Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
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administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
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PA Ed Policy Roundup for
December 17, 2014:
America’s Most Financially Disadvantaged
School Districts and How They Got that Way
How State and Local Governance Causes
School Funding Disparities
Center for
American Progress By Bruce D. Baker | July 9, 2014
Blogger commentary: None of the state's
cyber charter schools have achieved a passing score of 70 on PDE's School
Performance Profile in either of the past two years, and most of them never
made AYP under No Child Left Behind.
Should cybers really be considered as a viable primary alternative?
Hearing ends in York
If the York
City School
District
"I think it puts consolidation almost
to bed," state Rep. Seth Grove, R-Dover
Township , said after the presentation
at the York County School
School consolidation study:
Costs likely to outweigh savings
State Rep. Stan Saylor said that, over the years, he and other
lawmakers have gotten questions about why York County
"I think it puts consolidation almost to bed," state
Rep. Seth Grove, R-Dover
Township
Penn Live By Christian
Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com on December 15, 2014 at
3:40 PM, updated December 16, 2014 at 11:08 AM
*This article has been updated with additional information*
Everyone from business owners and environmentalists to union
leaders and lawyers will help prepare Gov.-elect Tom Wolf to
take office in January. On Monday, Wolf
announced the names of more than 250 people that will review state
agencies, commissions and various issue areas as part of his transition team. A
number of people tapped for the review team spots work in York , Lancaster and Dauphin Counties
Here's a breakdown of the people from around the area that were
selected by Wolf:
Gas industry: Drilling tax
could cripple Pa.
AMY WORDEN, INQUIRER
HARRISBURG
BUREAU LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, December 17, 2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Tuesday,
December 16, 2014, 6:41 PM
Education groups at odds over
study of Philly schools' performance
By Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks on Dec 16, 2014 05:26 PM
An influential school reform group is urging Philadelphia
District leaders to approve every charter applicant that can effectively run
schools serving a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students. Last week, District officials heard pitches
from operators hoping to open 40 new charter schools across the city. To back up its advice on charters,
Philadelphia School Advocacy Partners – an arm of the Philadelphia School
Partnership – has released a report that sorts the city's public school
landscape into two systems: "high impact" and
"underperforming."
Radnor: Haverford School
Board member Larry Feinberg, a 'Circuit Rider' for fair funding
Main Line Times By Linda Stein lstein@mainlinemedianews.com
@lsteinreporter on Twitter Published: Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Radnor << With great disparities in funding among the
state’s 500 school districts, Gov. Tom Corbett earlier this year said a funding
formula was needed and the Legislature form a Basic Education Commission whose
mission is to come up with recommendations by this coming June.
Meanwhile, a group called The Circuit Riders are traveling the state to talk to school leaders about how public schools are funded. One of those Circuit Riders, Lawrence Feinberg, a Haverford Township School Board member and member of the Keystone State Education Coalition, spoke to the Radnor Township School Board communications and government relations committee Tuesday. “We’re trying to get the word out that there’s a concerted effort underway with the goal of having the state enact legislation in 2016 to have a predictable, sustainable and equitable basic education funding formula,” said Feinberg. “Pennsylvania is one of only three states in
the country that does not have a funding formula. They essentially work off
whatever you got last year plus whatever the state can put together. And in
many instances whatever additional funds that the state can put together get
distributed based primarily on how powerful your state legislators area.”
Meanwhile, a group called The Circuit Riders are traveling the state to talk to school leaders about how public schools are funded. One of those Circuit Riders, Lawrence Feinberg, a Haverford Township School Board member and member of the Keystone State Education Coalition, spoke to the Radnor Township School Board communications and government relations committee Tuesday. “We’re trying to get the word out that there’s a concerted effort underway with the goal of having the state enact legislation in 2016 to have a predictable, sustainable and equitable basic education funding formula,” said Feinberg. “
Ground rules set for 2nd
round of Philly charter hearings in January
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on Dec 16, 2014 05:24 PM
The School District has
established the ground rules for a second round of hearings on charter school
applications next month. According to an
email from the District's Charter Schools Office, each of the 40
applications will get a two-hour hearing. Last week, the applicants
went through a first
round of hearings in front of a District hearing officer, in which
they had 15 minutes apiece to make their case.
The tentative schedule calls for hearings to be held on 11 different
days in January, starting Jan. 5, with two to five applicants considered each
day. The final schedule could change depending on the applicants' availability;
they have until tomorrow to request changes.
"In conclusion, some of the schools
applying for new charters may be doing great work. But the unlevel playing
field and distinct demographics differences belie claims that charters
out-perform district schools. Until the law creates an accountability framework
that strengthens the authority of the district to hold charters accountable for
serving all kinds of students better than district schools and makes revoking a
charter an easier, less costly, and less time consuming process, it is unlikely
that increasing the number of charter schools will “improve” public education
as required by the charter law itself. To the contrary, charter expansion at
this time will siphon crucial resources out of district schools and ultimately
reduce the number of quality public school options — the opposite of the
charter school law’s legislative intent."
Testimony to
SRC on Charter Applications and Legislative Intent
By David Lapp, Education Law
Center
My name is David Lapp and I have
worked with charter schools in a variety of roles for virtually my entire
professional career. First, as a teacher, then as a board member, and currently
as a staff attorney at the Education Law Center where I frequently represent
students in both district and charter schools.
There is tremendous promise in the theory of independently-operated
public schools that areaccountable for equitably serving all kinds of students,
achieve superior results, and ultimately increase quality educational options
in the larger system of public education. Unfortunately, we do not have such a
system in Philadelphia
Report: Consolidating York County
Penn Live By Christian
Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com on December 16, 2014 at
6:00 PM, updated December 16, 2014 at 10:30 PM
The cost of consolidating 15
York County Harrisburg was asked by a
delegation of York
County York . The IFO took several factors into
consideration — taxes, state education funding, salaries and savings — before
arriving at its conclusion about consolidating the school districts.
Delco Times Heron's Nest Blog by Editor Phil Heron Wednesday,
December 17, 2014
Do you have a question you'd like to ask the top brass of the Chester Upland School District
This is your night.
After surviving an attempt by Gov. Tom Corbett to remove him
from his job, Chester Upland receiver Joe Watkins will pay a visit to our
live-stream Internet show, 'Live From the Newsroom,' tonight. Joining us will
be Chester Upland Superintendent Gregory Shannon. Watkins was targeted in a surprise move by
acting state Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq, who filed a petition in
Delaware County Court to have Watkins ousted. But Delco Judge Chad Kenney
decided Watkins deserves more time to turn things around in the seemingly
forever troubled school district. We'll
talk about the reasons why Watkins may have been targeted, why he believes it
was the wrong move, and the things he's done to reverse course in Chester
Upland.
Then tune in to DelcoTimes.com tonight at 7 tonight as we go
live with Joe Watkins and Gregory Shannon. Join the conversation!
All They Want for Christmas …
is Art Education
Last night at the final board meeting before the winter
holidays, Pittsburgh
students told school board directors what they want for their schools. If Santa
was paying attention, he didn’t have to write down very much. The students’
wish list contains only one item: arts education.
The students who spoke at the meeting attend Pittsburgh CAPA
6-12 and are concerned about the impact of several years of budget cuts on arts
education across the district. They reached out to Yinzercation, and steering
committee member Kathy Newman worked with them and helped them understand the
process of presenting to the school board. Two of those students, seniors
William Grimm and Margaret Booth, are co-presidents of the CAPA chapter of the
National Arts Honors Society (NAHS). Through that chapter, they collected
statements from other CAPA students about why the arts are important in public
education.
What’s
Missing ?
Lucid Witness Blog by Daun Kauffman September 25, 2014
“Education Reform” discussions often revolve around: 1) a
“Common Core”, or “national standards”, plus, 2) Standardized
Testing and, 3) a “Value Added Measurement” of teachers.
Clearly, something is missing in the “Reform”
discussions.
The Common Core, is an attempt to develop common learning
objectives across all U.
S. schools. It’s faulted
for lack of practitioner input (primary
years especially absent), for being developmentally
inappropriate, and for how it was constructed and benchmarked. Other outcries against the Common Core
include the heavy hand of ‘Uncle Sam’ into States’ Rights and the sort of
“Stepford Wives”, one size fits all, implications.
Standardized Testing is theoretically connected to the
common learning objectives via a common, or “standard”, test.
Standardized Testing is attacked for errors,
for secrecy, and for its propensity to beget a plethora
of “interim” or “benchmark” tests along the way, leading to reduced
time for teaching and learning : over
testing. Next the high stakes of the
test for both children and schools generate high levels of toxic stress. The high stakes
also lead to “teaching
to the test”, (often to the exclusion of a well-rounded curriculum),
and sometimes
to cheating(by adults). Finally, the test results are already being
wielded to punish, via value-added measures, below, before having
validated the Common Core which the tests are based on.
"None of this is because Americans do
not care about their children. It is because America
Inequality and the U.S.
The Korea
Herald by Joseph Stiglitz Published : 2014-12-15 20:44
Joseph E. Stiglitz, a
Nobel laureate in economics, is a professor at Columbia University
Sadly, the
Though an average American childhood may not be the worst in the world, the disparity between the country’s wealth and the condition of its children is unparalleled. About 14.5 percent of the American population as a whole is poor, but 19.9 percent of children ― some 15 million individuals ― live in poverty. Among developed countries, only
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20141215001056&utm_content=buffer7d037&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
New Federal Budget Defunds
Race to the Top
Diane Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch December 16,
2014 //
According to news
reports, the new federal budget strips all funding from Race to the Top.
Good riddance to one of the worst, most destructive federal programs in
history. Historians will one day tell us who cooked up this assault on teachers
and public schools. If states wanted to be eligible for part of Arne Duncan’s
$4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding, they were required to adopt the
“college and career ready standards,” aka Common Core, even though no one had
ever field tested them. States had to agree to evaluate teachers to a
significant degree by student scores, even though there was no evidence for
doing so. States had to open more charters, transferring control from public to
private management. States had to create massive data systems to track
students. RTTT was an all-out assault on
the teaching profession, public education, and student privacy.
Jeb Bush's Entry Into
Presidential Contest Would Put K-12 Front and Center
Education Week Politics K-12 Blog By Alyson Klein on December
16, 2014 11:41 AM
It's official! Well, sorta. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will
"actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States "
in 2016, according to Facebook post he published Tuesday morning. The Republican's announcement is an early
Christmas present for education policy/politics nerds. There is probably no
prospective candidate in either party more closely identified with K-12
education policy. Whether you agree with
Bush's positions on things like school choice and the Common Core State
Standards or not, his entrance into the race would exponentially raise the
profile of K-12 education, which is often an afterthought in national
campaigns. He was one of the most active governors on education in recent
history and after leaving office even started an organization, the Foundation
for Excellence in Education, that's geared towards K-12 policy. Especially interesting if you're an
edu-policy geek: Bush doesn't see eye-to-eye with many of the more conservative
members of his party on what's arguably the biggest K-12 political issue of the
day, the common core standards.
TFA Closing NYC Office, Not
Enough Recruits
Diane Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch December 16,
2014 //
There have been rumors for months that TFA has seen a sharp decline
in applicants. This may be confirmation.
Teach for America
is closing
down its NYC office because of a decline in recruitment. It seems the pushback from alumni has made a
difference, despite TFA’s massive PR and funding. Alumni have written many
articles warning that they were ill-prepared for their assignments.
Valerie Strauss on TFA’s
Sharp Decline in Recruits
Diane Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch December
16, 2014 //
Valerie Strauss here
analyzes the sharp drop in Teach for America recruits. The numbers of
new corps members are down by as much as 25%.
Why? Teachers’ morale has declined precipitously from 2008-2012 (will
Arne Duncan be held accountable?) and the teaching profession has lost its
allure. Strauss points out that TFA may be a causal factor in the loss of
respect for the profession, since it claims that brand néw college graduates
are better than veteran teachers. By doing so, TFA has encouraged the belief
that 5 weeks of training is good enough. This destroys the profession as such.
Veteran teachers have been replaced by TFA kids. This can contribute to
instability and demoralization.
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