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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup Oct. 3, 2017:
Pendulum swinging on standardized testing?
Educators, parents hope so
Our Schools at Risk: How to Stop Funding
Cuts, Bensalem HS, October 3 at 7 PM - 9 PM
Public Meeting Hosted by Education
Voters PA Tuesday, October 3 at 7 PM - 9 PM
Bensalem HS, North Wing Audion, 4319 Hulmeville Rd., Bensalem
19020
Learn about the threats to our public schools and how YOUR
advocacy efforts can make a difference. Join Education Voters of PA to learn
about how state policies and school funding are impacting your local schools
and how you can come together in your communities to stand up for public school
students. Additional guests include Dan
Urevick-Acklesberg from the Public Interest Law Center who will give an update
on the Supreme Court ruling, and representatives from Public Citizens for
Children and Youth.
“What’s new are the technological tools available to district-drawers. Today, a consultant armed with an algorithm and a precinct map can build a district that is better insulated against shifts in the political winds, and better able to remain in one party’s control for years. The most extreme manipulations of the map are seen in states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Michigan, where single-party control of the redistricting process has allowed the G.O.P. to entrench an advantage. In 2014, for example, Republican candidates for the State Senate in Michigan won only the slimmest majority of the vote—fifty-one per cent—but secured seventy-one per cent of the seats.”
The Supreme Court Takes Up a Major Gerrymandering Case This Morning
The New Yorker By Jeff Shesol 5:00 A.M.
In Gill v. Whitford, legislators across the U.S. have implored the Supreme Court to take action against a bold and powerful kind of partisan redistricting.
Gerrymandering inspires a kind of lyricism in government officials. In 1981, a California Democrat, having redrawn the boundaries of a congressional district, observed that his effort “curls in and out like a snake.” An Ohio state representative once regarded his own district as “a seahorse cut up by a boat propeller,” and Maryland’s Third Congressional District reminded a federal judge, more recently, of “a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state.” The term itself—gerrymandering—was coined in 1812, when Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts, signed a law creating a district so sinuous that, reportedly, the editor of the Boston Gazettesaw it as a salamander. The newspaper’s cartoonist drew it as a “horrid Monster.” The distorted shape of districts is the focus of one of the most anticipated cases the Supreme Court will hear this term: Gill v. Whitford, which will be argued today. The Gill case concerns a redistricting plan put into place in Wisconsin in 2011. Republican state legislators developed a new electoral map in secret and then passed it on a party-line vote. The effect was immediate. In the following election, in 2012, Democrats won a majority of votes but Republicans captured sixty out of ninety-nine seats in the State Assembly. “I’d never seen anything like that before,” one Wisconsin state senator, a Republican, told Emily Bazelonof the Times. Something “powerful and unbelievable” had taken place—something new and different from the crude, ad-hoc gerrymandering of old, the kind that was practiced even before Gerry gave it a name.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-supreme-court-takes-up-a-major-gerrymandering-case
5 things to know as the Supreme Court takes up redistricting
Morning Call by Laura Olson Call Washington Bureau October 3, 2017 6:00 am
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this morning in a case from Wisconsin that could change how legislative district boundaries are drawn across the country. The question before the court in Gill v. Whitford is whether Wisconsin Republican lawmakers went too far in 2011 when drawing the latest set of boundaries for state legislative districts. A federal court struck down that plan last year, saying it was the result of partisan gerrymandering — or that map-makers purposely drew districts that favored one political party over another. Those opposing the district map say it has cemented an advantage for Republicans,according to SCOTUSblog. The state of Wisconsin has argued that throwing out the maps would open the door to “unprecedented intervention in the American political process.”
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/capitol-ideas/mc-nws-supreme-court-redistricting-pennsylvania-20171002-story.html
Some charter school heads earn big paychecks compared to other public school leaders. What’s the rationale?
Public Source By Mary Niederberger and Stephanie Hacke SEPT. 28, 2017
PART OF THE SERIES The Charter Effect|
As the CEO of Commonwealth Charter Academy, Maurice Flurie received a 2016-17 salary of $225,500 for overseeing a statewide cyber school with an enrollment of 9,035 students, a budget of $116 million, staff of 500 and 11 family centers across the state. In that same school year, Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet drew a $210,000 salary for managing a district of about 24,000 students, a budget of about $570 million, staff of 4,300 and 70 buildings. If you’re looking for logic or consistency in the salaries of charter school leaders in comparison with their traditional school district counterparts, it might be hard to find. The salaries among charter school administrators are inconsistent. Even among the charter schools — both brick-and-mortar and cyber — there’s a wide range of compensation that, in some cases, doesn’t appear to always be tied to academic achievement or school size. Some of the smallest brick-and-mortar charters in Allegheny County have CEOs who are among the highest paid. At Manchester Academic, where 340 students were enrolled last year, CEO Vasilios Scoumis was paid $146,000. In comparison, Environmental Charter School CEO John McCann earned $120,000 with a school enrollment of 630 students.
http://projects.publicsource.org/chartereffect/stories/some-charter-school-heads-earn-big-paychecks-compared-to-other-public-school-leaders.html
We analyzed teacher salaries at charter schools. Here’s what we found.
Public Source By Mary Niederberger and Stephanie Hacke SEPT. 27, 2017
PART OF THE SERIES The Charter Effect|
Much focus on charter schools is placed on how well the students are doing, rightfully so. But beyond the background of each student, it is teachers who have the most direct impact on student growth. PublicSource already reported on the high teacher turnover in charter schools, and that the teachers there have generally less experience than teachers at traditional school districts. As salaries often factor into attracting and retaining talent, we requested and reviewed the salaries of teachers at the brick-and-mortar charter schools in Allegheny County as well as the cyber charter schools that operate in Pennsylvania. This is what we found: If you’re a charter school teacher, chances are your salary is lower than your counterparts in a traditional school districts. Of the 25 brick-and-mortar charter schools that operated in Allegheny County in 2016-17, the median salary for teachers was $43,176. That’s $10,289 lower than the median salary in the seven traditional school districts who send the highest percentage of students to charter schools (Wilkinsburg, Sto-Rox, Woodland Hills, Duquesne, Penn Hills, Clairton and Pittsburgh Public Schools).
http://projects.publicsource.org/chartereffect/stories/we-analyzed-teacher-salaries-at-charter-schools-heres-what-we-found.html
Is pendulum swinging on standardized testing? Educators, parents hope so
Sarah M. Wojcik Contact Reporter Of The Morning Call September 30, 2017
There’s usually a sense of confusion when fifth-grade teacher Brad Drey tells his students they won’t learn the results of their springtime Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exam until fall, when they’re in a new school with a new teacher. The Fountain Hill Elementary School teacher recalls one student thought Drey must have been talking about a different exam. “He said to me, ‘No Mr. Drey. I mean the test we’re taking with you next week,’” Drey said. “When you have a kid ask that and you have to tell them that they won’t get the results until the next year, you have to ask yourself: Who is this test for?” The state’s top educators also have been asking that question. That’s why starting in spring, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is trimming what amounts to two days off the standardized tests given in grades three through eight. English will have three sections instead of four, and math will go from three to two. The science exam will be cut by 22 minutes. In addition, a push is underway to halt plans to require a student to receive a passing grade on the Keystone Exams, end-of-course tests in algebra, biology and English, to receive a high school diploma. The moves are being hailed by administrators, teachers, parents and students who feel the standardized testing culture that arose with the 2001 passage of the federal No Child Left Behind law has done more harm than good.
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-education-pssa-testing-changes-in-classroom-20170912-story.html
Pa. Legislature may be coming to palatable budget compromise
Morning Call by Steve Esack Contact Reporter Call Harrisburg Bureau October 2, 2017 7:25 pm
Truck stop slot machines and mini casinos. Taxes on warehousing and logistics services. And a bond backed by big tobacco’s court settlement cash. Those were three main ingredients legislative leaders and Gov. Tom Wolf were stirring Monday into a compromise budget stew they hoped will be edible enough for rank-and-file lawmakers to swallow. House Speaker Mike Turzai announced Monday his chamber will reconvene at 9 a.m. Tuesday — “or sooner” — to possibly begin voting on remaining budget bills. If a deal is not done soon, the state could be starved of cash when big bills come due later this month. On Oct. 26, the state is scheduled to make a large payment to school districts.
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-budget-tax-gambling-talks-20171002-story.html
Sen. Corman: We’re Closer Than We’ve Been In Some Time In Budget Discussions
PA Capitol Digest by Crisci Associates OCTOBER 2, 2017
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre) told the media Monday afternoon budget negotiations with the House and Gov. Wolf are “closer than we’ve been in some time,” but “nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.” He said 10 or more pieces of legislation need to move to implement a budget agreement, including-- a gaming bill, that has to be negotiated; a liquor bill that includes cash register convenience for beer and wine sales in stores; and the Tax Code, Fiscal Code, Administrative Code, Education Code bills and the rest. On gaming, he said the Senate is considering authorizing video gaming terminals, but only as part of a complete package. Sen. Corman said the number one goal of his caucus is to balance the budget, not only for this year, but next year as well. “We’re not going to the taxpayers for a third straight year with a tax increase,” he said, noting the General Assembly raised taxes last year and plans to raise taxes again this year. He went on to say if you use a “bunch of one-time sources,” like taking money from special funds, that still leaves a deficit at the end of the fiscal year and that does not meet their number one goal.. Sen. Corman said the outline of a budget plan they are discussing does not include a natural gas severance tax, but substituted eliminating the Sales Tax exemption for third party, commercial warehousing. “There is no pain-free way of doing this. We have a hole we have to fill and we have to do it,” Sen. Corman said.
http://pacapitoldigestcrisci.blogspot.com/2017/10/sen-corman-were-closer-than-weve-been.html
No action on latest bid to end 3-month budget stalemate
Lawmakers are back in the Pennsylvania Capitol amid a three-month-old budget stalemate, but optimism about an evolving proposal to fill a $2.2 billion revenue gap isn't translating into action
Post-Gazette by MARC LEVY ASSOCIATED PRESS 5:57 PM OCT 2, 2017
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Lawmakers returned to the Pennsylvania Capitol amid a three-month-old budget stalemate Monday, but optimism from top Republican lawmakers about an evolving proposal to fill a $2.2 billion revenue gap did not translate into action. The Capitol was a flurry of lobbying and rumors, as Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and top lawmakers negotiated details behind closed doors. No votes were scheduled, and no drafts of bills emerged, as hundreds of pages of legislation remained in private discussions. The proposed package leans heavily on borrowing, one-time fund transfers and an expansion of casino-style gambling to help bail out the state’s deficit-riddled finances from its biggest cash shortfall since the recession, lawmakers said. A package of tax increases also would be part of the mix. The deal under discussion does not include a tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production after House backers — including Democratic leaders — could not raise enough support last week to overcome opposition from House GOP majority leaders and rank-and-file members from northern and western Pennsylvania. Rank-and-file House Republicans on Monday focused their attention on a tax under discussion to impose the state’s 6 percent sales tax onto commercial storage. Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Franklin, said the tax covers warehouse operators, one of the biggest employers in his Interstate 81 corridor district.
http://www.post-gazette.com/powersource/latest-oil-and-gas/2017/10/02/No-action-on-latest-bid-to-end-3-month-budget-stalemate/stories/201710020188
A new Pa. state budget flashpoint: Whether to tax commercial storage
Penn Live By Charles Thompson cthompson@pennlive.com Updated on October 2, 2017 at 11:21 PM Posted on October 2, 2017 at 9:10 PM
This post was updated at 11:21 p.m. Monday with videotaped comments from Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, on the ongoing state budget deliberations.
Efforts to fix Pennsylvania's unbalanced state budget hit a new flashpoint Monday, as industry and some lawmakers pushed back against a plan to end a longtime sales tax exemption for commercial storage. The tax, revived last week by House Republican leadership as an alternative to a severance tax on gas pulled from the state's Marcellus Shale reserves, would raise close to $175 million over the course of a full year, budget negotiators said. That could be a key part of a roughly $400 million recurring revenue package needed to offset new spending in the 2017-18 general fund budget. Or, as business and industry representatives argued Monday, just the latest in a series of business tax proposals that, by targeting specific industries, chill the business climate for all firms looking to invest here.
http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/10/a_new_pa_state_budget_spat_whe.html#incart_river_index
Did Sen. Scott Wagner try to kill a natural gas tax to help his campaign for governor? | Monday Morning Coffee
Penn Live By John L. Micek jmicek@pennlive.com Updated on October 2, 2017 at 12:13 PM Posted on October 2, 2017 at 8:29 AM
Good Monday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
It's no secret that there's an unavoidable patina of electoral politics slathered all over the long-simmering debate over whether Pennsylvania should slap a severance tax on natural gas drillers. In his 2014 campaign for the top spot, now-Gov. Tom Wolf promised to tax drillers and to use the proceeds to, among other things, pay for programs for Pennsylvania school-kids. Three years later, Wolf still hasn't fulfilled that promise, but it seems closer than ever to the goal-line in this fall's budget debate. But rarely have electoral and budget politics intersected as closely as they did late last month when one of the men hoping to replace Wolf in 2018, GOP state Sen. Scott Wagner, directly appealed to a senior House Republican to kill a severance tax proposal now before the chamber.
http://www.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2017/10/did_sen_scott_wagner_try_to_ki.html#incart_river_index
School districts, including Reading, prepare for influx of Puerto Rican students
WITF Written by Michael Melia/The Associated Press, | Oct 2, 2017 3:47 AM
(New Britain, Conn.) -- As Hurricane Maria churned toward Puerto Rico, Joseenid Martin Gregory put her sons Eliot Saez Martin, 9, and his brother, Elionet, 5, on a plane to be with their grandfather in Connecticut, fearing their lives could be in danger if they stayed on the island. As the scale of the devastation became clear, and the boys' grandfather, Jose Martin, found no way to communicate with his daughter, he made arrangements to keep the boys here indefinitely. He bought notebooks and markers and enrolled his grandchildren at the local elementary school in New Britain. "We didn't think the hurricane was going to be catastrophic. With the situation Puerto Rico is in now, it's difficult," said Martin, a landscaper. "I thank God that the children are here. They're in school. They have food." The two brothers are among the first of what are expected to be large numbers of Puerto Rican children enrolling in school districts on the U.S. mainland, particularly in urban areas from Florida to New York to Massachusetts where families are planning to open their homes to displaced relatives. Pennsylvania schools, like Reading, are expected to see an influx.
http://www.witf.org/news/2017/10/school-districts-including-reading-prepare-for-influx-of-puerto-rican-students.php
PCCY: A thorough, efficient, and just ruling for kids!–September 29, 2017
PCCY September 29, 2017
A thorough, efficient, and just ruling!
This week the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania made a historic ruling. While legislators huffed their objections, their constituents applauded the Court’s decision that, when it comes to education, it was time to hold the state to the highest level of accountability. So school districts, parents, poor and minority students will have their day in court. The plaintiffs, several school districts and parents, sued the governor, the legislature and the Pennsylvania Department of Education because they believe that the way education is funded in Pennsylvania is not fair. PA school districts receive a little money from the federal government and some money from the state (37%), but most money comes from local resources (about 56%). Districts that have a lot of businesses and expensive homes nearby can spend more money on providing students with the resources they need to succeed. Districts that don’t have that tax base, can’t.
http://www.pccy.org/news/thorough-efficient-just-ruling-kids-september-29-2017/
State truancy law amended to improve attendance, prevent jail time for parents
The notebook by Greg Windle October 2, 2017 — 4:24pm
In 2014, the fight to decriminalize Pennsylvania’s truancy laws escalated after a Reading County woman was found dead while serving a 48-hour jail sentence for her children’s truancy, after she was unable to pay a $2,000 truancy fine. Her death catapulted the state’s ambiguous truancy law onto center stage in Harrisburg, where multiple bills were introduced to reform the law. The bills were eventually combined, and as a result, this school year began under an amended state truancy law, or Act 138, written to improve school attendance, avoid exclusionary punishments, and deter parents from being jailed on truancy charges. “The purpose is that schools and systems are to identify and address attendance issues as early as possible to preserve the families and avoid sending children to foster care,” said Alex Dutton, a fellow at the Education Law Center, whose work centers on the state’s truancy laws. The law now divides students into two categories: “truant” (three or more unexcused absences during one school year) and “habitually truant” (six or more unexcused absences in the same school year). The previous law did not explicitly define truant. Perhaps the biggest difference between the old law and the new one is that even “habitually truant” students can no longer be placed in Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth schools for truancy. And schools can also no longer use exclusionary discipline to punish students, such as suspensions and expulsions.
http://thenotebook.org/articles/2017/10/02/state-truancy-law-amended-to-improve-attendance-prevent-jail-time-for-parents
PSSA, Keystone test results released by state
Centre Daily Times BY LORI FALCE lfalce@centredaily.com OCTOBER 02, 2017 11:01 PM
Last week, the state Department of Education posted the results of standardized tests. Centre County schools are now examining the results. The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment is the yardstick used to measure student — and school — performance. It is administered to kids in third through eighth grade in English and math, and kids in fourth and eighth grades in science. The Keystone is the secondary level test, administered to students in algebra, biology and literature. “Standardized tests help identify success and needs in students and schools so they can prioritize and plan, as well as meet federal and state reporting requirements,” Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera said in a statement. “However, high-stakes testing does not tell the full story and the department is taking several actions to better communicate student progress in our schools. Beginning this school year, the time required to take the PSSAs is reduced by an average of two days, allowing students and teachers to focus more on learning, and in future years the department’s Future Ready PA Index will create a more accurate reporting system for school districts.”
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/article176691166.html
In a Rare Move for the Sector, Indiana's First Online Charter School to Close
Education Week Charters and Choice Blog By Arianna Prothero on September 29, 2017 9:41 PM
After years of receiving failing grades from the state, Indiana's first full-time online charter school will shut down at the end of the school year, according to local media reports. The charter school's own board voted this week not to re-up Hoosier Academies Virtual's charter contract, because it didn't believe the school could make a successful case for renewal. The fate of the school, which currently enrolls around 1,750 students, had been in limbo for a couple of years as state officials continued to defer taking action on closing the school, despite assigning it a failing grade for six consecutive years. That track record had led to the state board of education to ban the school from enrolling more students last May. The head of the Hoosier Virtual, Byron Ernest, sits on the state board of education. He has recused himself from all decisions related to the school's fate. The move to close Hoosier Virtual is notable because it's very rare for an online charter school to be shut down, even when it's failing to meet academic benchmarks, as I wrote in an investigation by Education Week into full-time virtual charter schools last fall:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2017/09/indianas_first_online_charter_school_to_close_in_a_rare_move_for_the_sector.html?r=472139399&cmp=soc-twitter-shr
Preschool’s hidden value may be in combating poverty
Head Start may not boost school test scores, but researchers find long-term, multigenerational benefits
Hechinger Report Column by JILL BARSHAY October 2, 2017
It’s been hard to prove that attending preschool makes a difference for kids, academically. Many research studies have found that children who didn’t go to preschool catch up to those who did in just a few years. By third grade, there’s often no difference in math and reading scores between the preschooled and the non-preschooled child. Experts call it “fadeout.” That hasn’t sat well with advocates of early childhood education. They point to other studies that have looked beyond elementary schools’ test scores, and have found that preschooled children are more likely to graduate from high school, be employed and raise families in stable marriages. Now a pair of researchers has taken this line of research one generation further, and found that the offspring of preschooled children are living significantly better young-adult lives than the offspring of non-preschooled children. In that second generation, whose parents lived in a community that offered a free, federally funded Head Start preschool program in the 1960s, people were graduating from high school and attending college in much higher numbers, and were far less likely to be involved in crime or become a teen parent themselves.
http://hechingerreport.org/preschools-hidden-value-may-combating-poverty/
"There's just so little appetite for this on Capitol Hill and even within the White House," Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, says. "This shift is a sign that DeVos is acknowledging that it's not going to happen."
The Evolution of Betsy DeVos
The education secretary came in as a federal private school choice champion. What happened?
US News by By Lauren Camera, Education Reporter | Oct. 2, 2017, at 5:36 p.m.
In her most resolute wording to date, the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said that the federal government should not create a new private school choice program – a far cry from where she stood on that issue upon her confirmation eight months ago. "I wholeheartedly believe the future of choice does not begin with a new federal mandate from Washington," she said Sept. 28 during a speech at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "That might sound counterintuitive to some, coming from the U.S. Secretary of Education," DeVos said. "But after eight months in Washington – and three decades working in states – I know if Washington tries to mandate 'choice,' all we'll end up with is a mountain of mediocrity, a surge of spending and a bloat of bureaucracy to go along with it." The slow slide to this new reality comes after months of political pushback from both sides of the aisle to directing any new federal funding toward private school choice, a chorus of conservative education policy experts voicing their concerns over such a program opening up private schools to federal oversight, and a more realistic understanding of what's possible to achieve given the political landscape.
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-10-02/the-evolution-of-betsy-devos-and-private-school-choice
State Chiefs: We Won't Walk Away From Disadvantaged Groups Under ESSA
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson Klein on October 2, 2017 7:33 PM
Washington When the Every Student Succeeds Act passed in 2015, there was widespread worry that states would walk away from making sure that particular groups of students—English-language learners, students in special education, and racial minorities—mattered in their school accountability systems. Now that pretty much every state has filed its plan to implement the law have those fears become the reality? States are working to make sure that's not the case, said several state chiefs who spoke on a panel here moderated by Chris Minnich, the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. (Some advocates are skeptical—more on that below.) Kirsten Baesler, the state superintendent in North Dakota, believes that advocates in her state, and other district leaders, will make sure that everyone is pushing to make sure the lowest-performing schools and students get better. "Peers hold peers responsible," she said. "They aren't going to let us dismiss any subgroup. ... We embrace this, we want this, all means all." Pedro Rivera, the secretary of education in Pennsylvania, noted that his system will give credit both for student achievement and growth, as well as factors that tend to hit students in poverty more heavily than others, such as chronic absenteeism.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/10/state_chiefs_essa_testing_subgroups.html
“Support for charter proliferation goes hand-in-hand with a lack of support for adequate and equitable public school funding.”
Education "Reform" Is a Right-Wing Movement
Jersey Jazzman Blog Monday, October 2, 2017
One of the perils of "success" is that it opens you up to increased scrutiny. Just ask Eva Moskowitz, the founder of the "successful" Success Academies chain of charter schools. Her constant self-promotion was nothing less than an open invitation to the press and others to take a look at how her schools achieved their "success." Sure enough, a hard look at SA reveals disturbing disciplinary practices, a highly questionable curriculum, huge resource advantages (gained by appealing to wealthy donors and by wage "free riding" on public district schools), a distinctly different student population compared to neighboring public district schools, and patterns of significant student cohort attrition. In other words: the "success" of Success Academies is largely attributable to the chain's ability to game the system. There's just no evidence Moskowitz and her staff have found any innovative, let alone scalable, methods to improve schooling for urban students. But more recent scrutiny of SA has revealed something else: Moskowitz's financial patrons are much more closely aligned with the far political right than the current "reform" narrative would like us to believe.
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2017/10/education-reform-is-right-wing-movement.html
Reclaiming Our Democracy: The Pennsylvania Conference to End Gerrymandering
Saturday, October 14th, 2017 | 9:00am-5:00pm Harrisburg, PA
Crowne Plaza Harrisburg-Hershey 23 S 2nd St. Harrisburg, PA
Join us for a one-day redistricting conference in Harrisburg for volunteers, supporters, academics, press and legislators. Gubernatorial candidates, legislative leaders and national redistricting experts have been invited to speak about gerrymandering and the potential for reform. In the afternoon there will be breakout sessions on redistricting issues of interest, including new gerrymandering standards and details on litigation in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and other states.
https://www.fairdistrictspa.com/events/2017/10/14/reclaiming-our-democracy-the-pennsylvania-conference-to-end-gerrymandering
Our Schools at Risk: How to Stop Funding Cuts, Bensalem HS, October 3 at 7 PM - 9 PM
Public Meeting Hosted by Education Voters PA Tuesday, October 3 at 7 PM - 9 PM
Bensalem HS, North Wing Audion, 4319 Hulmeville Rd., Bensalem 19020
Learn about the threats to our public schools and how YOUR advocacy efforts can make a difference. Join Education Voters of PA to learn about how state policies and school funding are impacting your local schools and how you can come together in your communities to stand up for public school students.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1735449410093965/
Seventh Annual Pennsylvania Arts and Education Symposium, November 2, 2017 Camp Hill
The 2017 Pennsylvania Arts and Education will be held on Thursday, November 2, 2017 at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center in Camp Hill. See the agenda here.
Early Bird Registration ends September 30.
https://www.eplc.org/pennsylvania-arts-education-network/
STAY WOKE: THE INAUGURAL
NATIONAL BLACK MALE EDUCATORS CONVENING; Philadelphia Fri, Oct 13, 2017 4:00 pm
Sun, Oct 15, 2017 7:00pm
TEACHER DIVERSITY WORKS. Increasing the number of Black
male educators in our nation’s teacher corps will improve education for all our
students, especially for African-American boys.
Today Black men represent only two percent of teachers nationwide. This
is a national problem that demands a national response. Come participate in the inaugural National
Black Male Educators Convening to advance policy solutions, learn from one
another, and fight for social justice. All are welcome.
Save the Date 2017 PA Principals Association State Conference
October 14. 15, 16, 2017 Doubletree Hotel Cranberry Township, PA
Save the Date: PASA-PSBA
School Leadership Conference October 18-20, Hershey PA
Registration now open for the
67th Annual PASCD Conference Nov. 12-13
Harrisburg: Sparking Innovation: Personalized Learning, STEM, 4C's
This year's conference will begin on Sunday, November 12th
and end on Monday, November 13th. There will also be a free pre-conference on
Saturday, November 11th. You can
register for this year's conference online with a credit card payment or have
an invoice sent to you. Click here to register for the
conference.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/PASCD-Conference-Registration-is-Now-Open.html?soid=1101415141682&aid=5F-ceLtbZDs
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/PASCD-Conference-Registration-is-Now-Open.html?soid=1101415141682&aid=5F-ceLtbZDs
Registration Opens Tuesday, September 26, 2017
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