Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 4000 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, principals, 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
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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 Feb 20, 2017
Charter Advocacy Groups Want
Higher Standards for Online-Only Schools
Gerrymandering: @FairDistrictsPA will be
featured on @WITF's Radio Smart Talk on
Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 9 am, rebroadcast at 7 pm.
"If traditional public schools were producing such results, we would rightly be outraged," the report introduction reads, in part. "We should not feel any different just because these are charter schools."
Reprise: Charter Advocacy Groups Want Higher Standards for Online-Only Schools
Education Week By Corey Mitchell on June 16, 2016 5:45 AM
Three of the nation's leading charter school advocacy groups are calling for a complete overhaul of state policies governing online-only charter schools. A new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now (50CAN) outlines the challenges facing the online-only, or virtual, schools and offers recommendations to hold their authorizers accountable for student performance and financial decisions. The three groups largely crafted the report's recommendations in response to sweeping research findings released last fall that showed that students who took classes through virtual schools made dramatically less progress than their peers in traditional schools. It was the first national study of the cybercharter sector and was conducted by the Center for Research and Educational Outcomes at Stanford University, the Center on Reinventing Public Education, and Mathematica Policy Research.
In a review of online charter school performance, the charter school advocacy groups found that:
·
On average, full-time virtual charter students make no gains in
math and less than half the gains in reading of their peers in traditional
brick-and-mortar public schools.
·
All subgroups of students, including those in poverty,
English-language learners, and special education students, perform worse in
full-time virtual charters than in traditional public schools.
·
Students who leave full-time virtual charter schools are apt to
change schools more often after they leave cyber charters than they did before
enrolling.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2016/06/charter_advocacy_groups_want_higher_standards_for_online-only_schools.html
Bucks County Courier Times
Editorial February 19, 2017
Whatever comes along to replace
Twitter — much as Myspace fell out of favor with the rise of Facebook — can't
happen too soon for anybody hoping to engage in a thoughtful exchange of ideas. It's nearly impossible to convey a serious
thought on a complicated issue in 140 characters. This is part of the reason
why our new president, Tweeter-in-Chief Donald Trump, finds himself in hot
water pretty much daily. Please, Mr. President, put down the smartphone. That's what Centennial school
board member Mark Miller should have done. Instead, the veteran school director
and now ex-president of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association
tweeted a response to Quakertown Community School District Superintendent
William Harner, who in a recent interview said it costs more to educate a
student at a cyber charter school than a regular school. "Shocking news ...," Miller mocked
in his tweet. "Cyber charters cost more than they should." Miller's words weren't so awful. It's no
secret that school boards and public school administrators across the state
would be happy to see charter schools go away. Charters, which are alternative
public schools, siphon state money from school districts for every student they
attract. The more students, the more money school districts lose. But Miller didn't just restate that
longstanding grievance. He attached to his tweet a picture of chimpanzees
staring at a computer screen. Not smart! It was like throwing chum in the
water. Charter school people, their supporters and other opportunists went on a
feeding frenzy. Working up as much phony indignation as they could muster, they
accused Miller of depicting charter school students as monkeys.
Said Robert Fayfich, executive
director of the charter school coalition: "For the leader of the school
boards in Pennsylvania to suggest that children are monkeys and state that the
leaders of their schools are monkeys is beyond the pale of rational
thought."
Well, so is Fayich's accusation.
And he knows it.
Did you catch our weekend postings?
PA Ed Policy Roundup Feb 19, 2017
“money misspent pushing minority students from high school into
college instead of into vocational programs”
For democracy to work properly, our
representatives need to hold open town halls: Editorial
By PennLive Editorial
Board on February 17, 2017 at 2:22 PM, updated February 18, 2017
at 8:08 AM
To govern effectively, those who
represent us must engage us after elections, especially when there is a seismic
shift in ideas and plans for governing. Between
Labor Day and Election Day, you, the voter, were the apple of every candidate's
eye. They sent postcard after postcard. They called often. They made sure
you knew that they were on your side with television commercials, Facebook
posts, internet, radio and newspaper ads. Yard signs bloomed across the
landscape like roses for wooing. Today?
Not so much. In PennLive comments and letters to the editor this Thursday
alone: "has anyone heard from senator casey (sic) lately?", "Why
will [Sen. Pat] Toomey not hold a Town Hall meeting?" and "I would
love to hear a response from Rep. Lou Barletta....".These comments
from you ring as true to us as anything we could have written.
Journalists can't save a free press in
Trump's America. Only you can
Philly Daily News
Attytood by Will Bunch ,
Daily News Columnist @will_bunch Updated:
FEBRUARY 19, 2017 — 10:38 PM EST
Americans are funny about their
constitutional rights, I've noticed. They're not all created equal, at least
not in the public eye. Of the first 10 amendments -- the Bill of Rights -- none has a fan base quite like the 2nd Amendment, which establishes a right to carry
firearms. Ask anyone who's ever suggested that the right to bear arms might
have a few small limitations and then watched 2nd Amendment enthusiasts -- even
folks who couldn't tell the difference between a "Saturday
Night Special" and Saturday Night Live -- pour out of
the woodwork. The 2nd Amendment -- at least as interpreted by gun enthusiasts
-- has its own powerful and well-funded lobbying group, the National Rifle
Association, that always causes a majority of U.S. politicians to do what
politicians do best, which is cower in fear.
If only the 1st Amendment had that kind of love. You'd think
the 1st Amendment would be the most popular one, not just because of numerical
superiority but because it covers so much stuff -- the right to speak freely,
the right to a free press, free assembly, freedom of movement, and even the
right to worship. Even the right to petition the government with grievances is
covered by the 1st Amendment, meaning this is the amendment that makes Festivus possible. Who doesn't support that?
Betsy DeVos could bring radical changes to
public schools. PA’s top education official is not changing his approach.
Public Source
by Mary Niederberger | February 17, 2017
Pennsylvania Secretary of
Education Pedro Rivera is not letting uncertainty at the U.S. Department of
Education derail any of the plans his department has set in motion for
improving education in the state. Newly
installed U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has talked about abandoning
the Common Core and
promoting school vouchers and charter schools over traditional public school
districts. But Rivera, in an interview
this week with PublicSource, said the current education agenda will remain in
place. The priorities have included implementing the Pennsylvania Core standards,
aligning state tests and curriculum to those standards, revising the system for
assessing quality in schools, creating new high school graduation requirements
and working to increase equity among public schools. “We are not going to reverse course at all,”
Rivera said. “We are going to move in the direction we are moving.”
Rough First
Week Gives Betsy DeVos a Glimpse of the Fight Ahead
New
York Times By YAMICHE ALCINDOR FEB. 19, 2017
By the end of her first full week
as the secretary of education, Betsy DeVos had already sparred with a middle
school and a former schools chancellor in Washington, accused some of the
school’s teachers of passively awaiting instruction and said she would be
pleased if the department she currently runs did not exist in the future. She
encountered an immediate display of the type of fierce resistance she will face
as she tries to set new policies for the Education Department. On Sunday, she received a somewhat warmer
welcome from the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, who said in a radio
interview that she was ready to work with Ms. DeVos. Even as she urged
Ms. DeVos not to cut funding for the city’s public schools, Ms. Fariña said
that despite their ideological differences, the two could make sure that
children are properly educated. “I work with everyone,” Ms. Fariña said. “I
will have conversations with anyone and everyone to ensure that the work we’re
doing here is being celebrated and recognized, and we’ll see what time will
bring.”
Stand Up for PA's Public School Students!
Sign up for Education Voters PA
email list
Join activists throughout
Pennsylvania as we fight to ensure that ALL students have access to educational
opportunities in their public schools that will prepare them for graduation and
success in life. Add your voice to
thousands of others who are standing up against efforts to privatize and weaken
our children’s public schools. Help us create strong public demand for a strong
system of public schools that will offer an opportunity to learn for ALL
students.
The
PASA-PASBO report on School District Budgets, January 2017
Public
Education Funding Briefing; Wed, March 8, 2017 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM at United Way
Bldg in Philly
Public
Interest Law Center email/website February 14, 2017
Amid a contentious
confirmation battle in Washington D.C., public education has been front and
center in national news. But what is happening at home is just as--if not
more--important: Governor Wolf just announced his 2017-2018 budget proposal,
including $100 million in new funding for basic education. State legislators
are pushing a bill that would eliminate local school taxes by increasing income
and sales taxes. And we at the Law Center are waiting on a decision from
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as to whether or not our school funding lawsuit
can go to trial. How do all of
these things affect Pennsylvania's schools, and the children who rely on
them? Come find out! Join
Jennifer Clarke, Michael Churchill and me for one of two briefings on the nuts
and bolts of how public education funding works in Pennsylvania and how current
proposals and developments could affect students and teachers. (The content of
both briefings will be identical.) The briefings are free and open to the public, but we ask that you please RSVP.
NSBAC First 100 Days Campaign #Ed100Days
National School Boards
Action Center
YOUR VOICE IN THE FIRST 100 DAYS!
There is no time like the present
for public education advocates to make their voices heard. Misleading rhetoric
coupled with budget cuts and proposals such as private school vouchers that
divert essential funding from our public schools are threatening the continued
success of our 50 million children in public schools. We need your voice to
speak up for public schools now!
The first 100 days in the 115th Congress
and the Trump Administration present a great opportunity to make sure our
country’s elected leaders are charting an education agenda that supports our
greatest and most precious resource -- America’s schoolchildren. And
you can make that happen.
New
PSBA Winter Town Hall Series coming to your area
Introducing a new and exciting
way to get involved and stay connected in a location near you! Join your PSBA
Town Hall meeting to hear the latest budget and political updates affecting
public education. Enjoy light hors d’oeuvres and networking with fellow
school directors. Locations have been selected to minimize travel time. Spend
less time in the car and more time learning about issues impacting your
schools.
Agenda
6-6:35 p.m.
Association update from PSBA
Executive Director Nathan Mains
6:35 -7:15 p.m. Networking
Reception
7:15-8 p.m.
Governor’s budget address recap
Dates/Locations
Monday, February 20 Forbes Road Career and Technology Center,
Monroeville
Tuesday, February 21 Venango Technology Center, Oil City
Wednesday, Feb 22 Clearfield County Career and Technical
Center, Clearfield
Thursday, February 23 Columbia Montour AVTS, Bloomsburg
Monday, February 27 Middle Bucks Institute of Technology,
Jamison
Tuesday, February 28 PSBA, Mechanicsburg
Wednesday, March 1 Bedford County Technical Center, Everett
Thursday, March 2 West Side CTC, Kingston
Registration:
Ron Cowell at
EPLC always does a great job with these policy forums.
RSVP Today for a Forum In
Your Area! EPLC is Holding Five Education Policy Forums on Governor Wolf’s
2017-2018 State Budget Proposal
Forum #1 – Pittsburgh Thursday, February 23, 2017 – Wyndham University Center –
100 Lytton Avenue, Pittsburgh (Oakland), PA 15213Forum #2 – Harrisburg Area (Enola, PA) Tuesday, February 28, 2017 – Capital Area Intermediate Unit – 55 Miller Street (Susquehanna Room), Enola, PA 17025
Forum #3 – Philadelphia Thursday, March 2, 2017 – Penn Center for Educational Leadership, University of Pennsylvania, 3440 Market Street (5th Floor), Philadelphia, PA 19104
Forum #4 – Indiana University of Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 14, 2017 – 1011 South Drive (Stouffer Hall), Indiana, PA 15705
Forum #5 – Lehigh Valley Tuesday, March 28, 2017 – Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit #21, 4210 Independence Drive, Schnecksville, PA 18078
Governor Wolf will deliver his
2017-2018 state budget proposal to the General Assembly on February 7. These
policy forums will be early opportunities to get up-to-date
information about what is in the proposed education budget, the budget’s
relative strengths and weaknesses, and key issues. Each of the forums will take following
basic format (please see below for regional presenter details at each of
the three events). Ron Cowell of EPLC will provide an overview of the Governor’s
proposed budget for early education, K-12 and higher education. A
representative of The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will provide an
overview of the state’s fiscal situation and key issues that will affect this
year’s budget discussion. The overviews will be followed by remarks from a
panel representing statewide and regional perspectives concerning state funding
for education and education related items. These speakers will discuss the
impact of the Governor’s proposals and identify the key issues that
will likely be considered during this year’s budget debate.
Although there is no
registration fee, seating is limited and an RSVP is required.
Offered
in partnership with PASA and the PA Department of Education March 29-30,
2017 at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg - Camp Hill, PA .
Approved for 40 PIL/Act 48 (Act 45) hours for school administrators.
Register online at http://www.pasa-net.org/ev_calendar_day.asp?date=3/29/2017&eventid=63
PASBO
62nd Annual Conference, March 21-24, David L. Lawrence Convention Center,
Pittsburgh.
Register now
for the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference March 25-27 Denver
Plan to join public education leaders for networking and learning at the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference, March 25-27 in Denver, CO. General registration is now open at https://www.nsba.org/conference/registration. A conference schedule, including pre-conference workshops, is available on the NSBA website.
Plan to join public education leaders for networking and learning at the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference, March 25-27 in Denver, CO. General registration is now open at https://www.nsba.org/conference/registration. A conference schedule, including pre-conference workshops, is available on the NSBA website.
Register
for the 2017 PASA Education
Congress, “Delving Deeper into
the Every Student Succeeds Act.” March 29-30
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!
Save the Date
2017 PA Principals Association State Conference October 14. 15, 16, 2017
Doubletree
Hotel Cranberry Township, PA
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