Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3900 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, School Solicitors, 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
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organizations via emails, website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
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 September 16, 2016
More than 1000 ed policy stakeholders
are now following us on twitter @lfeinberg. How about you?
Southeastern
PA Regional 2016 Legislative Roundtable: William Tennent High School (Bucks
Co.) SEP 22, 2016 • 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Auditor
General DePasquale slated to be Keynote Speaker
School Leaders from Northampton,
Lehigh, Bucks, Montco, Chesco, Delco and Philadelphia Counties encouraged to
attend.
More info & Registration: https://www.psba.org/event/2016-legislative-roundtable/
Robots in first grade? New schools PR
campaign touts 'positive'
PennLive By Barbara Miller |
bmiller@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on September 15, 2016 at 12:22 PM, updated September 15, 2016 at 1:09 PM
on September 15, 2016 at 12:22 PM, updated September 15, 2016 at 1:09 PM
Robots in first grade is one of
the stories being shared in a new Success Starts Here
campaign that education groups statewide launched Thursday. Nathan Mains, executive director of the
Pennsylvania School Boards Association, introduces the Success Starts Here
campaign to foster a positive image of public education. The campaign, organized by the Pennsylvania
School Boards Association and others, will share positive stories about public
education through advertising across all forms of media and social platforms. At the campaign kickoff Thursday at Central
Dauphin East Middle School, first grade teacher Tiffany Hogg of Northern
Lebanon School District described the benefit her students are getting from
learning basic computer programming to control a robot. Hogg's class will be in the first Success
Starts Here commercial that will start airing today.
New public awareness campaign
launches for public education
PSBA Sept.
15, 2016 – Educating nearly 2 million students. More than 130,000 graduates a
year. Those are the big numbers in Pennsylvania public education. But behind
those statewide statistics are thousands of success stories taking place every
day in school districts, career and tech centers and intermediate units across
the commonwealth. That’s the idea behind a new campaign called Success Starts
Here, which officially launched Sept. 15 with a news conference and the start
of television, radio and out-of-home advertisements. The public awareness campaign is supported by
several public education associations, including PA Association of Intermediate
Units, PA Association of School Administrators, PA Principals Association, PA
School Boards Association, PA School Public Relations Association, and PA State
Education Association. The Success
Starts Here campaign is a multi-year statewide effort to share the positive
news about public education through advertising, web, social media, traditional
media and word-of-mouth with the goal of raising understanding of the value of
public education in Pennsylvania. It is not an advocacy campaign.
If you were not able to
view the oral argument this past Tuesday, you
can watch a recorded version on PCN this Friday, September 16, at 1
p.m.
Fair Education Funding Lawsuit Oral
Argument Recap
Thorough
and Efficient Blog SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 BARBGRIMALDI
On
Tuesday, September 13, 2016, school districts, parents and advocates stood
before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and urged the court to get involved
in reviewing the state’s education funding system. Hundreds of people
from across the state of Pennsylvania waited in line at Philadelphia’s City
Hall to fill up the Supreme Court room, an overflow court room and then some. The question before the court was simple: do
Pennsylvania families and school districts get their day in court to prove our
system of education funding is inadequate, inequitable, and unconstitutional?
Or, should courts leave such matters to the political process? The seven
justices of the state’s highest court were very engaged in the argument. They
asked counsel for the petitioners, Brad Elias, what they envision as
possible remedies for Pennsylvania’s broken school funding system and what the
court’s role might look like in crafting and monitoring potential fixes. They
asked the state if there were any circumstances under which the Education
Clause of the state constitution could be enforced by the courts.
“Education Department data
tell us that the top 10 districts spend an average of $25,743 per student,
while the bottom 10 spend an average $11,094 per pupil. (Philadelphia, which
ranks 338th out of the 500 districts, spends $13,458 per pupil.)”
DN editorial:
Court needs to step in, level educational playing field
Philly Daily News Editorial Updated: SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 — 3:01
AM EDT
THIS
WEEK, a group of public-interest lawyers spent hours in a courtroom trying to
convince the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that the state is failing to meet its
obligations in funding public schools. The
justices didn't seem convinced. Lawyers on the other side of the issue - representing
the state and the Legislature - argued that the courts had no business getting
involved: It was strictly a matter for the Legislature to decide whether
Pennsylvania meets the constitutional requirement that it provide a
"thorough and efficient system of education." That was
a convincing argument for some of the justices. In comments from the bench,
some expressed an unwillingness to have the courts step into the Big Muddy that
is the debate over education funding. We
believe those justices are wrong. The central question isn't whether the state
provided financial support for the public schools. It is whether the financial
aid is used to help achieve equitable funding among the state's 500 local
districts. Clearly, it does not.
Editorial: Funding formula still unfair
Bucks County
Courier Times September 15, 2016
The
often-tainted image of state government took another self-inflicted hit this
week when a state attorney told the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that students
have no constitutional right to a specific level of education quality. All the state constitution requires of
districts, John Knorr of the state Attorney General's Office said, is to open
schools. If that jaw-dropping argument
didn't elicit a heated reaction from the justices — and it didn't —
it did from some observers. Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym was among
the offended. She called the assertion that students have no right to education
quality "deplorable." The Rev. Gregory Holston, a pastor involved
with an interfaith group that targets social issues, had an even angrier
reaction. "Racism is at the
core of the fair-funding issue," he said. The fair funding of public schools was before
the court as the result of a lawsuit filed by school districts and parents who
argue that the state's funding formula violates the equal-protection provision
of the state constitution. The plaintiffs also allege that Pennsylvania fails
to provide a "thorough and efficient system of education" as
guaranteed by the constitution.
Testimony from PA House Democratic Policy Committee
Hearing on Graduation Requirements and High Stakes Testing
Held at Northley Middle School,
Aston PA on September 12, 2016
SRC stalls
again on four contested charter schools
The notebook/Newsworks by Avi Wolfman-Arent & Darryl Murphy September
15, 2016 10:39pm
Philadelphia’s
School Reform Commission has again delayed action on four turnaround charter
schools--schools the district has recommended for non-renewal. This is the second
time Philadelphia’s top education officials have tabled decisions on
the quartet of schools, which are all part of the city’s Renaissance Schools
initiative. Olney Charter High School
and John B. Stetson Charter School of the ASPIRA network, and Audenried Promise
Neighborhood Partnership Charter School and Vare Promise Neighborhood
Partnership Charter School of the Universal Network were recommended for non-renewal
by the District’s charter school office in May. The District cited poor
academic performance, as well as financial and organizational instability in
its calls for non-renewal. The four
schools have been in limbo since then, with a majority of the SRC’s five
members unable to reach consensus on the fate of the four schools. It appeared
initially there might be some definitive action on the schools during
Thursday’s SRC meeting. All four were listed on the commission’s resolution
agenda. Instead, after a brief public
discussion, board chair Marjorie Neff withdrew all four resolutions.
School
district assessment appeals vital to tax fairness | Guest column
By John E. Freund III and Jonathan M. Huerta By Express-Times
guest columnist on July 27, 2015 at 2:11 PM, updated July 27,
2015 at 4:04 PM
Pennsylvania
homeowners are facing
a $2 billion tax increase over the next decade — the shocking
estimated loss in property tax revenue predicted by thePennsylvania School Boards Association if
special interests and their political action committees, such as the
Pennsylvania Apartment Association, have their way with lawmakers in
Harrisburg. They have targeted legislators seeking to change an 80-year-old law
that permits taxing authorities, including school districts, to file assessment
appeals on large, highly profitable commercial properties that are severely
undertaxed. When properties such as large shopping centers, apartment buildings
and casinos are significantly underassessed, local residents are forced to
subsidize those property owners in the form of unnecessary property tax
increases or painful cuts to school staff and educational programs, police and
fire protection, senior programs or other important services.
Lancaster
school district wants to limit refugee enrollment order
Keystone Crossroads/NEWSWORKS BY EMILY PREVITI, WITF SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
The
school district of Lancaster was court-ordered recently to let refugees over
the age of 16 into its International School program for students with limited
English proficiency. But just a couple
weeks later, the school's attorneys are trying to get the order suspended.
Vic
Walczk is the legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, one of the organizations
behind the lawsuit. "The school
district is refusing to put them in a school, in a program designed for
students just like them. It makes no sense," Walczak says. The district has followed the order for
students already enrolled when it was issued a couple weeks ago, and they won't
be affected by any ruling on the motion for a stay filed earlier this week,
according to spokeswoman Kelly Burkholder.
Pine-Richland eyed as target of federal
lawsuit for transgender bathroom protocol
By Karen
Kane / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 16, 2016 12:00 AM
A
national law firm that advocates for the LGBT community said a federal suit
will be filed against Pine-Richland School District for putting into place this
week a "sex-specific" protocol that requires transgender students to
use bathrooms that match their biological gender or, as an alternative, to use
a unisex bathroom. "We'll see them
in court," said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney with Lambda
Legal, based in New York City. He
said the school district distinguished itself Monday by becoming the only
district in Pennsylvania to have adopted such a "discriminatory"
resolution — one that was passed on a 5-4 vote. "They created a problem where none
existed before," Mr. Gonzalez-Pagan said. The new resolution overturns a longtime
practice that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender
with which the student identifies.
Here are the central Pa. school districts
with the biggest tax increases
Penn
Live Slideshow September 15, 2016
“Thus, the promotion and expansion of these independent
teacher education programs rests not on evidence, but largely on ideology. The
lack of credible evidence supporting these claims of success is particularly
problematic given the current emphasis on evidence-based policy and practice in
federal policy and professional standards.”
The problem
with the growing effort to ‘disrupt’ teacher preparation in the United States
Washington
Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss September
15 at 1:45 PM
One of the most contentious areas of school reform in recent years
has been how best to educate students to be effective teachers. Traditional
schools of education have come under attack — in some cases for good reason and
in some cases not. Independent alternative programs have become popular,
sometimes without evidence that they work.
In this post, Kenneth Zeichner, a professor of teacher education at the
University of Washington at Seattle, writes about why today’s criticisms of
traditional programs to train teachers are different from the past and why he
is concerned about the growing effort to “disrupt” the teacher education system
in the United States. This piece was taken from a policy brief he
wrote, titled “Independent Teacher Education Programs: Apocryphal Claims,
Illusory Evidence,” that was published by the National Education Policy Center
housed at the University of Colorado Boulder and is available here.
Analysis
Projects Growing National Shortfall of Teachers
Education Week By Madeline Will September 14, 2016
Already
faced with worrisome hiring gaps, the country is on the precipice of a
dramatically widening shortfall of teachers, a new analysis warns. In a package of reports released Wednesday, the Learning
Policy Institute, a California-based think tank led by Stanford University
education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, digs into federal data sets to gauge the
state of teacher supply and demand, and what it means for school staffing and
diversity in the near future. The
trend lines are far from encouraging, according to the group, though not all
education experts are convinced of an impending widespread national shortage. During the 2015-16 school year, there was a
national shortage of about 60,000 teachers, the LPI estimates. The shortage was
most pronounced in special education, with 48 states and the District of
Columbia reporting a shortage in that field to the U.S. Department of Education.
Connecticut to Appeal Decision in Schools Funding Case
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS SEPT. 15, 2016
The
State of Connecticut said on Thursday that it would appeal a sweeping ruling in a schools funding
case that ordered it to re-examine virtually the entire education system. “There are strong arguments that the trial
court exceeded its authority and the standards articulated by the Connecticut
Supreme Court, and so today we are asking that court to review this ruling,”
Attorney General George C. Jepsen said in a statement. In the long-running case, Judge Thomas G.
Moukawsher of State Superior Court in Hartford found last week that Connecticut
was “defaulting on its constitutional duty” to give all children an adequate
education because the state was allowing students in poor districts to languish
while those in wealthy districts excelled.
Judge Moukawsher gave the state 180 days to revamp teacher evaluations
and compensation, school funding policies, special education services and
graduation requirements.
I, Too, Sing America
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
BY THE
NEW YORK TIMES SEPT. 15, 2016
PRODUCED
BY ALICIA DESANTIS AND JOSH WILLIAMS, PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEXEY SWALL, WRITTEN BY
GRAHAM BOWLEY, INTERVIEWS BY TAMARA BEST, GRAPHICS BY ANJALI SINGHVI, VIDEO BY
JONAH M. KESSEL
THE SMITHSONIAN’S National
Museum of African American History and Culture opens on Sept. 24 in Washington
after a long journey. Thirteen years since Congress and President George W.
Bush authorized its construction, the 400,000-square-foot building stands on a
five-acre site on the National Mall, close to the Washington Monument.
President Obama will speak at its opening dedication. Appropriately for a public museum at the
heart of Washington’s cultural landscape, the museum’s creators did not want to
build a space for a black audience alone, but for all Americans. In the spirit
of Langston
Hughes’s poem “I, Too,” their message is a powerful declaration: The
African-American story is an American story, as central to the country’s
narrative as any other, and understanding black history and culture is
essential to understanding American history and culture.
Another
Unrealistic Trump Policy Proposal: Homeschool Vouchers
Trump recently
proposed billions in spending to allow the nation’s poorest students to leave
public schools and enroll elsewhere, including by using homeschooling. Except
the plan won’t work for the poorest students.
by Jessica Huseman ProPublica, Sep. 14, 2016, 2:54 p.m.
GOP
nominee Donald Trump has said he plans to spend billions of dollars
on so-called school choice programs. The $20 billion in federal funds would be
available only to what he says are 11 million children living in poverty who
are also “trapped
in failing schools.” Families will be eligible for vouchers to send their
children to charter, magnet or even private religious schools. Last Friday, he announced
the policy would include homeschooling as well. “School choice is at the center of this civil
rights agenda, and my goal is to provide every single inner-city child in
America that is trapped in a failing government school the freedom to attend
the school of their choice,” he said at a conservative voters conference.
“School choice also means that parents can homeschool their children. Hundred
percent.” But there’s one problem with
Trump’s homeschooling plan: Impoverished homeschoolers mostly don’t exist.
Education
Law Center: Join us September 19: UC-Berkeley economist Rucker Johnson in Philadelphia
September 19: Please join us at 4:30 PM in
the Mayor’s Reception Room in Philadelphia City Hall where economist and
UC-Berkeley professor Dr. Rucker Johnson will discuss his recent national research which finds that sustained
investment in education produces long-term economic benefits for communities.
Mayor Kenney and Dr. Hite will also make brief remarks. This event is sponsored
by the Education Law Center, The Mayor’s Office of Education, and Council
President Darrell Clarke. Please spread the word and join us on the 19th! RSVP
to Caitlyn Boyle: Caitlyn.Boyle@Phila.gov
To download the full invitation
to the event, please click here.
Southeastern
PA Regional 2016 Legislative Roundtable: William Tennent High School (Bucks
Co.) SEP 22, 2016 • 7:00
PM - 9:00 PM
PSBA website August 25, 2016
Take a more active role in public
education advocacy by joining our Legislative Roundtable
This is your opportunity for a
seat at the table (literally) with fellow public education advocates to take an
active role in educating each other and policymakers. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, along with
regional legislators, will be in attendance to work with you to support public
education in Pennsylvania. Use the
form below to send your registration information!
Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 5:30 PM
The Crystal Tea Room, The Wanamaker Building
100 Penn Square East, Philadelphia, PA
Honoring: Pepper Hamilton LLP, Signe Wilkinson, Dr. Monique W. Morris
And presenting the ELC PRO BONO AWARD to Paul Saint-Antoine & Chanda Miller
of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Registration
for the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 13-15 is now open
The conference
is your opportunity to learn, network and be inspired by peers and
experts.
TO REGISTER: See https://www.psba.org/members-area/store-registration/ (you must be logged in to
the Members Area to register). You can read more on How to Register for
a PSBA Event here. CONFERENCE WEBSITE: For
all other program details, schedules, exhibits, etc., see the conference
website:www.paschoolleaders.org.
The 2016 Arts and Education Symposium will be held on October 27 at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Arts Education network and EPLC, the Symposium is a Unique Networking and Learning Opportunity for:
·
Arts Educators
·
School Leaders
·
Artists
·
Arts and Culture Community Leaders
·
Arts-related Business Leaders
·
Arts Education Faculty and Administrators in Higher Education
·
Advocates
·
State and Local Policy Leaders
Act 48 Credit is
available.Program and registration information are available here.
PA Principals Association website Tuesday, August 2, 2016 10:43 AM
To receive the Early Bird Discount, you must be registered by August 31, 2016:
Members: $300 Non-Members: $400
Featuring Three National Keynote Speakers: Eric Sheninger, Jill Jackson & Salome Thomas-EL
SAVE THE DATE LWVPA Convention 2017 June
1-4, 2017
Join the
League of Women Voters of PA for our 2017 Biennial Convention at the beautiful
Inn at Pocono Manor!
Wow this is amazing, well done!!
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