Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
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administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition
team members, Superintendents, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher
leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for August 10, 2015:
School funding
reform needed
Interested in letting our elected leadership know your thoughts on
education funding, a severance tax, property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf, (717) 787-2500
Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
Number of Pa. children living in poverty
on the rise, study says
By
Elizabeth Miles / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette August 8, 2015 12:00 AM
Much of
the country has recovered from the national recession, but one group that
continues to struggle is perhaps the most vulnerable — children living in
poverty. Nationally, the number of
children living in poverty increased from 18 percent in 2008 to 22 percent in
2013, according to the “Kids Count Data Book” released last month by the Annie
E. Casey Foundation. The numbers are
similar in Pennsylvania, where the percentage rose from 17 in 2008 to 19 in
2013. That means an estimated 516,000 children were living in poverty in the
state in 2013. Supporters of early
childhood education are using the figures to buttress their case for more
resources for pre-K education. They point to statistics that show a growing
portion of Pennsylvania’s children are not attending preschool, particularly
economically disadvantaged children.
"Roy has said his
district cannot afford to not offer the
program. Whether a child is reading on grade level by the end of third grade is
a major indicator of future student success and high school graduation
rates. Bethlehem schools are partnering
with Lehigh University to track
the effectiveness of the program in the coming years, Roy said."
Bethlehem
schools prepping for universal full-day kindergarten
By Sara K. Satullo | For
lehighvalleylive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on August 09, 2015 at 7:30 AM,
updated August 09, 2015 at 7:31 AM
The Bethlehem Area School District is
gearing up for its first year of universal full-day kindergarten. Administrators are hammering out everything
from major details, like week-by-week language arts curriculum, to little
things, like preparing bus drivers for some tired, emotional kindergarteners on
the afternoon bus run. "We're
getting down to all the little details," said Superintendent Joseph Roy, whose own daughter is
starting kindergarten this year. "I think we are in very good shape." The school board voted earlier this year to
bring full-day kindergarten to all 16 elementary schools. Previously, only the
district's neediest children had access to the full-day program. "I'm excited," Roy said. "It
is not often it is such a clear-cut important program we are
implementing."
Overall Pa.
WHYY
Newsworks BY FABIOLA CINEAS
AUGUST 10, 2015
The
unique challenges of urban areas explain the difference, and many people say
changes to the state funding formula will help.
With a statewide four-year high school graduation rate of 86 percent, Pennsylvania ranks 15th
in the nation. But the Pennsylvania
Department of Education data from the 2012-13 academic year, the latest year
available, also show that most of the commonwealth’s urban districts lag well
behind that average. According to
PDE, the four-year graduation rate in Philadelphia
is 70 percent – a significant increase from 10 years ago when scarcely half
graduated. But it's still below the state average and well behind the
goal of 80 percent that Mayor Nutter set, for before he leaves office in
2016. (The city, which calculates the graduation rate differently
from the state, reported the four-year rate for students who entered high
school in 2009 at 64 percent.) Among the
10 largest urban districts, Harrisburg
— which was under state control between 2000 and 2008 — has by far the lowest
graduation rate, at 38 percent. Upper Darby, a racially and socioeconomically
diverse district on the western edge of Philadelphia ,
has the highest rate, meeting the state average at 85 percent.
Most of
the urban districts had graduation rates between 60 and 80 percent.
Local school
representatives speak out against state assessments
West Chester Daily Local By Candice Monhollan,
cmonhollan@ 21st-centurymedia.com @CMonhollanDLN on
Twitter POSTED: 08/06/15,
4:52 PM EDT
It’s no
secret that Pennsylvania State Assessments have become a controversial topic in
the educational field with teachers, administrators, students and parents. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives’
Education Committee gathered July 29 to hold a public hearing and two Chester
County school representatives were present to give testimonies about the
assessments. Neither stood up for them. “If I could grade the testing system today, I
would say that it’s failing,” said Linda Hicks to the committee. “From my
perspective in the classroom, I don’t really see how it is productive — either
for students or teachers.” Hicks, a
fourth grade teacher in the Oxford Area School District, spoke as a teacher and
as a parent of children who have taken the Keystones Exams. “I can say with confidence that children are
not benefitting from our testing system,” she said. “Throughout my years in the
classroom, I have observed children learning nothing from these tests. Is the
goal that we help students become better test-takers? We are testing for the
sake of testing rather than for constructive uses.” Instead of just the PSSA tests and SATs,
students now also take Keystone Exams, which will soon determine whether a
student will graduate or not. Jim
Scanlon, superintended of the West
Chester Area School District
Post Gazette Letter by REP. JOSEPH MARKOSEK D-Monroeville
July 31, 2015 6:33 AM
The writer is a member of the
state House of Representatives and is minority chairman of House Appropriations
Committee.
Inadequate
state education funding is the actual reason local school property taxes have
increased, not pension payments as said in “Pensions Listed as Top Reason for
School Increases,” East, July 17. The
No. 1 reason property taxes continue to climb in Pennsylvania is that the state is not
holding up its end of the deal when it comes to funding schools. The state and
school districts should equally share the cost of educating students; however,
currently, they do not. For four years,
the previous governor starved school districts of state funding, which left
districts to rely more on local property taxes. Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget
proposal, which House and Senate Democrats have embraced, would restore past
education funding cuts and raise the state’s share of overall education funding
from 37 to 50 percent. In the
legislative district I represent, school districts would receive an average 8.6
percent increase in state funding: East Allegheny 10.7 percent; Gateway 8.2
percent; Penn-Trafford 3.8 percent; Plum 4.9
percent and Woodland Hills 15.6 percent. Thankfully, Gov. Wolf vetoed the
Republican budget, which would have provided school districts with only about
one-fourth of that amount. The
Post-Gazette should ask those same districts if they would need to raise local
taxes if they received the state funding increases proposed by Democrats. My
guess is they would not, which is why education funding is my top priority for
the 2015-16 state budget.
School funding
reform needed
Trib
Live Letter to the Editor by Linda L. Croushore, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015,
7:51 a.m.
The writer is executive director
of The Consortium for Public Education, headquartered in McKeesport
I have
never spent a day at The Consortium without worrying for the financial health
of many of our schools. I was glad the auditor general saw some savings
opportunities for schools in the areas he mentioned: charter schools, excessive
buyouts, construction reimbursements, and others. However, the answer to me, is much more
fundamental. Our commonwealth wants an educated, skilled workforce ready to
meet the demands of employers. Yet our design to fund our schools only gives
opportunity to some of our students. Once
a school district reaches a 30 percent poverty rate, the problems escalate
dramatically, in my experience. More students need counseling, are designated
with special needs, need learning support, and the list goes on.
Rep. Kristin
Phillips-Hill: Wolf says no to York
County
The
budget is often portrayed in the media as merely one piece of legislation. It
is in fact a series of bills that all contribute to the state spending plan for
a fiscal year. Gov. Tom Wolf's veto of
every piece of budget-related legislation that crossed his desk June 30 is
unfortunately revealing this reality to many Pennsylvanians. When the governor said no and created the
current budget impasse, his actions put spending on hold in a number of areas. One of them is public school education, which
is unfortunately less than one month away from beginning a new year in the classroom. In questioning his decision, we must go back
to June of last year, when Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law legislation that
created the Basic Education Funding Commission. This bipartisan group of 15
members, including superintendents, school board presidents, business leaders,
nonprofit organizations and parents, was tasked with developing and
recommending a new formula for distributing state money for education to
Pennsylvania school districts.
If you
are a longtime resident of York County, you know our schools have been
underfunded for more than 20 years. One reason is the hold harmless provision,
which prevents schools with declining enrollments from receiving less funding —
and which shortchanges growing school districts by giving them less money per
student.
Opinion: If
Republicans were honest, they’d love Gov. Wolf’s budget
By Stephen Herzenberg, Delco Times Guest Columnist POSTED: 08/09/15, 10:26 PM
EDT
Blind
taste tests often produce surprising results. Imagine if this year’s two
property tax relief proposals were wines – Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan unveiled in
March as part of his 2015-16 budget proposal and the Republican-sponsored HB
504 that passed the Pennsylvania House in May. We at
the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy
Center Pennsylvania ’s
500 school districts would receive under both plans. We also color-coded maps
so Pennsylvanians can see at a glance which districts would get the biggest
share of tax relief under each plan and the actual dollar amount of relief to
be received. Here’s what we found:
Pipelines to
lucrative Midwest markets welcomed by shale
gas drillers
Trib
Live By David
Conti Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, 9:00 p.m.
Shale gas producers staring down a supply glut that has pushed prices to record lows inAppalachia are getting their first
look at relief. Several long-awaited
pipeline projects are coming online over the next few months that should start
increasing the prices some Marcellus and Utica
shale drillers get for their gas as it finds paths to more lucrative markets in
the Midwest . “They've
been held captive to these lower prices in Appalachia with no other place to
take their gas,” said Teri Viswanath, a natural gas analyst at BNP Paribas in New York . “The continued
cycle of new takeaway projects will accelerate a price increase.” With high supplies and not enough demand to
consume it all here, selling gas in Appalachia
has meant taking a deep discount. The spot price on the Dominion South trading
point in Southwestern Pennsylvania hit 71
cents per million British thermal units on July 2, which Viswanath said was a
record low.
Shale gas producers staring down a supply glut that has pushed prices to record lows in
By last
week it rebounded to $1.35, but that was less than half the price garnered at
the Chicago Citygate trading point, $2.89.
Salary reflects
stresses of fundraising, competition
By
Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette August 10, 2015 12:00 AM
Which
education executive is paid more: the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public
Schools, the president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania or the head of Sewickley Academy Sewickley
Academy Sewickley Academy Linda
Lane earns $235,000 plus $35,000 in a retirement
benefit to run the district with more than 24,000 students and a budget of $559
million.
School's out but not for teachers
By Jacqueline
Palochko Of The
Morning Call August 10, 2015
At
Southern Lehigh last week, about 200 teachers from Lehigh Valley Salisbury Middle School
Reports puts
stability at center of York
City
A
district review noted several places where consistency is key
York Daily Record By Angie Mason amason@ydr.com @angiemason1 on Twitter UPDATED: 08/07/2015
06:39:12 PM EDT
It's
consistency in classrooms, in what students are learning and what's expected of
them. And it's steadiness in the principal's office, in who leaders are and how
long they stay.
In one
way or another, several of the findings and recommendations from a nonprofit
that reviewed the York City School District from top to bottom aim at improving
one thing: stability. The report says its recommendations aim to help focus
attention and resources on strengthening instruction. The York City School Board recently received
the results of a comprehensive review done by Mass Insight, a Boston-based
nonprofit that works on education issues. The review used data, surveys,
interviews and focus groups to identify strengths and weaknesses in the
district throughout 10 areas — vision, human resources, academics, finance, and
so on — to help the district update its recovery plan in order to increase
student achievement. Several
of the challenges and recommendations focus on bringing stability to the
district in various areas. Here's a look at the ways it's needed, and the ways
the district is working to get it.
Times-Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL Published:
August 10, 2015
If Scranton teachers do not
have a new contract by the start of the school year, their union president
plans to recommend that they do not return to their classrooms. After agreeing to a one-year deal last year,
the teachers now have a contract that expires at the end of the month. The
sides negotiate as the district faces increased financial pressure, including
skyrocketing state-mandated pension payments and uncertainty with the state
budget impasse. “My personal choice is
to not start without a contract,” said Rosemary Boland, president of the
Scranton Federation of Teachers. Teachers would have to authorize the union to
call a strike. Students are scheduled to start school on Thursday, Sept. 3. The union and district agreed to the one-year
deal last summer, with the hope that the district’s financial situation would
improve. The district borrowed about $10 million to balance the 2015 budget,
and whether the district will see an additional $3.2 million in the state
budget remains unclear.
Editorial: Families shouldn’t have to pick
up the tax bill for commercial properties
Nathan
Mains, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association August
7, 2015
I’m sure
everyone reading this is an upright citizen. You keep your lawn neat and tidy.
In the winter you may be the first out to shovel the snow from your walk, and
perhaps your elderly neighbor’s too. You pay your taxes on time, and you even
pay a little more to cover that strip mall down the road. What’s that? You
don’t? Well whether you think you do or not, chances are your hard earned tax
dollars are going to subsidize the taxes of that strip mall, or office
building, or apartment complex in your community and you didn’t even know it. As a taxpayer if you feel the value of your
property is being overtaxed you have the right to appeal the current assessment
and potentially lower your taxes. Likewise, taxing bodies such as townships,
boroughs and school districts can conduct an assessment appeal if it believes
the value of a property has increased beyond its assessed value. This process allows municipalities to tax
fairly so these corporate properties aren’t paying less than their fair share,
and you’re not picking up the tab for their underpayment. Critics (yes,
typically those corporate entities) are trying to take this authority away from
school districts. Like all of us, they don’t want to pay more taxes, but nor
should the families of a community chip in and subsidize their taxes. All
taxpayers subsidize significantly under-taxed commercial properties through
unnecessary millage rate increases, reductions in public services such as
senior programs, police and fire protection, and cuts to the schools.
Taxing-body assessment appeals correct this injustice.
Merrow: FILLING
THE VACUUM
The
Merrow Report August 6, 2015 John Merrow 2015 Blogs
First, a
prediction: the anti-excessive testing drive is not going to lose steam and
disappear. To the contrary, I expect that it will only pick up momentum during
the coming school year. Even if the Congress manages to agree on a
replacement for No Child Left Behind that the President is willing to sign,
it’s too late to counter the genuine revulsion many people feel about excessive
testing.
**Too
many people now realize that the US is the only advanced country
that tests kids in order to judge (and sometimes fire) teachers.
**Too
many people are upset about the intrusive nature of testing and
data-collection, and too many parents are distrustful of a system that treats
their children as a number, a test score.
**Too
many people have lost faith in ‘big data’ in education and in the testing
industry in general.
As
we have reported on the NewsHour, the “Opt Out” movement is made up of
strange political bedfellows, united in their opposition. How long these folks
remain together depends, it seems to me, upon what happens next.
New Tests Push Schools To Redefine 'Good
Enough'
NPR.org
by CORY TURNER AUGUST 07,
2015 7:33 AM ET
This
past spring, 5 million students from third grade through high school took new,
end-of-year tests in math and English — developed by a consortium of states known
as PARCC. It's a big deal because these tests are
aligned to the Common Core learning standards, and they're considered harder
than many of the tests they replaced. It's
also a big deal because — until last year — it was all but impossible to
compare students across state lines. Not anymore. There's
just one problem: The results won't be released for a long time (late fall).
What's the hold-up, you ask? The tests
have all been read and the answers
tallied. That's not the problem. The problem is, adding up right answers
doesn't tell you how a child did. For that, you need cut scores. And PARCC
doesn't have them yet.
Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials
Optional)
New York Times By MOTOKO RICH AUG. 9, 2015
Connecticut to Require All 11th Graders to Take the SAT
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS AUG. 6, 2015
Connecticut
announced on Thursday that all 11th graders in the state’s public schools would
soon be required to take the SAT college admissions tests, replacing an
existing statewide exam amid widespread concern that the nation’s students are
tested too much. With approval from
the United States
Department of Education, Connecticut said it would make the SAT a
requirement, administered without cost to students, beginning in the 2015-16
school year. “We had
reached the conclusion that there was, in fact, too much testing in 11th
grade,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in an interview. “We thought it was just a
tremendous amount of pressure concentrated in a single year.” The federal government requires that states
assess students in both reading and math once during high school. Because so
many Connecticut public school students take the SAT anyway, replacing the
existing high school test, given in 11th grade, with the SAT would leave young
people with one exam fewer on their roster.
State officials said that while scores had not yet been set on what
would count as meeting or exceeding “achievement level,” a particular score on
the SAT would not be required to graduate from high school or to rise to the
12th grade. Instead, the test will be used as one of several measures, including
grades and attendance, to decide if a student has met the requirements
necessary to move on.
VAM: Master teacher suing New York
A veteran teacher suing New York
state education officials over the controversial method they used to evaluate
her as “ineffective” is expected to go to New York Supreme Court in Albany this week for oral
arguments in a case that could affect all public school teachers in the state
and even beyond. Sheri G. Lederman, a
fourth-grade teacher in New York’s Great Neck public school district, is
“highly regarded as an educator,” according to her district superintendent,
Thomas Dolan, and has a “flawless record”. The standardized math and English
Language Arts test scores of her students are consistently higher than the
state average. Yet her 2013-2014
evaluation, based in part on student standardized test scores, rated her as
“ineffective.” How can a teacher known for excellence be rated “ineffective”?
It happens — and not just in New York .
“Reform” makes
broken New Orleans
An all-charter-school system was
heralded as the future for urban schools. The future is filled with flaws
Salon.com
by JENNIFER C.
BERKSHIRE MONDAY, AUG 3, 2015 05:57 AM EDT
Here is
all you need to know about the New Orleans schools before Hurricane Katrina
hit, 10 years ago this summer: They were awful. The schools were awful, the
school board was awful, the central office was awful—all of them were awful. At
a recent conference held to tout the progress made by the schools here since
Katrina, Scott Cowan, an early proponent of the all-charter-school model that
exists here now, described New Orleans’ pre-storm schools as mired in
“unprecedented dysfunction.” In other words, they were awful.
The
problem with a story like this isn’t just that it leaves out anything that
doesn’t fit but that it can be hard to contain once it gets going. Before long,
this “awfulizing narrative,” as it was described to me more than once during
the 10 days I recently spent in New Orleans, spread past the school yards and
central offices, sweeping up in its wake parents, children, indeed the whole
hot mess that is New Orleans. The awful story was at the root of the decision
to fire 7,000 teachers after the storm, the majority of whom were black New
Orleanians and the backbone of the city’s middle class. It is the reason why so
few locals can be found among the ranks of education reform groups here. And it
is a rarely acknowledged justification for the long school day favored by
charters here—10, even 12 hours when you factor in the cross-city bus trips
that a choice landscape necessitates.
Bernie Sanders Clearly In Pocket Of
High-Rolling Teacher Who Donated $300 To His Campaign
The
Onion NEWS IN BRIEF
August 3, 2015
Stargazing: Perseid meteor shower
Post
Gazette By Dan Malerbo, Buhl Planetarium and Observatory August 10, 2015 12:00
AM
The
Perseid meteor shower is one of nature’s most exciting celestial displays. They
begin in late July and stretch into August. Stargazers outdoors at the right
time can see colorful fireballs, occasional outbursts and almost always long
hours of gracefully streaking “shooting stars.” Among
the many nights of the shower, one always is the best for viewing. This year,
peak activity will occur from about 11 p.m. on Wednesday through
dawn on Thursday. Maximum activity with exceptional skies during the
Perseids is normally about 50 or 60 meteors per hour. The new moon occurs on
Friday, so there will be no moon light to interfere during the shower’s prime
pre-dawn hours. The best way to view the
Perseids is to lie down on your favorite lawn chair and look toward the
northeast. Keep in mind, the best place to observe the Perseid meteor shower,
or any meteor shower for that matter, is somewhere dark, away from the bright
lights of the city. The less light visible, the more brilliant the meteor
shower will be.
Nominations for PSBA's
Allwein Advocacy Award now open
PSBA July 7, 2015
PSBA July 7, 2015
The Timothy M.
Allwein Advocacy Award was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania School
Boards Association and may be presented annually to the individual school
director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in
legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that
are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. The 2015 Allwein Award nomination process
will close on Aug. 28, 2015. The 2015 Allwein Award Nomination Form is available online. More details on the
award and nominations process can be found online.
Slate of
candidates for PSBA offices now available online
PSBA website July 31, 2015
PSBA website July 31, 2015
The
slate of candidates for 2016 PSBA officer and at-large representatives is now
available online, including bios, photos and videos. 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 openAug. 17 and closes Sept. 28. 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 August or
September. Each person authorized to register the school entity's votes has
received an email on July 16 to verify the email address and confirm they are
the person to register the vote on behalf of their school entity.
Save the Date for
PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 14-16, 2015 Hershey Lodge &
Convention Center
Save the date for the
professional development event of the year. Be inspired at more than four
exciting venues and invest in professional development for top administrators
and school board members. Online registration will be live soon!
Register Now – PAESSP
State Conference – Oct. 18-20 – State College, PA
Registration is now
open for PAESSP's State Conference to be held October 18-20 at The
Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College, PA! This year's
theme is @EVERYLEADER and features three nationally-known keynote
speakers (Dr. James Stronge, Justin Baeder and Dr. Mike Schmoker), professional
breakout sessions, a legal update, exhibits, Tech Learning Labs and many
opportunities to network with your colleagues (Monday evening event with Jay
Paterno). Once again, in conjunction
with its conference, PAESSP will offer two 30-hour Act 45 PIL-approved
programs, Linking Student Learning to Teacher Supervision and Evaluation
(pre-conference offering on 10/17/15); and Improving Student Learning
Through Research-Based Practices: The Power of an Effective Principal (held
during the conference, 10/18/15 -10/20/15). Register for either or both PIL
programs when you register for the Full Conference!
REGISTER TODAY for
the Conference and Act 45 PIL program/s at:
Apply
now for EPLC’s 2015-2016 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program
Applications are
available now for the 2015-2016 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in
Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC). With more than 400 graduates in its
first sixteen years, this Program is a premier professional development
opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates, and
community leaders. State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are available
to certified public accountants. Past
participants include state policymakers, district superintendents and
principals, charter school leaders, school business officers, school board
members, education deans/chairs, statewide association leaders, parent leaders,
education advocates, and other education and community leaders. Fellows
are typically sponsored by their employer or another organization. The Fellowship Program begins with a two-day
retreat on September 17-18, 2015 and continues to graduation in June
2016.
Click here to read about
the Education Policy Fellowship Program.
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