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PA Ed Policy Roundup October 19, 2015:
NAEP scores of white students, black students,
Hispanic students, Asian students at their highest point in history
Wolf,
Republicans talking budget, but not with each other
CHRIS
PALMER, INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU Sunday, October 18,
2015, 1:08 AM
Gov. Wolf:
“I’d certainly be willing to talk to anything that would close that budget
deficit in a real way”
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Friday, October
16, 2015
Gov. Tom
Wolf Friday continued his push for closing Pennsylvania ’s
structural deficit, going to Susquehanna
Township
Tom Wolf's
paradise lost
JOHN
BAER, DAILY NEWS POLITICAL
COLUMNIST October 19, 2015, 12:16 AM
LET'S
TAKE a look at Gov. Wolf's political paradise lost. There was a time when the Democratic
businessman could have cemented a place in state history. It was right after he
made history by ousting an incumbent. Riding
a wave of goodwill from a campaign well-waged and won, he could have struck a
deal with the Republican Legislature to bring the state real change. Knowing (and he had to know) GOP aversion to
big new taxes, he could have traded for some new taxes by
agreeing to phase out state liquor stores and put new state and public-school
workers into 401(k) retirement plans.
Did you catch our weekend
postings?
Surprise: McKeesport
Area SD
PA Ed Policy Roundup October 19, 2015:
"That map has been
gathering dust in the glove compartment for more than a decade. Although the law requires the board to do a
new master plan every five years, the most recent one dates back to 1999. A lot has happened in the past 16 years in
public education. To name one, the federal "No Child Left Behind"
law, which was passed in 2001. For another, the entire charter-school movement.
(In 1999, the state had 41 charter schools. Today, there are 174.)"
DN Editorial:
Mark state Board of Education absent
Philly Daily News POSTED: Monday, October 19,
2015, 12:16 AM
IF YOU
ever wondered what the Pennsylvania Board of Education does, the answer is . .
. not much. Not much at all, according to a critical report by Auditor General
Eugene DePasquale. The
21-member board is tasked with creating and updating the Commonwealth Master
Plan for education. It's independent of the state Department of Education,
which has the job of implementing and overseeing the policies set by the board. The Board of Education has regulatory power
over an array of educational issues: school performance, staff certification,
school finance and transportation, to name a few. As DePasquale's report put it
last week, the board is supposed to provide a "road map" for
education policy in Pennsylvania .
PPG Editorial: Safeguards for students:
Two state bills offer necessary cybersecurity
Post
Gazette By the Editorial Board October 19, 2015 12:00 AM
Schools
know a lot about the children they teach: what time they go to school, what
time they get home, what they eat for lunch, their preference of sport,
sometimes even what’s in the emails they send.
That’s valuable information to marketers and criminals, making
student-data collection a growing concern among educators and parents — and now
state lawmakers, too. A pair of bills before the Legislature propose to end
what’s been called “open-hunting season” on student data. They should be swiftly
adopted. Basic student information —
such as their names, dates of birth, health, grades and test scores — are
already protected under a law known as the Federal Education Rights and Privacy
Act. But many school districts hire cloud-computing firms for data storage
without sufficient safeguards written into the contracts. An investigation by the Post-Gazette’s Rich
Lord found that the majority of third-party vendors did not pledge to delete
information on former students and had no system to notify victims of data
breaches. These failings would be corrected under legislation proposed by state
House Reps. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, and Tedd Nesbit, R-Grove City
"Years of cuts, combined
with a higher-than-usual number of retirements and other staffing challenges,
have resulted in an unprecedented problem for the Philadelphia School
District
Concerns deepen
over Philly school nursing shortage
KRISTEN
A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Sunday,
October 18, 2015, 1:08 AM
On
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Rachel Dodek can remain relatively calm about
her 6-year-old Alex, newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, when John Hancock
Elementary doesn't have a nurse on duty, are excruciating. An agency nurse is supposed to visit those
days to check the first grader's blood sugar and administer his insulin - but
someone doesn't always show, and even when someone does, the care is
inconsistent, his mother said. "I'm
on edge from the time I wake up on days when I know the regular nurse isn't
there," Dodek said.
Schools
turning to staffing agencies for substitute teachers
Trib
LiveBy Elizabeth
Behrman Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, 6:25 p.m.
A fewWestern Pennsylvania school districts
are among a growing number nationwide that are opting to “outsource” their
substitute teachers. Kelly Services, the
staffing solutions company known for its “Kelly Girls” who started filling
temporary office jobs in 1946, contracts with five school districts in
Allegheny County — Plum, Woodland Hills, Pine-Richland, Montour and Fox Chapel
Area — and a combined 16 districts in Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties.
Kelly doesn't contract with any districts in Westmoreland County
A few
Public getting
a rare look at Pottsgrove contract proposals
By Evan Brandt, The Mercury POSTED: 10/17/15, 8:56 AM EDT
Pottsgrove
calculates $1M difference between contract proposals
By Evan Brandt, The Mercury POSTED: 10/17/15, 8:56 AM EDT
LOWER
POTTSGROVE >> The proposal by the Pottsgrove teachers union could cost
taxpayers about $1 million more than the district’s proposal, according to a
side-by-side comparison the district made public last week. The comparison was attached to a district-wide letter issued by Superintendent
Shellie Feola and School Board President Justin Valentine and posted on the
district web site. “The board believes
the public needs to be aware of the salary and benefits demands of the
(Pottsgrove Education Association) as well as the good faith proposal of the
board, and the impact these demands may have on the financial stability of the
district,” Feola and Valentine wrote. Reaction
from the Pottsgrove Education Association was swift and disputed the district’s
conclusions.
Strike 'likely' as contract talks fail
between teachers, Peters school district
By
Janice Crompton / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette October 19, 2015 5:54 AM
The Peters Township
School District
Sarah
M. Wojcik Contact Reporter Of The Morning
Call October 16,2015
The nine
hours behind closed doors Thursday were productive enough to postpone next
week's planned teachers strike in the Nazareth Area
School District
Erie educator
brings back lessons from Finland
Lewisburg woman becomes PSBA governing
board president
Shamokin New Item Published: 10/18/2015 10:05 AM
HERSHEY—
Members of the Pennsylvania
School Boards Association (PSBA) elected new officers and a new at-large
representative for 2016 at their delegate assembly Tuesday at The Hershey Lodge
& Convention Center. The new
officers and at-large representative will take their offices Jan. 1, as part of
the 11-member PSBA Governing Board. As 2015 president-elect, Kathy Swope, Lewisburg Area School District
Other
officers and at-large representatives elected at the delegate assemby are, Mark
B. Miller, Centennial School District, Bucks County, president-elect; Michael
Faccinetto, Bethlehem Area School District, Northampton County, vice president;
Larry Feinberg, Haverford Township School District, Delaware County, at-large
representative, east; and William LaCoff, of Owen J. Roberts School District,
Chester County, immediate past president.
Philly.com
by EMMANUEL FELTON, THE HECHINGER
REPORT October 19, 2015, 1:08 AM
This is
some of the hardest work in education. That
was Chris Barbic's message in July when he said he'd be stepping down as
superintendent of a special Tennessee
school district responsible for fixing the state's worst schools. Barbic's resignation comes as legislators in
states across the country - including Pennsylvania
- consider creating similar special districts for their lowest performers.
So-called turnaround districts are already up and running in three states: Louisiana , Michigan , and
Tennessee .
They share many strategies: converting some schools into charters; replacing
teachers and administrators; giving staff more freedom when it comes to
curriculum, hiring and budgeting; and, in some cases, pumping in more money. But, more than a decade after the first such
district was founded in Louisiana ,
the results remain mixed. Turning around high schools - where the stakes are
arguably highest as students prepare to head out into the real world - has
proven to be particularly frustrating for reformers.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Should the state provide
money to charter schools but not public schools during the budget impasse?
Charter
schools, but not public schools, have been receiving funds from the state
during the budget impasse.
MORNING
CALL October 16, 2015
"What she should know,
but doesn’t, is that on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP),
the scores of white students, black students, Hispanic students, and Asian
students are at their highest point in history.
What she should know, but
doesn’t, is that none of the world’s top-performing nations on international
tests have privatized their schools. They have instead strived to make them
equitable for all children What she should know, but doesn’t, is that
privatization does not decrease inequality, it increases inequality and segregation."
Diane
Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch October
17, 2015 //
In
a column
in the Daily Beast, ex-TV journalist Campbell Brown praised David Cameron
of the United Kingdom
for his proposal to eliminate all traditional public schools and replace them
with private academies. The column was reprinted on her website “The 74.”‘
As Charter Schools Become Divisive, Two
Parents Give Their Take
NPR.org
by RACHEL MARTIN OCTOBER 18, 2015 9:32 AM ET
Listen
to the Story Weekend Edition
Sunday Runtime: 7:29
It used
to be a given: When your kids reached school age, they'd strap on their
backpacks and head for the neighborhood elementary school. Or, you'd pay a hefty
tuition to send them to private school. In
the last two decades, a third option has emerged. Today, there are more than
6,000 charter schools in the country. And lately, they've been the subject of
passionate and often acrimonious debate about the right way to fix public
education in America . Charters are publicly funded and privately
run; they're a place for educational innovation. But with lawsuits underway in
45 states, they're also the subject of resentment from public school workers
and parents who say they're siphoning resources. The whole thing underscores the difficult
decisions parents have to make. In Baltimore , where more
than a dozen charter schools are suing the city over funding, we hear from two
parents facing two different choices. This
week on For the
Record: the personal choices in public education.
Are charter schools about education or
profit?
Sun Sentinel Opinion by Randy
Schultz October
10, 2015
Randy
Schultz is the former editorial page editor of The Palm Beach
Charter
schools began in Florida
two decades ago with the idea of helping at-risk students. Instead, state
politicians have helped for-profit charter companies enrich themselves while
putting the public at risk. Palm Beach County is
challenging that arrangement. In
December, the school board denied Fort Lauderdale-based Charter
Schools USA 's
application for a K-8, nearly 1,200-student school west of Delray Beach . The company appealed. In April,
the Florida Board of Education — without stating its reason — overturned the
denial. The school board is challenging that ruling, and just filed its brief
with the 4th District Court of Appeal. The
board could have rejected Charter Schools USA 's application based on lack of need; West Delray has plenty of schools. Charter-friendly
rules, however, don't allow that. But
the law does state that charter schools should "encourage the use of
innovative learning methods." The board concluded that the company would
offer nothing distinct from public schools in that area. In an interview, Palm Beach County School Board attorney JulieAnn Rico said the
challenge centers on the original role of charter schools. "The legal
framework," Rico said, "still rests on that statutory purpose"
of helping struggling students.
What are Bill and Melinda Gates talking
about?
Bill Gates is the leader of education philanthropy in the United States ,
pouring a few billion dollars over more than a decade to promote school reforms
that he has championed. They include the Common Core State Standards, a
small-schools initiative in New York
City that he abandoned after deciding it wasn’t
working, and controversial new teacher evaluation systems that use student
standardized test scores to determine the “effectiveness” of educators. Such
philanthropy has sparked a debate about whether American democracy is
well-served by wealthy people who pour part of their fortunes into their pet
projects — regardless of whether they are grounded in research — to such a
degree that public policy and funding follow. Bill and
his wife Melinda Gates recently sat down with PBS journalist Gwen Ifill at the
U.S. Education Learning Forum to discuss the reforms they support. This post,
by Carol Burris, the executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public
Education Fund, looks at what they said and explains what it actually
means. Burris retired in June as an award-winning principal at a New York high school,
and she is the author of numerous articles, books and blog posts (including on
The Answer Sheet) about the botched school reform efforts in her state.
An Admissions Surprise From the Ivy League
New York Times Opinion by Frank Bruni OCT. 17, 2015
AS the
country struggles to address extreme income inequality and inadequate social
mobility, the most venerated colleges are increasingly examining their piece of
that puzzle: How can they better identify and enroll gifted, promising students
from low-income families, lessening the degree to which campuses perpetuate
privilege and making them better engines of advancement? That discussion just took an interesting
turn. About three weeks ago, a group of
more than 80 colleges — including all eight in the Ivy League and many other
highly selective private and public ones — announced that they were developing
a free website and set of online tools that would, among other things, inform
ninth and 10th graders without savvy college advisers about the kind of
secondary-school preparation that best positions them for admission.
What’s
more, these colleges plan to use the website for an application process, in
place by next fall, that would be separate from, and competitive with, the
“Common App,” a single form students can submit to any of more than 600
schools.
The remarkable thing that happens to poor
kids when you give their parents a little money
Twenty years ago, a group of researchers began
tracking the personalities of 1,420 low income children in North Carolina . At the
time, the goal was simple: to observe the mental conditions of kids living
in rural America . But then
a serendipitous thing happened. Four
years into The Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth, the families of
roughly a quarter of the children saw a dramatic and unexpected increase
in annual income. They were members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,
and a casino had just been built on the reservation. From that
point on every tribal citizen earned a share of the profits, meaning
about an extra $4,000 a year per capita. For
these families, the extra padding was a blessing, enough to
boost household incomes by almost 20 percent on average. But for the
fields of psychology, sociology and economics, it has been a gold mine, too.
The sudden change in fortunes has offered a rare glimpse into the subtle but
important ways in which money can alter a child’s life. The dataset is so rich
that researchers continue to study it to this day.
Back to School Special Education Seminar October 20th
Join us on October 20, 2015, from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m. for our first special education conference of the 2015-2016 school year!
Building on last
year’s successful Back to School seminar, this year you will hear about the
current state of special education law and engage in dialogue about today’s
most pressing matters.
Topics
- Early Intervention
- Inclusion
- Assistive Technology
- General update on the state of special
education, both in
Presenters
- HUNE
- The
- Sonja Kerr
Our “Know
Your Child’s Rights” Special Education workshops aim to educate
parents, educators, attorneys and advocates so that they can advocate for the
rights of children with disabilities. CLE credit is available for attorneys in Pennsylvania that attend
the seminar in person. Questions?
Email mberton@pilcop.org or call 267.546.1303.
- See more at: http://www.pilcop.org/backtoschool2015/#sthash.W9zA7fZg.dpuf
Registration is open for the 19th Annual
Eastern Pennsylvania Special Education
Administrators’ Conference on October 21-23rd in
Hershey.
Educators in the
field of special education from public, charter and nonpublic schools are
invited to attend. The conference offers rich professional development
sessions and exceptional networking opportunities. Keynote speakers are
Shane Burcaw and Jodee Blanco. Register at https://www.paiu.org/epaseac/conf_registration.php
Register Now for the Fifth
Annual Arts and Education Symposium Oct. 29th Harrisburg
Thursday, October
29, 2015 Radisson Hotel Harrisburg
Convention Center 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Act 48 Credit is available. The event
will be a daylong convening of arts education policy leaders and practitioners
for lively discussions about important policy issues and the latest news from
the field. The symposium is hosted by EPLC and the Pennsylvania Arts Education
Network, and supported by a generous grant from The Heinz Endowments.
SCHOOL CHOICE: THE ROLE OF THE
CONSTITUTION AND THE COURTS IN IMPROVING EDUCATION
Free for
Members • $7 teachers & students • $10 public
Become a Member today for free admission to this program and more!
Click here to join and learn more or call 215-409-6767.
Become a Member today for free admission to this program and more!
Click here to join and learn more or call 215-409-6767.
Does the
Constitution guarantee an “equal education” to every child? What do the U.S. and
Pennsylvania Constitutions say about school choice, teacher tenure,
standardized testing, and more? The Constitution
Center
In the
first discussion, education policy experts—Donna Cooper of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, Mark Gleason of the Philadelphia School
Partnership, Deborah Gordon Klehr of the Education Law
Center, and Ina Lipman of the Children's
Scholarship Fund Philadelphia—examine the state of Philadelphia public
education, what an "equal education" in Philadelphia would look like,
and their specific proposals for getting there. They also explain what, if
anything, the Pennsylvania
state constitution says about these questions, and how state government
interacts with local government in setting education policy.
In the
second discussion, James Finberg of Altshuler Berzon
and Joshua Lipshutz of Gibson Dunn—two
attorneys involved in Vergara v. California, a landmark dispute
over the legality of teacher retention policies—present the best arguments on
both sides and discuss what's next in the case. They also explain what the U.S.
Constitution and major Supreme Court cases like Brown v. Board of
Education, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez and Parents
Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle
School District
Register now for the
2015 PASCD 65th Annual Conference, Leading and Achieving in an Interconnected World, to be
held November 15-17, 2015 at Pittsburgh Monroeville
Convention Center
The Conference
will Feature Keynote Speakers: Meenoo Rami – Teacher and Author
“Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching,” Mr. Pedro Rivera,
Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Heidi Hayes-Jacobs – Founder and President
of Curriculum Design, Inc. and David Griffith – ASCD Senior Director of Public
Policy. This annual conference features small group sessions focused on:
Curriculum and Supervision, Personalized and Individualized Learning,
Innovation, and Blended and Online Learning. The PASCD Conference is
a great opportunity to stay connected to the latest approaches for innovative
change in your school or district. Join us forPASCD 2015! Online
registration is available by visiting www.pascd.org <http://www.pascd.org/>
NSBA Advocacy
Institute 2016; January 24 - 26 in Washington ,
D.C.
Housing and meeting registration is open for Advocacy Institute 2016. The theme, “Election Year Politics & Public Schools,” celebrates the exciting year ahead for school board advocacy. Strong legislative programming will be paramount at this year’s conference in January. Visit www.nsba.org/advocacyinstitute for more information.
Housing and meeting registration is open for Advocacy Institute 2016. The theme, “Election Year Politics & Public Schools,” celebrates the exciting year ahead for school board advocacy. Strong legislative programming will be paramount at this year’s conference in January. Visit www.nsba.org/advocacyinstitute for more information.
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
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