinar will look at
state-level arts education policy and student access to arts programs, the arts
education research landscape, and offer a spotlight on city programs that are
galvanizing arts education.
Panelists:
James Catterall, Centers for Research on Creativity,
Professor Emeritus, UCLA
Sandra Ruppert, Director, Arts Education
Partnership
Moderator:
Mary Plummer, Southern California Public Radio
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.
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