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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup June 17, 2016:
PA Supreme Court sets Sept.
13 argument date for fair education funding lawsuit in Philly
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced
on Wednesday that it will hear oral argument for Pennsylvania’s landmark
education funding lawsuit on September 13, 2016, in its Philadelphia courtroom.
PA Supreme Court sets argument date for fair education
funding lawsuitThorough and Efficient Blog JUNE 16, 2016 BARBGRIMALDI LEAVE A COMMENT
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it will hear oral argument for Pennsylvania’s landmark education funding lawsuit on September 13, 2016, in its Philadelphia courtroom. The lawsuit, William Penn School District vs. Pennsylvania Dept. of Education, seeks to remedy decades of inequitable education funding that have robbed children of the resources they need to succeed. It argues that the state’s system of funding public education is so inadequate and unequal that it violates state constitutional provisions requiring a “thorough and efficient system of public education” and equal treatment under the law. The suit was filed in November 2014 by a broad-based coalition of parents, school districts and non-profit organizations that have seen firsthand the devastating impact of these failures in classrooms and in children’s lives. The plaintiffs include: six school districts – William Penn, Panther Valley, Lancaster, Greater Johnstown, Wilkes-Barre Area and Shenandoah Valley – the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS), and the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference. The Public Interest Law Center and the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania are representing these plaintiffs.
Governor Wolf’s BLOG: Three Big Reasons We
Need to Invest In PA Schools
June
16, 2016By: Sarah
Galbally, Secretary of Policy and Planning
Earlier this month, a new report
by The Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) and
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) revealed statistics that underscore the
importance of investing in Pennsylvania’s schools.
The report said that in the
2016-2017 school year:
·
46% of school districts plan to reduce staff
·
34% of school districts plan to increase class sizes
·
50% of school districts plan to reduce or eliminate academic or
extracurricular programs
These are three big reasons we
need to commit to investing in our schools. Governor Wolf has always made fully
funding education one of his top priorities. In his 2016-2017 Budget, Governor
Wolf proposes a $200 million increase in the Basic Education Subsidy, $50
million increase in the Special Education Subsidy, and a $60 million increase
in high-quality early childhood education. Though this investment cannot fully
reverse the severe education cuts of the previous administration, it does put
Pennsylvania back on the right track.
Cheers, jeers
for report calling for crackdown on cyber charter schools
Inquirer by Martha Woodall, Staff Writer Updated: JUNE 16, 2016 — 9:24 PM
EDT
The primary author of a national
report that calls for a crackdown on low-performing cyber charter schools said
Thursday that the goal was to spur conversation. It did. Hours after the National Alliance for Public
Charter Schools released the report, critics of online charter schools said
they welcomed its findings and recommendations.
Companies that manage online schools and some charter advocates
dismissed the study and questioned the research on which it was based. Susan DeJarnett, a Temple
University law professor who has been researching and writing about problems
with Pennsylvania's cyber charter schools for years, said she was intrigued by
many points in the report.
“CONCLUSION: We believe that full-time
virtual charter public schools are meaningful and beneficial options for some
students. Notwithstanding these success stories, the well documented,
disturbingly low performance by too many full-time virtual charter public
schools should serve as a call to action for state leaders and authorizers
across the country. It is time for state leaders to make the tough policy
changes necessary to ensure that this model works more effectively for the
students it serves. It is also time for authorizers to hold full-time virtual
charter schools accountable for performance, using measures and metrics suited
to their programs and closing those that chronically fail their students. Our
organizations are committed to working with state leaders and authorizers as
they embark on these efforts. To reiterate, our organizations support full-time
virtual schooling. We have advocated in states across the country to make sure
this option is available to the families that need it. Unfortunately, the
results clearly show that significant problems exist within this part of the
charter school movement. Left unchecked, these problems have the potential to
overshadow the positive impacts this model currently has for some students. We
urge state leaders and authorizers to address these problems head-on instead of
turning a blind eye to them.”
A
CALL TO ACTION TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF FULL-TIME VIRTUAL CHARTER PUBLIC
SCHOOLS
June 2016 Report by National
Alliance for Public Charter Schools, National Association of Charter School
Authorizers, 50CAN
The first full-time virtual
charter public schools opened in the late 1990s. Since that time, the number of
these schools has greatly expanded across the country. As of August 2014, there
were 135 full-time virtual charter schools operating in 23 states and D.C. –
about twice as many as in 2008. These schools were serving approximately
180,000 students. Students in full-time virtual charter public schools
represent a broad cross-section of K-12 education: rural students seeking to
avoid a lengthy bus ride to a brick-and-mortar building, student-athletes
seeking a flexible schedule, home- or hospital-bound youth who want to stay in
school despite an illness or a family challenge, and high school students
looking for an alternative to dropping out. Although learning online full time
is not the right answer for all K-12 students, there clearly exists a demand
for it by certain students and families. However, at the same time that
full-time virtual charter public schools have seen significant growth, far too
many have experienced notable problems. Governmental agencies such as the
Colorado Department of Education and the Minnesota Office of the Legislative
Auditor and such national media outlets as The New York Times, The Washington
Post, and The Wall Street Journal have documented these problems.
Academic results of online schools should
bring "outrage" and law changes, national charter school group says
By Patrick O'Donnell, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on June 16, 2016 at 12:00 PM, updated June 16, 2016 at
1:01 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The nation's
main charter school advocacy group said people should be "outraged"
at how little learning occurs at some online schools and called on states to take
several steps to restrict and improve them.
The report today from the National
Alliance for Public Charter Schools pointed to a major study last year from Stanford
University's Center for Research of Educational Outcomes
(CREDO) that
found that e-school students learn far less than
students in traditional schools. "If traditional
public schools were producing such results, we would rightly be
outraged," the report states. "We should not feel any different just
because these are charter schools."
"The well-documented, disturbingly-low performance by too many
full-time virtual charter public schools should serve as a call to action
to state leaders and authorizers across the country," the report
continues.
Say what else you like about them, but the charter school industry has a pretty keen sense of where its own vulnerabilities lie, and at the moment, there is no underbelly softer than the virtual charter sector-- what the rest of us call cyber-charters. Multiple studies have made it clear-- cyber charters do not deliver much of anything except giant truckloads of money to the people who operate them. So we have this newly-released report, "A CALL TO ACTION TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF FULL-TIME VIRTUAL CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS"-- yes, the call to action is so urgent that the report HAS TO YELL ITS NAME!! The report was co-created by the National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and 50CAN. So we know that the report is not about examining the value or viability of cyber-charters-- this is going to be about figuring out which exercise program might build a six-pack on that soft underbelly and thereby decrease the vulnerability of the charter industry.
Soda tax passes; Philadelphia is first big
city in nation to enact one
Inquirer by Tricia L. Nadolny, STAFF WRITER Updated: JUNE 16, 2016 — 8:36 PM
EDT
Looking to raise millions for a
bold expansion of early childhood education, Philadelphia City Council on
Thursday approved a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened and diet
beverages, the first such tax imposed in a major U.S. city. The 13-4 vote put to bed months of
speculation and at-times-bitter negotiations, but also ensured that the
national spotlight will stay turned on Philadelphia for months, if not years. Critics quickly vowed a court challenge. And
as the city introduces the unprecedented levy - and its economic and
public-health effects come into view - experts, advocates, and legislatorswill surely be watching closely.
Mayor Kenney, who can count this as the first major political victory of
his term, called it a start to "changing the narrative of poverty in our
city."
Commentary: Philly makes a bold move
Inquirer Opinion by Janet Haas Updated: JUNE 17, 2016
— 3:01 AM EDTJanet Haas, M.D., is board chair of the William Penn Foundation.
The city's bold policy move to
solidify a revenue source to invest in our young children and our neighborhoods
creates exciting new opportunities for Philadelphia. This new funding will
launch an effort to guarantee all children in the city access to a high-quality
early education and strengthen their start in life. It will also jumpstart the
Rebuild initiative to revitalize parks, libraries, and recreation centers so
that Philadelphians have safe and engaging places to learn, play, and come
together. These efforts promote quality of life and economic opportunity for
all. The William Penn Foundation has
supported early-childhood education and public-space development for decades,
but never have we witnessed today's level of momentum and energy. This could be
a defining moment for Philadelphia if we ensure strategic decision-making,
disciplined implementation, and engagement of residents and the broader civic
and business communities. Fortunately,
successful government and philanthropic initiatives, as well as valuable data
and research, provide information upon which to base these strategies and
decisions. We have learned much from our investments of nearly $130 million in
public-space improvements and more than $100 million in early-childhood education.
WHYY Newsworks BY KATIE COLANERI JUNE 16, 2016
It's official: Philadelphia has
become the first major city in the U.S. to pass a sweetened drinks tax. City Council voted 13-to-4 to pass the 1.5
cents-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet beverages to help pay for expanded
pre-K, a major investment in parks, recreation centers and libraries and other
initiatives. Mayor Jim Kenney, who
proposed the tax expected to generate about $90 million next year, said he
feels gratified by the vote. "It's
been generations that we've been going downhill with our kids and our
neighborhoods, and it's going to take us time to get us back but this is the
first step back," said Kenney shortly after the Thursday afternoon vote.
"I'm very, very proud of everyone sitting up here and those who voted for
it -- and even those who didn't vote for it.
Philly’s soda tax may be turning point
Politico By HELENA BOTTEMILLER
EVICH 06/16/16
12:44 PM EDT Updated 06/16/16 03:37 PM EDT
Philadelphia on Thursday became
the first large American city to impose a sin tax on soft drinks in what could
be a tipping point in the long-running war between health advocates and the
soda industry. After months of
contentious debate, the city council voted 13-4 to approve a 1 and a half cent
per ounce tax on sugary and diet drinks to fund children's education and park
programs in the city. The
multimillion-dollar political fight in Philadelphia wasn’t about health. Philly
Mayor Jim Kenney, the proponent of the tax, has been clear his push is about
revenue for the city — more than $400 million over five years — and any public
health bump from cutting soda consumption is a secondary benefit. But health
advocates who strongly backed the tax proposal are ecstatic that a major city
has finally broken through.
Philly schools pass sweeping policy
protecting transgender students
Inquirer by Mensah M. Dean, Staff Writer Updated: JUNE 16, 2016 — 10:58
PM EDT
Without debate or comments from
the public, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission adopted a policy Thursday
night that immediately allows transgender students to, among other things, be
referred to by their pronoun of choice; use their bathroom of choice; and go
out for the athletic team of their gender choice, either boys' or girls'. "It's really important for us to
acknowledge and respect all children and how they identify themselves,"
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said after the meeting. "This ensures
that they are treated fairly, and that everyone understands the protocols that
we should use with respect to children who identify as transgender." District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the policy formalizes what had been
the district's informal policy. "A lot of these things we were already
doing," he said.
SRC approves policy for gender
non-conforming students
In last meeting of school year,
it also takes action on several charter matters and codifies role of School
Advisory Councils
The notebook/WHYY Newsworks by
Avi Wolfman-Arent and Dale Mezzacappa June 16, 2016 — 10:41pm
The School District of
Philadelphia approved a sweeping policy Thursday that allows transgender
students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choosing, but goes beyond
that. The new policy, voted on by the
School Reform Commission Thursday night, codifies a number of rights for transgender
and gender nonconforming students. They include:
-- The right to be addressed
using their preferred name and gender pronoun;
--The right to use the restroom
and locker room that “corresponds to their gender identity;"
-- The right to participate in
physical education classes and intramural sports in a manner consistent with
their gender identity;
--The right to dress in alignment
with their gender identity.
The policy also mandates schools
make single stall restrooms and private changing areas available for students
who feel “a need or desire for increased privacy.” It further instructs schools
to use as much “gender-neutral language” possible in all communications and
limit the number of gender-segregated activities.
School District of Philadelphia New
Transgender Rules
Inquirer
Updated: JUNE
17, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
The School Reform Commission on
Thursday adopted a new policy for how Philadelphia public schools deal with
transgender students. Effective immediately:
Students may be addressed by
names and pronouns corresponding to their gender identity. This applies to
interactions with other students and staff, and all written records, including
report cards, class rosters, and photo ID.
Transgender identity, legal name,
and sex assigned at birth are confidential.
Students may participate in gender-segregated
groups that correspond to their gender identity.
Schools should use gender-neutral
language in communication with all students and families, regardless of a
student's gender identity.
Students may access locker rooms
and restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Students may also dress in
accordance with their gender identity. Schools may not adopt dress codes on the
basis of gender.
Arts-focused charter school planned for
the former Bishop McDevitt building
Penn Live By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on June 16, 2016 at 9:02 PM, updated June 16, 2016 at
9:15 PM
A former Catholic high school
building in Harrisburg could become an arts-centric charter school as
early as next year. The Catholic
Diocese of Harrisburg and Arts to the Core Charter School have signed an
agreement of sale that would allow Arts to the Core to finalize the purchase of
the former Bishop McDevitt High School property on Market Street. The plan
requires the approval of the Harrisburg City School Board. The arts-centric, kindergarten through eighth
grade charter school would open in September 2017. "For students who struggle to learn in
school because traditional lecture and textbook teaching is incompatible with
their diverse learning styles, arts-empowered schools provide a parallel
pathway for mastering core academic subjects," said Richard Caplan,
president of Arts to the Core. "We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate,
within the City of Harrisburg, the power of this proven educational strategy to
unlock students' full learning potential and to encourage their innate creativity."
Columbia school board may
vote tonight on sharing Elanco superintendent
Lancaster Online KARA NEWHOUSE | Staff Writer June 16, 2016
A proposal for two Lancaster
County school districts to share a superintendent next year could see a vote
tonight. The Columbia Borough and
Eastern Lancaster County school boards began discussing joint
leadership in April, after Columbia’s former superintendent left halfway through a
three-year contract to take a higher-paying job elsewhere. The two districts, which are about 30 miles
apart, already share some technology services.
Under a $165,000 proposal discussed by both boards this week, Elanco
Superintendent Bob Hollister would serve as Columbia’s superintendent of record
for 2016- 17. A director of operations would be hired to manage day-to-day
responsibilities in Columbia. School
leaders say the plan would resolve ongoing hiring challenges at Columbia while
also raising revenue for Elanco. Some
details of the contract were still being worked out Wednesday, but Columbia’s
school board could approve it at tonight’s meeting. Elanco’s board expects to vote on the
proposed contract Monday.
A
Study of Pennsylvania Public School Budgets, 2014-15
PSBA
Website LAST UPDATED: JUNE 13, 2016 - 9:14 AM
The following study is designed
to help school officials as they prepare to submit the annual school budget to
the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The figures used are actual budget
figures for the 2014-15 school year as reported in the annual financial report
(PDE form 2057) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015. The PSBA research
staff compiled this study based on summaries of annual financial report data
prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The pupil figure used to calculate the
per-pupil revenue and expenditure is the average daily membership (ADM). PDE
definitions of budget categories are provided for clarification.
Wilkes-Barre
Times Leader Editorial JUNE 15TH, 2016 - 6:45 PM
As spring yields to summer in
Northeastern Pennsylvania, the men and women elected to serve on area school
boards occupy a particularly hot seat. These
public servants typically confront daunting decisions each June about the
upcoming fiscal year, weighing what to do about property taxes, school staffing
and other thorny, budget-related matters. An editorial in Monday’s
edition essentially
asked: Do school directors – faced with an increasingly complex range of issues
pertaining to education and finance – have the qualifications to competently
oversee our school districts? For all
practical purposes, you only need to be 18 or older and “of good moral
character” – a phrase lacking in specifics – to serve as a school director in
Pennsylvania. Should the bar be set higher for
candidates seeking the post? Should training be required? Those questions probably resound
a bit louder this month for residents of area districts where the funding
challenges are steep and the proposed solutions seem unpleasant. Hazleton Area
School District officials, for instance, reportedly intend to leave certain
posts unfilled for the next school year, furlough teachers and reduce the
school week during December, January and February to only four days.
Pennridge School Board set to vote on
proposed 2.4 percent tax hike
Montgomery
News By Bob Keeler bkeeler@21st-centurymedia.com @bybobkeeler on Twitter Published: Wednesday, June 15, 2016
EAST ROCKHILL >>
Property taxes in the Pennridge School District increase by 2.4 percent under
the proposed 2016-17 budget. The final
budget vote is scheduled for Pennridge School Board’s meeting at 7 p.m. Monday,
June 20. There are no changes from the proposed
final budget approved at the board’s May 16 meeting, Sean Daubert, the
district’s business administrator, said.
That includes $130,245, 398 of revenue and $131,042,154 of expenses. The $796,756 difference will be paid for with
money taken from fund balance that the district will have left at the end of
this year’s budget, Daubert said. The fund balance is accumulated over years
and not necessarily all from the current year, he said.
14 teachers laid off, high school Ag
program preserved in West Perry budget
Penn Live By Julianne Mattera |
jmattera@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on June 13, 2016 at 10:39 PM, updated June 14, 2016 at
3:18 PM
West Perry School District
officials have approved a 2016-17 final budget that lays off 14 teachers, as
well as paraprofessionals and an instructional aide. The school board approved the $38.29 million
budget with a 6.33 percent tax increase Monday night in a 5-2 vote,
with board members Suzanne Dell and Lucinda Egolf voting against the measure.
Board members William Kling and Edward Kent were absent from the meeting. Dan Rice, board vice president who voted in
favor of the budget and the cuts, said board members were in a "tough
position." Rice said the board has
tried to be as frugal as possible, but he said school officials' "hands
are basically tied" because of the lack of pension reform and cyber
schools, which are both cost drivers in the budget. The district resorted to the cuts and tax
increase to help clear a $3.1 million shortfall facing the district in the
2016-17 school year. Superintendent Michael O'Brien said that amount could
increase by another $600,000 if the district does not receive a PlanCon
reimbursement from the state for past construction projects.
Tax hikes, staffing cuts
riddle local school districts' final budgets
Beaver County Times By Katherine
Schaeffer kschaeffer@timesonline.com June 16, 2016
As Pennsylvania school districts
work to finalize their budgets for the 2016-17 school year, balancing
state-mandated spending increases and unpredictable state revenue have forced
them to raise taxes or cut staff and programs.
Alleviated some of that pressure with bolstered state
education funding -- possibly with new revenue streams -- is among Gov. Tom
Wolf's administration's top priorities moving forward, state Education
Secretary Pedro Rivera said. “I think there’s no way around
it; they have to find a way to add sources of revenue to support education,”
Rivera said, adding that sales or personal incomes tax increases could be
considered. “It’s one of the larger components of the state budget. … It isn’t
a matter of cutting the budget.” Wolf
recently signed a bipartisan-supported school fair-funding formula, which will dictate how the
state distributes $5.5 billion in basic-education funding, and he has proposed
a $200 million boost to basic-education funding as well as increases for
special-education and early-childhood education funding for 2016-17.
Times Tribune by CLAYTON OVER / PUBLISHED: JUNE 16, 2016
The North Pocono School District
Board voted on a budget Wednesday night that will include a tax hike. The board approved a 2 percent tax increase,
bumping the millage rate for the school district to 129.60, and an almost $50
million budget by a 5-4 vote, board Vice-President William Burke said Wednesday
night. For a home assessed at $10,000, property taxes would increase by about
$25 to $1,296.
WHAT FUNDING FORMULA? Despite new school
funding mechanisms in place, Erie Superintendent Jay Badams faces a $13
million deficit and is considering closing four high schools to avoid going
broke.
Why Erie might close its high schools
Watchdog.org By Evan Grossman / June 16,
2016 / News / No Comments
Part 5 of 5 in the series Erie's
Ailing Schools
The Erie School District
is in such bad shape that school officials are mulling a plan to close all of
its high schools as early as next year. Superintendent
Jay Badams told Watchdog the 12,000-student district remains in financial dire
straits and, after years of personnel and programming cuts, the only way to
provide kids with a quality education is to send them out of town for high
school. “That seems like a better
solution than providing them a sub-par education,” he said. The district would save up to $3 million a
year by shuttering its four high schools, not quite one-fourth of the $13
million deficit it forecasts for next year.
Erie Religious Leaders Meet As School Wait
For PA Budget
Erie News Now By John
Lydic Posted: Jun 16, 2016 5:12
PM EDT
Clergy members met at Central
Tech to discuss the impending crisis facing the Erie School
District. Superintendent Dr. Jay Badams outlined options and what they
could mean for the schools and the community if adequate funding is not awarded
by the Pennsylvania state budget. Religious
clergy said that despite the recent problems with funding this is not the first
time government has done this.
"This is grossly unfair and as is typical of systems with
inequality is punishes and targets the poor," said Reverend Sean
Rowe, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern PA Leaders spoke to continuous discrimination by
Harrisburg, saying Erie has been treated like a third class city and the
students as third class kids.
KCSD
reaches agreement on five-year teachers' pact
Chester County Press 06/14/2016
11:41AM, Published by Steven Hoffman
The Kennett Consolidated School
District has reached an agreement with the Kennett Education Association on a
new five-year teachers' pact. The
Kennett School Board approved the deal on May 23, while members of the Kennett
Education Association ratified the agreement with a “yes” vote on May 18. The
contact was negotiated over a six-month period.
“We, the Kennett Consolidated School community, are ecstatic to have
reached an amicable settlement with the Kennett Education Association for the
next five years,” said superintendent Dr. Barry Tomasetti in a statement. “It
clearly demonstrates our common goal to put kids first.” The new contract calls for salary increases
of 4 percent during the 2016-2017 school year, 2.25 percent in 2017-2018, 2.5
percent in 2018-2019, 2.6 percent in 2019-2020, and 2.7 percent in 2020-2021.
These increases are inclusive of step movement and off-schedule bonuses.
Educational credit adjustments have been limited to two moves over the five
years of the contract. Officials
involved with the negotiations on both sides talked about working cooperatively
to reach a deal that is good for both the school district and for the taxpayers
in the district.
Post Gazette By Sandy Trozzo June 17, 2016 12:00 AM
Citing stalled negotiations, the
Mars Area school board is considering outsourcing paraprofessionals,
secretaries and custodians. The board
Tuesday voted 7-1 to seek proposals from firms to provide those services to the
district. The board also approved a
2016-17 budget that does not raise taxes or include the teacher furloughs that
had been proposed earlier. In addition, a policy instituting
random drug tests for some high school students was introduced. Superintendent Wesley Shipley
said the district has been negotiating with the union representing
paraprofessionals, custodians and secretaries for two years. Their contract
expired June 30, 2015. “We are in the
position of failed negotiations,” he said. “We felt that we, as a board, needed
to go out and see what the going rate is for those positions in the business
world.”
York
Dispatch by Greg Gross,
505-5433/@ggrossyd12:22 a.m. EDT June 17, 2016
State Sen.
Scott Wagner has
a good shot at becoming the Republican nominee for governor should he run
in the 2018 gubernatorial race, one political analyst said. "At the moment I would say he'd be
electable in a Republican primary," said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. "He has
the money. He's developed a following, and he has a good relationship with
Senate leadership." Wagner, in an
email blast last week, said he's been asked numerous times if he'll run for
governor. He's considering it, the email reads.
"I'm giving it some thought. There's a lot of soul-searching before
you take that plunge," said Wagner in an interview on Thursday.
"That decision's not going to be made tomorrow."
“Now,
provisions in the newly passed Every Student
Succeeds Act (ESSA), the nation’s federal education law, are
strengthening the visibility of homeless students and other disadvantaged
groups. Beginning in the 2016-17 school year, states and local school districts
will be required to disaggregate the graduation rates of homeless students for
the first time in history, which educators say will help states and districts
direct resources to the kids who need help the most.”
The Complicated Task of Identifying
Homeless Students
Few states know where those
children are, making it difficult to connect them with resources.
The Atlantic by ADRIENNE
GREEN JUN 16, 2016
The number of homeless students
in the United States has doubled in the past decade. During the 2013-14 school
year, more than 1.3 million students were homeless, a 7 percent increase over
the previous school year, according to a newreport by
the advocacy group Civic Enterprises and the polling firm Hart Research
Associates. A disproportionate number are students of color or identify as
LGBT. As alarming as those numbers are,
the fact that figures on homeless students exist at all is a step in the right
direction. That’s because, until recently, only five states have voluntarily
collected that data: Colorado, Kansas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. In
those states, graduation rates for this population lagged behind the rest of
the students, even those who are low-income.
Apply Now!
EPLC’s 2016-2017 Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program
EPLC's 2016 Report: High
School Career and Technical Education: Serving Pennsylvania's Workforce and
Student Needs
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATION POLICY FORUM Thursday, June 23, 2016
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATION POLICY FORUM Thursday, June 23, 2016
Allegheny Intermediate
Unit - 475 East Waterfront Dr., Homestead, PA 15120
Coffee and
Networking - 9:30 a.m. Program - 10:00 a.m. to
Noon
RSVP by
clicking here. There
is no fee, but a RSVP is required. Please feel free to share this invitation
with your staff and network. Similar forums will be held later in the
Philadelphia area and Harrisburg.
SPEAKERS:
An Overview of
the EPLC Report on High School CTE will be presented by:
Ron Cowell,
President, The Education Policy and Leadership Center
Statewide and
Regional Perspectives Will Be Provided By:
Dr. Lee Burket, Director, Bureau of Career & Technical Education, PA Department of Education
Jackie Cullen, Executive Director, PA Association of Career & Technical Administrators
Dr. William Kerr, Superintendent, Norwin School District
Laura Fisher, Senior Vice President - Workforce & Special Projects, Allegheny Conference on Community Development
James Denova, Vice President, Benedum Foundation
Dr. Lee Burket, Director, Bureau of Career & Technical Education, PA Department of Education
Jackie Cullen, Executive Director, PA Association of Career & Technical Administrators
Dr. William Kerr, Superintendent, Norwin School District
Laura Fisher, Senior Vice President - Workforce & Special Projects, Allegheny Conference on Community Development
James Denova, Vice President, Benedum Foundation
Nominations now open for PSBA Allwein Awards (deadline
July 16)
PSBA Website POSTED
ON MAY 16, 2016 IN PSBA NEWS
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 2016 Allwein Award nominations
will be accepted starting today and all applications are due by July
16, 2016. The nomination form can be downloaded from the website.
Join the Pennsylvania Principals Association at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at The
Capitol in Harrisburg, PA, for its second annual Principals' Lobby Day.
Pennsylvania
Principals Association Monday, March 21, 2016 9:31 AM
To register, contact Dr. Joseph Clapper at clapper@paprincipals.org by Tuesday,
June 14, 2016. If you
need assistance, we will provide information about how to contact your
legislators to schedule meetings. Click here for the informational flyer, which
includes important issues to discuss with your legislators.
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:
Join Solartis June 22-25, 2016 at the DISC Conference in Atlanta, GA
ReplyDeleteDISC Conference