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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup October 17, 2016
With 2016 scores released, not one of PA’s
cyber charters has achieved a passing SPP score of 70 in any of the four years
that the SPP has been in effect.
Reminder: Workshop on the New Funding Formula - PASA, PSBA, PAIU, PARSS, the PA
Principals Association and PASBO have scheduled nine on-site workshops across
the commonwealth and one webcast to provide an in-depth discussion of the new
basic education funding formula: how it works, what it measures and why it’s
important for Pennsylvania’s school districts. The workshops, funded through a
grant from the William Penn Foundation, will be offered at IUs 3, 4, 8, 10, 15,
17, 18, 20 and 24 beginning in November. Click
here for workshop dates and details and information about
registration. Capacity is limited at all locations, so registration is
required and is first come, first served.
State lawmakers have handful of voting
days before Election Day
Inquirer by Karen Langley, HARRISBURG BUREAU Updated: OCTOBER 17, 2016 1:08
AM EDT
HARRISBURG - Pension reform,
gambling, and even the controversial issues of abortion, immigration, and guns
could be on the legislative agenda as state lawmakers return to the Capitol on
Monday for a handful of voting days before the Nov. 8 election. The three days this week and three days the
following week could be the last chance for legislation in the 2015-16 session,
which ends Nov. 30. "These next six
days of session are our last opportunity to get something done in this
session," Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) said. An effort to reduce future risk to taxpayers
from the retirement plans for state and public school workers was one of the
major issues left unresolved earlier this year, after the Senate in December
approved one version of changes to retirement benefits for future employees and
the House in June approved another. Both
Corman and House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) said last week that
they have been engaged in talks about a potential proposal. They said they were
not sure whether pension legislation could be brought up for a vote this week.
With
2016 scores released, not one of PA’s cyber charters has achieved a passing SPP
score of 70 in any of the four years that the SPP has been in effect.
Keystone State Education
Coalition October 16, 2016
While the state
authorizes cyber charter schools, tuition comes from tax dollars paid to local
school districts. Total cyber charter tuition paid by PA taxpayers from 500 school
districts for 2013, 2014 and 2015 was over $1.2 billion; $393.5 million,
$398.8 million and $436.1 million respectively.
"When you have the larger
management companies running a broad chunk of schools, we view that as a major
issue," he said. "If you were not allowed to find out the salary of
your school district superintendent, what would be the outcry in your
district?...There would be pitchforks at that meeting. In many of the
management companies, we don't even get to see the salaries let alone the
costs."… DePasquale says the report validates his
view that the state's charter law is badly in need of revision — especially
because it leaves these management organizations outside the purview of
right-to-know laws and allows them to forgo audits.”
Federal report on charter schools elicits
more calls to revise Pa. law
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY OCTOBER 17, 2016Some charter schools operate like islands — day-to-day they run independently of any higher or centralized power. Others contract with a management organization — sometimes part of a big network, sometimes not. Sometimes for-profit, sometimes not. It's these charter management organizations, or CMOs, that have been criticized recently by the Office of the Inspector General inside the U.S. Department of Education. In a September report, the OIG warned that CMOs pose a "significant risk" to both taxpayer dollars and performance expectations. The report studied 33 CMOs in six states and found that two-thirds were cause for concern, with internal weaknesses that put federal tax dollars at risk. Pennsylvania was one of the states investigated, and the report echoed much of what Pa. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has already flagged about CMOs in the state.
Did you catch our weekend postings?
NAACP ratifies controversial resolution
for a moratorium on charter schools
Keystone State Education Coalition PA Ed Policy Roundup October
16, 2016The NAACP Takes A Major Stand Against The Growth Of Charter Schools
The nation’s oldest civil rights group is taking a critical look at the state of education.
Rebecca Klein Education Editor, The Huffington Post 10/16/2016 02:56 pm ET
The NAACP board of directors
voted Saturday to confirm a resolution that recommends an end to the expansion
of charter schools, which currently educate about 6 percent of the nation’s
public school students. The controversial move has angered charter school
activists and faced criticism from the editorial boards at The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately operated. Minnesota
passed a law creating the first legislated charter school in 1991, and since
that time, the number of charter schools has ballooned to about 7,000 all over
the country, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. In
recent years, these schools have faced criticism for their sometimes harsh
discipline practices, lack of oversight
and accountability and for siphoning
resources away from traditional public schools. At the same time,
studies have shown that students ― especially disadvantaged students ― who are
educated in charter schools make
slightly larger gains in reading than their peers, although results vary
widely depending on the school and state.
WSJ: The NAACP’s Charter-School Test
The venerable civil-rights group
may sell out poor black children.
Wall Street Journal Updated
Oct. 13, 2016 7:31 p.m. ET
The national board of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will vote this week
on a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter schools. If they vote yes,
they should also change their storied name because they will be voting to leave
black children behind. Delegates to the
NAACP national convention this summer passed a resolution to halt
charter-school expansion. Most of the resolution’s complaints against charters,
such as that they perpetuate segregation, are spurious. The NAACP’s main gripe
seems to be that charters are threatening the union-run public-school monopoly. The resolution claims that privately operated
charters are “targeting low-income areas and communities of color,” thereby
putting traditional public schools “at great risk of loss and harm.” Further,
the NAACP complains that public funding of charters is creating “shortages of
resources and space” at traditional schools.
The NAACP resolution is actually pretty
restrained. The NAACP hasn't rejected charters (they specifically state they
aren't doing this because of charter opposition), or called for a roll back.
They've called for four issues to be settled before the charter train gets
rolling again:
1) Charters should be subject to the same transparency and accountability as public schools
2) Public funds should not be diverted to charters at the expense of public schools
3) Charter schools should stop suspending and ejecting students that a public school is obligated to serve
4) Cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.
The NAACP: Ignorant Dupes?1) Charters should be subject to the same transparency and accountability as public schools
2) Public funds should not be diverted to charters at the expense of public schools
3) Charter schools should stop suspending and ejecting students that a public school is obligated to serve
4) Cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.
Curmuducation Blog by Peter Greene Sunday, October 16, 2016
They probably had their press
releases ready. Despite the full-court lobbying, the charter fans had to have
an idea which way the wind was blowing. And so when the NAACP announced the
official, full-throated adoption of the call for a charter moratorium, charter
fans were ready to explain why it should be ignored. As always, nobody leapt in with less nuance
or modulation than Jeanne Allen at theCenter
for Education Reform. In an email subject-lined "NAACP Caves To Union
Pressure," Allen made it clear that the NAACP has been pressured, duped,
and kept in the dark about The Truth. This
is yet another case of a group being intimidated by unions, and being
misinformed about how opportunities for poor children, in particular, and
minorities, are best served by the kinds of choices that charter schools offer. This theme runs through most of the
charter-flavored responses to the NAACP resolution. Take Jondre Pryor, a KIPP
principal who
once met an actual NAACP person thereby allowing him to see just how
ignorant the NAACP is of What Is Really Going On.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-naacp-ignorant-dupes.html?spref=tw
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-naacp-ignorant-dupes.html?spref=tw
A
Misguided Attack on Charter Schools
New
York Times By THE EDITORIAL BOARD OCT. 13, 2016
The N.A.A.C.P.,
the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, has struggled in recent years to
win over younger African-Americans, who often see the group as out of touch.
The N.A.A.C.P.’s board will reinforce that impression if it ratifies an
ill-advised resolution — scheduled for a vote this weekend — that calls for a
moratorium on expansion of public charter schools, which receive
public money but are subject to fewer state regulations than traditional public
schools. These schools, which educate only
about 7 percent of the nation’s students, are far from universally perfect, and
those that are failing should be shut down. But sound research has shown that,
when properly managed and overseen, well-run charter schools give families a
desperately needed alternative to inadequate traditional schools in poor urban
neighborhoods.
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianeravitch October 15, 2016 //
The national board of the NAACP endorsed the resolution passed by its 2016 annual convention calling for a moratorium on charter school expansion! So-called reformers, who falsely claim to be in alliance with the civil rights movement, should read the resolution with care. They should stop closing schools, they should abandon privatization, they should turn their efforts and money to helping improve public schools. They should help to foster desegregated schools and communities. They should insist on health care facilities and fully funded services at every school. They should support social justice for all children and families, not privatization of public services, which generates segregation and inequity.
Early bilingual studies will help
tomorrow's grads | Editorial
Editorial By Express-Times
Letters to the Editor on October 16, 2016 at 6:00 AM, updated October
16, 2016 at 9:32 AM
In post-war America, public
schools began looking outward in many respects — among them, requiring students
to learn a foreign language. For many baby-boom kids, this meant a high school
choice among Spanish, French, Latin, German. The space race of the 1950s and
1960s kindled an interest in Russian. Some school districts with the resources
to expand curriculum began offering courses in Japanese and other
"new" languages. Today's global economy has sparked an interest in
teaching Mandarin Chinese in many schools and colleges. While the relevance
of specific languages tends to follow the shifting demographics of
globalization, one principle of language instruction has remained constant: The
sooner kids get involved in a second language, the more likely they are to pick
it up in a useful, retainable way, whether in an immersion program or a
less-intense, continuing exposure in elementary grades. The Bethlehem Area School District is looking
at the latter — a plan
to teach Spanish to students in grades K-5 as part of a rotating group
of subjects once every six days.
Pre-K:
A step in the right direction
Centre
Daily Times Letter by EILEEN WISE, PORT MATILDA OCTOBER 16, 2016 8:18 PM
The writer is president of the
Nittany Kiwanis Club.
As a longtime advocate for early
learning opportunities for our region’s children, I was very excited to learn
that more than 6,000 additional children throughout the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania will be enrolled in high-quality pre-K programs this fall due to
increased funding in this year’s state budget.
Locally, this will allow almost 50 more children ages 3 and 4 in Centre
County to attend preschool. Although more than 1,300 of the county’s eligible
children remain unserved due to funding constraints, this is a step in the
right direction. I am proud of state
Sen. Jake Corman, who has supported greater access to high-quality early
education. I hope greater access to pre-K and Head Start is a consistent theme
of our state’s budgets in the years to come.
Making over that old-school mindset in
Philly District
Inquirer Editorial Updated: OCTOBER 17, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
NEIGHBORHOOD high schools have
been the orphans of public education in Philadelphia.
The number of adult graduates of
schools such as Germantown High, Edison, Frankford and Martin Luther King
number in the thousands. Enrollment of 2,000 or more students was once the
norm. Those days are gone. For many
parents, neighborhood high schools are their last choice. They prefer charters;
the district's array of special admission schools, such as Central and
Masterman; Catholic and private high schools - almost anything except that big
school in their own neighborhood. As a
result, in recent years, enrollment in neighborhood high schools has plummeted.
Five years ago, these schools enrolled nearly 30,000 students. This year, the
number is 17,500. Some of the high
schools, such as Strawberry Mansion, Overbrook and South Philadelphia, are
operating at 70 percent below their capacity. Overbrook High, which had 1,600
students in 2010, has 645 students this year.
Last year, Public Citizens for Children and Youth released a study that
underlined the dire conditions in neighborhood high schools - also called
comprehensive schools by the district.
$100 billion question: Who will be Pa.'s
next treasurer?
Inquirer by Angela Couloumbis HARRISBURG BUREAU Updated: OCTOBER 17, 2016 1:08 AM
EDT
HARRISBURG - Amid the noise
surrounding this year's increasingly divisive presidential and senatorial
campaigns, the low-key race for state treasurer has struggled to gain traction
among voters. No glossy mailers, slick
campaign commercials, or rousing speeches. Not even a debate. But the candidates vying for the
$158,764-a-year job to replace current state Treasurer Timothy A. Reese say
voters would be paying more attention if they realized the office's sweeping
power over taxpayer money. The next
treasurer will inherit a department that oversees more than $100 billion in
state assets, manages an additional $20 billion in investments, and processes
$90 billion in payments every year. The treasurer also sits on the boards of
Pennsylvania's two large public employee pension agencies.
Penn
Manor school director Rich Frerichs receives PSBA Timothy M. Allwein advocacy
award
PSBA Website October 13, 2016
The Pennsylvania School Boards
Association (PSBA) awarded Dr. Richard Frerichs, school director from Penn
Manor School District (Lancaster Co.), with the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy
Award at the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in Hershey, Oct. 13. The award was established in 2011 by PSBA in
memory of Tim Allwein, the association’s former assistant executive director
for Governmental and Member Relations. It is presented annually to an
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. A nominator praised Frerichs for being “a
leader, a mentor, a team builder and an advocate for a just cause.” State Senator Lloyd Smucker said, “Over the
course of his career, Rich has contributed to a wealth of advocacy efforts
aimed at promoting policies and advancing initiatives that benefit students,
instructors and all education staff in Pennsylvania.”
Graduation Rate Hits Record High of 83.2
Percent: Should Obama Take Credit?
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson Klein on October
17, 2016 6:00 AM
High school graduation rates
inched up for the fourth year in a row, by nearly one percentage point to 83.2
percent in the 2014-15 school year, the Obama administration announced
Monday. And while there are still significant graduation gaps between
black, Hispanic, and Native American students and their white and Asian peers,
those gaps are slowly closing. Graduation rates have now
risen for students overall from 79 percent in the 2010-11 school year—the
first year all states used the same method to calculate graduation rates. But
over that same period graduation rates for black students rose even faster, by
7.6 percent. And graduation rates for Hispanic students grew by 6.8
percent. What's more, the rates for English-language learners, students in special
education, and disadvantaged students also grew faster than for students
overall. Check out the table
below for a full breakdown.
Share
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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!
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