Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3850 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
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,
education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory
agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup January 22, 2016:
PA House proposed "highest education spending in
the history of the Commonwealth" still leaves school boards to find $265
million in cuts and/or new taxes to fund PSERS
Blogger commentary:
"Holding the Line on Taxes" in Harrisburg
Do the math - school district
mandatory payments into the PA School Employees Retirement System are slated to
increase by $365 million this year with comparable increases for the next few
years. That amount is more than the $350
million Basic Education Funding increase that Governor Wolf has requested and
considerably more than the $100 million that the House has put forth.
To my knowledge, none of the
"Pension Reform" proposals being considered do anything to addresses
these cost increases. The House proposed
"highest education spending in the history of the Commonwealth" still
leaves school boards to find $265 million in cuts and/or new taxes.
PSERS Fiscal Year 2016/2017 Employer Contribution Rate
"A number of other
states, such as Georgia (AND
Pennsylvania
Diane Ravitch's Blog
By dianeravitch January
21, 2016 //
One of the
celebrated feats of the corporate reform movement is Tennessee ’s
Achievement School District
Now state
legislators are introducing
legislation to close the ASD.
Brian O'Neill: We, the people, have to fix this
Legislature
By Brian O'Neill / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
January 21, 2016 12:00 AM
Former state House
Speaker Bill DeWeese calls it “a phenomenal movement of the tectonic plates in
the seismic undergirding of political Pennsylvania .” You might just call it a change of seasons. However you term it, the spring primary
election has supplanted the November general election as the biggest challenge
for many members of America ’s
Largest Full-Time State Legislature. Thus stuff stops getting done sooner than
it once didn’t. My colleague Kate
Giammarise wrote this week from our Harrisburg
bureau that most legislators believe meaningful legislative activity, including
votes on the state budget, won’t happen any time soon. That’s because
legislative candidates can begin circulating their nominating petitions Tuesday
for the April 26 primary. With all 203 representatives facing an election,
along with half of the 50 senators, no one’s keen on facing a tax vote.
League of Woman Voters roundtable
touches on lack of voting
By Candice Monhollan, cmonhollan@ 21st-centurymedia.com, @CMonhollanDLN on Twitter
POSTED: 01/20/16,
5:40 AM EST | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO
WEST CHESTER
>> If the 15 people gathered in the West Chester Borough Council chambers
left with one message Monday morning, it was that a person’s vote is their
voice and it’s imperative to make sure people realize that and take advantage
in the upcoming and future elections. A
two-hour roundtable discussion held Monday as part of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day, focused on empowering women through voting or political office. The event
was presented by St. Paul ’s Baptist Church
in West Chester in partnership with the League
of Women Voters of Chester County and the Chester County Community
Collaborative. The League is a
nonpartisan political organization which doesn’t support or oppose parties or
candidates, but is an activist organization which tries to influence public
policy on issues and encourages informed and active participation in the
government. “It is a right (to vote) –
it’s not a privilege,” said Susan Carty, president of the league. “We also
don’t believe, particularly, in making people feel guilty that they haven’t
voted or if they’re not voting because if you do that to someone, or even if
they feel you are implying that they haven’t done the right thing, they
probably won’t do the right thing or they won’t act.”
Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Convenes
Accountability & Achievement Roundtable in York
Pennsylvania
Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera facilitated the second in a
series of education roundtables at York City
School District Harrisburg to
secure historic investments in our schools, it is also important to get a
first-hand look at what makes a good school and what challenges our schools
face," Governor Wolf said. "The goal is to use these discussions to
shape our education policy priorities moving forward." "Hearing the
perspectives from educators, families, and community leaders across the state
provides the department and the administration with an invaluable tool when
crafting the policies that will guide us in the future," Rivera said.
"Each participant has brought a unique outlook on how Pennsylvania can
support schools and boost student success."
Secretary Rivera was
joined by Representative Kevin Schreiber, as well as school
administrators, teachers, parents, students, and school board members
from York City
'It is time to take off
the gloves with Gov. Wolf.' Sen. Scott Wagner doubles down: Thursday Morning
Coffee
Penn Live By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
January 21, 2016 at 8:20 AM, updated January 21, 2016 at 8:23 AM
Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
If there's one thing you can count on when it comes to state Sen. Scott Wagner, the York County Republican isn't shy about speaking his mind. Just a couple of days after sayingRepublicans shouldn't have taken their foot off Gov. Tom Wolf's neck during budget negotiations, Wagner was at it again. On Tuesday, he doubled down in an email to supporters, telling them thus:
If there's one thing you can count on when it comes to state Sen. Scott Wagner, the York County Republican isn't shy about speaking his mind. Just a couple of days after sayingRepublicans shouldn't have taken their foot off Gov. Tom Wolf's neck during budget negotiations, Wagner was at it again. On Tuesday, he doubled down in an email to supporters, telling them thus:
"It is time to
take off the gloves withGovernor Wolf and
get out on the field and settle this once and for all," wrote Wagner, who has previously threatened to wield a baseball bat during budget
talks. Specifically, Wagner takes issues with the
administration's tactics throughout seven months of the budget slog, including
attack ads aired by a labor-funded wing of the Democratic Governors
Association.
In Philly, federal
education secretary says it's time 'to look beyond' math and English scores
WHYY Newsworks BY BILL HANGLEY JANUARY 22, 2016
Major revisions to
federal education law mean new options for Pennsylvania
legislators, and acting U.S. Secretary of Education John King was in Philadelphia Thursday to
encourage states to take advantage of the changes. "There's now much more flexibility for
states to look beyond just English and math test scores," said King.
"Are students getting access to advanced coursework? Are students getting
access to art and music? Are students succeeding in art and science and social
studies?" King appeared at the School
of the Future on Thursday to tout the Obama administration's latest education
priorities, which include encouraging states to maintain high academic
standards and provide parents and policymakers with clear assessments of
academic progress. The revised No Child
Left Behind Act — now renamed the Every Student Succeeds Act — still requires
states to test students and intervene in struggling schools. But the rewritten
law gives states much more leeway about exactly how to test and respond. This expands the alternatives to charter
takeovers for the lowest-performing schools. States will be free to experiment
with more targeted interventions, King said.
New Education Secretary to
Teachers: Our Bad
John King on Thursday said
federal officials are partially responsible for the contentious climate
surrounding education reform.
Acting Education
Secretary John
King offered teachers an olive branch of sorts Thursday, acknowledging
his department's role in creating a politicized education environment that
sometimes led to them being painted as villains. "As everyone in this room knows, the
education policy discussions of the last few years have often been
characterized by more heat than light," he said to a room of teachers at
the School of the Future in Philadelphia ,
a public school formed through a partnership between the city school district
and Microsoft that focuses on digital learning.
"And despite the best of intentions, teachers and principals have felt
attacked and unfairly blamed for the challenges our nation faces as we strive
to improve outcomes for all students," King said.
Rethink Teacher-Evaluation
Systems if They're Not Working, John King Says
Education Week
Politics K-12 By Alyson Klein on January
21, 2016 4:37 PM
The Every Student
Succeeds Act presents states, districts, and educators with a chance for a
"fresh start" and "much needed do-over" on the very testy
issue of teacher evaluation through student outcomes, acting U.S. Secretary of
Education John King said at a town hall meeting for teachers in Philadelphia
Thursday. "I'll start by being
frank, if maybe also obvious, and say this conversation hasn't always gone
well," King said in prepared remarks. "A discussion that began with
shared interests and shared values—the importance of learning and growth for
all our children—ended up with a lot of teachers feeling attacked and
blamed.Teachers were not always adequately engaged by policymakers in the
development of new systems. And when they disagreed with evaluation systems, it
appeared to pit them against those who they cherished most—their students. That
was no one's desire." Why is this
noteworthy? No single policy has been as closely associated with the Obama
administration as teacher evaluations linked at least in part to state
standardized tests, which were a hallmark of No Child Left Behind Act waivers
and the Race to the Top competition.
SRC moves toward giving 3
schools to charter firms
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer. Updated: JANUARY 22, 2016 — 1:08
AM EST
The School Reform
Commission voted Thursday to begin the process of giving three struggling Philadelphia public
schools to charter companies. Commissioners
considered the fates of Jay Cooke, Samuel B. Huey, and John Wister Elementaries
at a tense and raucous meeting attended by hundreds, with a long public session
frequently interrupted by shouts, jeers, applause, and finger-pointing. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. had
initially proposed handing over all three schools, among the district's lowest
performers, to charters, but changed his mind on Wister when recent
school-performance data indicated some growth at the Germantown school. But at the eleventh
hour - and after impassioned testimony from a number of parents in favor of
matching Wister with Mastery Charter Schools - Commissioner Sylvia Simms
effectively overruled Hite, putting that option back on the table, and a
majority of her fellow commissioners agreed.
In bombshell, SRC defies
Hite, votes to turn Wister over to Mastery
Two schools had been
recommended for Renaissance charter conversion. After a "walk-on
resolution," three were approved. Each of the providers must still win
approval for their charter applications.
the notebook by Dale Mezzacappa
January 22 — 12:48am
In a shocking move,
the School Reform Commission Thursday night voted to begin the process of
turning over Wister Elementary School in Germantown to Mastery Charter, defying the
recommendation of Superintendent Hite. The
move came through a surprise “walk-on” resolution proposed by Commissioner
Sylvia Simms four hours into a marathon meeting. It was supported by two
other members, giving the action a three-vote majority. Chair Marjorie Neff
voted no. Member Farah Jimenez abstained.
The SRC also approved resolutions to turn over Cooke
Elementary School in Logan
to the Great Oaks Foundation and Huey Elementary in West Philadelphia to Global Leadership
Academy
As SRC prepares to vote on
Renaissance schools, questions raised about providers
Councilwoman Gym demands more
information on vetting process for charter providers.
the notebook by Dale Mezzacappa January
21, 2016
The School Reform
Commission on Thursday night will take the first steps toward converting two
additional schools into charters, and recently elected City Councilwoman Helen
Gym is demanding more information about the process for vetting and approving
providers.
Gym is especially
concerned about why Great Oaks Foundations, Inc. is being proposed to operate Jay Cooke Elementary School in Logan under the District’s Renaissance
Schools initiative. Gym charges that Great Oaks — which operates schools
in Wilmington, New York City, Newark, N.J., and Bridgeport, Conn. — “has shown
limited success in serving vulnerable students and frequently employs a school
climate approach that is in direct contrast with the District’s end to zero
tolerance.” Gym also noted that the
organization’s board chair and president, Steven Klinsky and Michael Duffy,
have ties to Victory Education Partners. Victory is a for-profit company that
was among those given contracts to manage District schools in an eight-year
privatization experiment between 2002 and 2010 widely acknowledged now to have
been a failure. She has asked that the
District release Great Oaks’ proposal and fully explain its process for vetting
potential charter providers, neither of which it had done as of Wednesday
night.
In busy first session of
'16, Philly Council calls for making Eid a city holiday
by Tricia L. Nadolny, Staff Writer. Updated: JANUARY 22, 2016 — 1:08
AM EST
As Philadelphia City
Council returned Thursday for its first meeting of the new term, bills were
offered that would add teeth to minority hiring, look hard at how schools have
been hurt by years of budget cuts, and shed light on the businesses that
receive big tax subsidies.
But the meeting's
most compelling moment came when a nonbinding resolution was offered suggesting
that two Muslim holidays become official city and School
District holidays.
PA Education secretary
Rivera 'confident' in York
York Daily Record by Angie Mason,
amason@ydr.com5:48 p.m. EST January 21, 2016
The state's
education secretary said he's confident in the York City School District
There is no
comfort level of school turnaround systems, he said. Rivera held a roundtable discussion at Goode
K-8 School in York
on Thursday, talking with educators, parents and students about the district's
plans, as well as statewide accountability issues.
ESSA: Explaining key points of the new K-12 education
law
Congress last month
finally rewrote No Child Left Behind (eight years late) and delivered a new
K-12 education law to the country called the Every Student Succeeds Act, or
ESSA. The new law js intended to fix some of the most egregious problems with
NCLB, and return significant education policy-making power to the states. But
there are questions about exactly how much power the states have to change
policy, including on accountability systems that have been pushed by the Obama
administration for years. In an effort
to learn more about the law, education historian and activist Diane Ravitch
asked David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and staff
director of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pension Committee, to answer
specific questions about ESSA’s provisions to help give direction to the
continuing debate about what it actually says. Alexander is the chairman of the
Senate education committee, and his efforts were instrumental in the successful
effort to write and pass ESSA.
Ravitch has given me
permission to publish the questions and answers she isposting
on her blog. In an introductory note to Ravitch, Cleary wrote that
there are many ques
As With NCLB, So Goes ESSA
Education Week
Letter by Stephen Krashen January 12, 2016
Stephen Krashen is Professor Emeritus, Rossier School of Education, University
of Southern California , Los Angeles , Calif.
To the Editor:
A comment on Common
Core State Standards critic Susan Ohanian's well-known 2006 quote about the old
education law, the No Child Left Behind Act:
When Congress passes
No Child Left Unfed,
No Child Without
Health Care, and
No Child Left
Homeless,
Then we can talk
seriously about
No Child Left
Behind.
Nominate High Schools for
Elite List "Schools of Opportunity "
Cloaking Inequity Blog Posted
on January 21, 2016 by Dr. Julian
Vasquez Heilig
How about some good
news in your inbox today? The National
Education Policy
Center
BOULDER, CO (January
19, 2016) – High schools from across the nation are now submitting applications
to be recognized as part of the Schools
of Opportunity project of the National Education Policy Center. The
project recognizes public schools for what they do to give all students the
chance to succeed, rather than turning to test scores to determine school quality.
The application deadline is February 3, 2016.
The Schools of Opportunity project highlights schools that use
research-based practices to close the opportunity gaps that result in unequal
opportunities to learn, in school and beyond school. For example, although schools cannot directly
integrate neighborhoods by race and class, they can do their best to integrate
classrooms by race and class. And although it is difficult for schools to
increase learning resources in neighborhoods or homes, they can ensure that
rich, engaging learning opportunities are provided to all students while they
are in school. The National Education
Policy Center (NEPC), housed in the CU-Boulder School of Education, designed
the Schools of Opportunity project as a way to highlight the nation’s best
schools and practices. The project is led by NEPC director and CU-Boulder
School of Education Professor Kevin Welner, and Carol Burris, director of the
Network for Public Education, who was the 2013 New York State High School Principal
of the Year.
Why Billionaires' Big
Donations Often Fail to Change Much
Mark
Zuckerberg and Bill Gates have given millions to overhaul public education. But
their cash has proven to be anything but free money or a remedy to systemic
problems.
Governing.com BY J.B. WOGAN | JANUARY
2016
Six years ago,
school officials in Hillsborough
County , Fla.
Education Bloggers Daily
Highlights 1-22-16
Remaining Locations:
- Central PA — Jan. 30 Nittany Lion Inn, State College
- Delaware Co. IU 25 — Feb. 1
- Scranton area — Feb. 6 Abington Heights SD, Clarks Summit
- North Central area —Feb. 13 Mansfield University, Mansfield
PSBA New School Director
Training
School boards who will welcome new directors after the election should
plan to attend PSBA training to help everyone feel more confident right from
the start. This one-day event is targeted to help members learn the basics of
their new roles and responsibilities. Meet the friendly, knowledgeable PSBA
team and bring everyone on your “team of 10” to get on the same page fast.
- $150 per
registrant (No charge if your district has a LEARN Pass. Note: All-Access
members also have LEARN Pass.)
- One-hour lunch
on your own — bring your lunch, go to lunch, or we’ll bring a box lunch to
you; coffee/tea provided all day
- Course
materials available online or we’ll bring a printed copy to you for an
additional $25
- Registrants
receive one month of 100-level online courses for each registrant, after
the live class
Register here: https://www.psba.org/2015/09/new-school-director-training/
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.
Save
the Dates for These 2016 Annual EPLC Regional State Budget Education
Policy Forums
Sponsored
by The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Thursday, February
11 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. - Harrisburg
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania )
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -Pittsburgh
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -
Invitation
and more details in January
Save the Date | PBPC Budget Summit March
3rd
Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy Center
The
2015-2016 budget remains in a state of limbo. But it's time to start thinking
about the 2016-17 budget. The Governor will propose his budget for next year in
early February.
The
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will hold our annual Budget Summit on
March 3rd. Save the date and join us for an in-depth look at
the Governor's 2016-17 budget proposal, including what it means for education,
health and human services, the environment and local communities. And, of
course, if the 2015-2016 budget is not complete by then, we will also be
talking about the various alternatives still under consideration.
As in
year's past, this year's summit will be at the Hilton Harrisburg. Register today!
PASBO 61st Annual
Conference and Exhibits March 8 - 11, 2016
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
The Network for Public Education 3rd
Annual National Conference April 16-17, 2016 Raleigh , North Carolina
The
Network for Public Education is thrilled to announce the location for our 3rd
Annual National Conference. On April 16 and 17, 2016 public education advocates
from across the country will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina. We chose Raleigh to highlight the tremendous
activist movement that is flourishing in North Carolina. No one exemplifies
that movement better than the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who will be the
conference keynote speaker. Rev. Barber is the current president of
the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the National NAACP chair of
the Legislative Political Action Committee, and the founder of Moral Mondays.
2016 PA Educational
Leadership Summit July 24-26 State College
Summit Sponsors:
PA Principals Association - PA Association of School Administrators
- PA Association of Middle Level Educators - PA Association of
Supervision and Curriculum Development
The 2016
Educational Leadership Summit, co-sponsored by four leading Pennsylvania education associations,
provides an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and
instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together at a quality venue in
"Happy Valley."
Featuring Grant
Lichtman, author of EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education,
Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera (invited), and Dana
Lightman, author of POWER Optimism: Enjoy the Life You Have...
Create the Success You Want, keynote speakers, high quality breakout
sessions, table talks on hot topics and district team planning and job alike
sessions provides practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and
discussed at the summit before returning back to your district. Register and pay by April 30, 2016 for the
discounted "early bird" registration rate:
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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