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PA Ed Policy Roundup for Oct. 23, 2019
“Pennsylvania Department of Education
Secretary Pedro Rivera is the only member of the charter appeals board whose
term has not expired.”
‘Bizarre’
circumstances have a charter school appeal stuck in limbo in Harrisburg, with
taxpayers footing the bill.
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth
Hardison October 22, 2019
On three separate
occasions since June, two teams of lawyers from Pittsburgh have traveled to
Harrisburg to argue the same exact case before a powerful state board. And on
three separate occasions, the board has told the lawyers the exact same thing:
It doesn’t have enough members to render a legitimate verdict. “We’re like Bill
Murray in Groundhog Day,” Kathryn Clark, a lawyer representing Propel Charter
Schools, said after the board’s latest vote Tuesday, referring to the movie
where Murray’s character relives the same day over and over again. “It’s a very
bizarre position to be in.” The state Charter Appeals Board, which mediates
disputes between locally elected school boards and charter schools, is
currently unable to take action on an appeal brought by the Propel Charter
School network, which wants to
consolidate 13
campuses in Pittsburgh into one entity overseen by a single board and
administration. The Pittsburgh City School District and the Pennsylvania
Department of Education both rejected Propel’s request in 2018. Propel asked
the Charter Appeals Board to overturn the decisions, and the entities have been
locked in a state of purgatory ever since.
What is the Charter School Appeal Board?
PDE Website
The Charter School
Appeal Board (CAB) consists of the Secretary of Education and six members who
are appointed by the Governor and with the consent of a majority of all the
Senate members. The members include a parent of a school-aged child, a
school board member, a certified teacher actively employed in a public school,
a faculty member or administrative employee of a higher education institution,
a member of the business community, and a member of the State Board of
Education. PDE provides assistance and staffing and the Governor’s General
Counsel provides legal advice and assistance to CAB. CAB has the exclusive
review of a decision by a local school board to deny a charter application and
of a decision by a local school board to not renew or revoke a charter.
CAB also has the exclusive review of a decision by PDE to deny a cyber charter
application and of a decision by PDE to not renew or revoke a cyber
charter. In addition, CAB has exclusive review of a direct appeal filed
by a charter applicant when the local school board fails to hold a public
hearing or timely act on a charter application and of a direct appeal filed by
a cyber charter applicant when PDE fails to hold a public hearing or timely act
on a cyber charter application.
Charter Appeal Board
Members
PDE Website
Pedro A. Rivera,
Secretary of Education, and Chair, State Charter Appeal Board, as of January
21, 2015.
Name Appointed Expires
Higher Education
Member - Vacant
Cook, Julie A., A
certified teacher in a public school* 10/14/2014 6/14/2018
Miller, Scott E.,
Business Member* 4/7/2014 6/14/2015
Munger, Lee Ann,
Parent of a school-aged child* 6/20/2011 6/14/2017
Peri, Jonathan E.,
State Board of Education Member* 6/3/2014 6/14/2017
Yanyanin, Mitchell
J., School Board Member* 6/20/2011 6/14/2015
Sara Hockenberry,
Counsel
* Appointed by Governor Corbett
Pursuant to section
1721-A of the Charter School Law, the term of office of members of the appeal
board, other than the Secretary, shall be for a period of four years or until a
successor is appointed and qualified. 24 P.S. § 17-1721-A.
Reprise Feb. 2019: State’s Charter Appeal Board still run
by Corbett appointees
This is
important for Philadelphia, where marginal charter applications are sometimes
approved for fear of costly and ultimately successful appeals to the state
board.
The notebook by Greg Windle February 11 — 11:49
am, 2019
Updated 2/14/19: The article has been updated to reflect that the Walden School is a
private school, not a charter school, and that Jonathan Peri has left the
boards of the Walden and Archbishop Ryan schools.
In his entire first
term in office, Gov. Wolf has not made one appointment to the state Charter
School Appeal Board, leaving the decision-making body in the hands of people
appointed by his predecessor, Tom Corbett. The CAB, as it is known, has the
power to reverse local school districts’ decisions to deny new charter schools
or to close them. Corbett stacked the body with members who have ties to the
state’s charter school sector. Wolf campaigned against Corbett’s education
policies, and many say this contributed to his victory. But after four years,
the CAB still consists entirely of Corbett’s appointees, who all have terms
that have expired,
two as early as 2015. The six-seat
board also has one vacancy.
NOTICES - DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Cyber Charter School
Application; Public Hearings
Pennsylvania Bulletin [49 Pa.B. 5712] [Saturday, October 5, 2019]
Pennsylvania Bulletin [49 Pa.B. 5712] [Saturday, October 5, 2019]
The Department of
Education (Department) has scheduled five dates for public hearings regarding
cyber charter school applications that it receives on or before October 1,
2019.
The hearings will
be held on November 5, 2019, November 6, 2019, November 12, 2019, November 14,
2019, and November 19, 2019, in Heritage Room A, lobby level, 333 Market
Street, Harrisburg, PA 17126, at 9 a.m. on each day.
The hearings pertain
to applicants seeking to operate a cyber charter school beginning in the
2020-2021 school year. The purpose of the hearings is to gather information
from the applicants about the proposed cyber charter schools as well as receive
comments from interested individuals regarding the applications. The names of
the applicants, copies of the applications and a listing of the dates and times
scheduled for the hearing on each application can be viewed on the Department's
web site after October 1, 2019, at www.education.pa.gov.
Individuals who
wish to provide comments on an application during the hearing must provide a
copy of their written comments to the Department and the applicant on or before
October 25, 2019. Comments provided by this deadline and presented at the
hearing will become part of the certified record. Failure to comply with this
deadline will preclude the individual from providing comments at the hearings.
Verbal comments may be limited based on the number of individuals requesting
time to provide comments and may be limited if the comments are duplicative or
repetitive of another individual's comments. Persons who are unable to attend
the hearing may provide the Department and the applicant with written comments
on or before October 25, 2019. Any written comments provided to the Department
by this deadline will also become part of the certified record.
During the public
hearing on an application, the cyber charter applicant will have 30 minutes to
present information about the proposed cyber charter school. Each hearing will
be conducted by the panel of individuals who have completed an initial review
of the application. The panel members may question the applicant on issues
identified during their review, as well as issues raised in the written
comments filed by the deadline. Panel members may also question individuals who
offer verbal comments. Commentators will not be permitted to question either
the applicant or the panel members.
Comments sent to
the Department should be addressed to the Division of Charter Schools, 333
Market Street, 3rd Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333. Hearing agendas will be
prepared after October 31, 2019, when the Department is aware of the number of
individuals who wish to provide verbal comments at each hearing. The hearing
agenda will provide the order of presentation, as well as specify the amount of
time allotted to each commentator.
Hearing agendas
will be posted under Charter School Applications on the Department's web site
at http://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-Applications.aspx.
For questions
regarding these hearings, contact the Division of Charter Schools at
ra-charterschools@pa.gov.
Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Department of Education Cyber Charter Application 2019
Virtual Prep
Academy of Pennsylvania
The Offline
Implications Of The Research About Online Charter Schools
The Albert Shanker
Institute by Matthew Di
Carlo -- February 27, 2019
It’s rare to find
an educational intervention with as unambiguous a research track record as
online charter schools. Now, to be clear, it’s not a large body of research by
any stretch, its conclusions may change in time, and the online charter
sub-sector remains relatively small and concentrated in a few states. For now,
though, the results seem incredibly bad (Zimmer et al. 2009; Woodworth et
al. 2015). In
virtually every state where these schools have been studied, across virtually
all student subgroups, and in both reading and math, the estimated impact of
online charter schools on student testing performance is negative and large in
magnitude. Predictably, and not without justification, those who oppose charter
schools in general are particularly vehement when it comes to online charter
schools – they should, according to many of these folks, be closed down, even outlawed.
Charter school supporters, on the other hand, tend to acknowledge the negative
results (to their credit) but make less drastic suggestions, such as
greater oversight, including selective closure, and stricter authorizing
practices. Regardless of your opinion on what to do about online charter
schools’ poor (test-based) results, they are truly an interesting phenomenon
for a few reasons.
Pennsylvania seniors
should be first to benefit if school property taxes are cut, Senate Democrats
say
By FORD TURNER THE MORNING CALL | OCT 22, 2019 | 9:40 PM
Senate Democrats
meeting behind closed doors Tuesday came to informal agreement that senior
citizens should be the first group to benefit from any reduction or elimination
of school property taxes, according to state Sen. Judy Schwank. “Everybody
agreed that something has to be done,” the Berks County Democrat said of the
discussion in the Democratic Senate caucus meeting Tuesday afternoon. Her
comments came before the start of a Tuesday evening property tax town hall
meeting in Berks County was arranged by a local real estate company. Hundreds
of people attended that session and had the chance to ask questions of Schwank
and six other lawmakers from both parties.
They included state Sen. David Argall. The Schuylkill County Republican
leads an informal working group of lawmakers from both parties and both
chambers of the General Assembly, including Schwank, that has been meeting
since midsummer to seek agreement on the property tax issue. School property
taxes raise more than $14 billion annually to fund districts across
Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania state lawmakers are hiding millions in
campaign spending. And it’s all legal.
by Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA and Mike
Wereschagin, Brad Bumsted, Paula Knudsen and Sam Janesch of The Caucus, Updated: October
22, 2019
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia
Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/The
Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter.
A stone’s throw
from the Salzburg Cathedral in the baroque Austrian city stands the St. Peter
Stiftskulinarium restaurant, a 1,200-year-old icon partially carved into a rock
face. Inside, the chefs serve up pumpkin dumplings with wild broccoli, venison
with king oyster mushroom, and beef tartare with fig and summer truffle. The
restaurant touts itself as the oldest in Europe and is said to have been
visited by Christopher Columbus and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. On a warm, late
September day in 2016, the chefs served another dignitary of sorts: Joe
Scarnati, the most powerful lawmaker in the Pennsylvania Senate. Scarnati was
43 days from reelection and 4,300 miles from his constituents in his rural
district along Pennsylvania’s northern tier. But records show the $246 bill was
charged to his campaign credit card. So were other stops on his European trip,
including in Germany, where he dropped $1,295 on lodging, and in Belgium, where
he spent $152 at an Italian restaurant near Bruges’ historic city center. Under
Pennsylvania election law, campaign accounts must be used for “influencing the
outcome of an election.” But what qualifies is largely open to interpretation.
For Scarnati, a Jefferson County Republican with enormous influence over how
tax dollars are spent, it’s the kind of dining on someone else’s dime that
might have given voters pause — had they known about it.
by Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA and Sam
Janesch of The Caucus, Updated: October 22, 2019- 6:01 PM
Spotlight
PA is an
independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in
partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter.
The same day an
investigation revealed how
Pennsylvania state lawmakers hide millions of dollars in campaign spending from
public scrutiny, the
Legislature advanced a measure that would make it even harder to hold them
accountable. The investigation, published Tuesday by The Caucus and Spotlight PA, found lawmakers
use credit cards, gift cards and self-reimbursements to shield sometimes lavish
campaign spending. Expenses
included pricey dinners, foreign trips, sports tickets, a country club
membership, and even a DNA test kit. None of those items was included in
publicly available campaign finance reports. They were brought to light only
after reporters used a little-known provision of state election law that
requires campaigns to keep “vouchers,” or receipts, for the past three years
and make them available upon request. But hours after the investigation
debuted, lawmakers quietly tucked a new provision into a lengthy voting reform
bill that could make it even harder for the public to access those expenses.
The change would remove oversight from the Department of State and leave it up
to politicians to respond to requests.
Mystery trip to Europe with ‘donors’ by Pa. state
senators followed expansion of wine law
Penn Live By Angela Couloumbis, Brad Bumsted
and Sam Janesch | Spotlight PA and The Caucus Today 5:00 AM
Spotlight
PA is an
independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by PennLive/The Patriot-News, The
Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter.
In the waning days
of summer 2016, just weeks after major legislation expanded Pennsylvania wine
sales, three state senators — including the chairman of the Senate committee
that regulates liquor laws — embarked on a European trip with campaign donors. The
leader of the state Senate, Joe Scarnati, along with former Republican Sens.
Chuck McIlhinney and Richard Alloway, arrived in London on Sept. 20 and made
stops in Belgium and Austria before ending up in Munich, during Oktoberfest. The
cost of the trip, totaling at least $15,300, was uncovered as part of a
year-long investigation by The Caucus and Spotlight PA that examined how Pennsylvania’s most powerful state lawmakers have
obscured details of how and where they spend their campaign money.
Going to school in Kensington amid drug crisis: ‘We need
to be beacons of hope’
WHYY By Joel Wolfram October 22, 2019 Listen 4:47
How do we help
children thrive and stay healthy in today’s world? Check out our Modern Kids series for more stories.
In a conference
room at Lewis Elkin Elementary School, principal Charlotte Maddox stood at a
laptop, flipping through photos that she projected on a screen in front of her
— pictures of things not typically associated with grade school. Used
syringes collected in a jar. A man sprawled unconscious on the playground. The
shattered window of a teacher’s car, which had been hit by a stray
bullet. Slide after slide collected images of a school under siege by the
opioid crisis. Beginning at 6 a.m. each school day, Maddox explained, custodial
staff and a school police officer scour the school grounds, dispersing homeless
people who spend the night there, picking up discarded syringes, and sometimes
cleaning up human feces. Elkin Elementary is in Philadelphia’s Kensington
neighborhood, where children step over discarded needles and see people
injecting drugs on a daily basis. Schools at the epicenter of the city’s opioid
crisis struggle to insulate themselves from the problems outside their walls,
while also working to help kids cope with the emotional trauma they carry
inside.
Lehigh Valley school
districts order internet hot spots: ‘It’s not a nice to have, it’s a need to
have’
By MICHELLE MERLIN THE MORNING CALL | OCT 21, 2019 | 6:51 AM
For students in
several Lehigh Valley schools, internet access is supposed to be easy as
checking out a library book. Over the last few years, school districts have
been ordering internet hot spots that students can check out and use to access
the internet for homework. District officials say the devices are meant to
reduce the gap between families with internet at home and those without. The gap
is highlighted as districts move to a 1:1 model, in which there’s one device
for every student, and students can access reading, workbooks and other
materials online. Saucon Valley is the latest school district to start a hot
spot program. School board members signed off on it at their meeting Oct. 8,
and officials expect to roll it out soon. They entered into a two-year
agreement with Verizon for hot spots called Kajeet SmartSpot devices. The
district will get 30 of the Kajeets and split the cost of the program with the
company. The district will pay about $9,200. The district sent an online survey
to families and learned about 30 didn’t have regular access to reliable
internet, said Pam Dobson, the technology integration coach at Saucon Valley. “Even
though we were sending devices home, we weren’t addressing what internet
connectivity they have, which contributes to the homework divide,” she said.
“Internet is the 21st century utility. It’s not a nice to have, it’s a need to
have.”
Indiana County tries to keep up, but lack of internet
access stymies schools, businesses
BY KRIS B. MAMULA |
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE OCTOBER 20, 2019
In September, teachers in the Purchase Line School District in Indiana
County passed out electronic notebooks to seventh and eighth graders to
introduce them to the digital age. District high school students are scheduled
to get the Chromebooks next year. But the students are not allowed to take
their computers home. Although the school district buildings are wired with the
latest computer gear and broadband access thanks to $1 million in investments
over the past three years, about half of the system’s 850 students don’t have
an internet connection at home. That means teachers can’t assign homework that
requires going online. For many Indiana County students, the internet’s promise
as a learning tool goes dark when schools close for the day. “We live in the
dark ages,” said Purchase Line School Board member Ray Kauffman, 46, who lives
in Mahaffey, a village where the local fire hall is heated with firewood and
coal and where his family’s internet connection is spotty.
“Under California’s new law, middle schools can’t start classes until 8 a.m. and high
school until 8:30. Some rural schools are exempted. Schools have three years to
make the changes.”
Starting High School at 8:30? California's Doing It.
Should Everyone?
Education Week By Arianna Prothero October 21, 2019
California’s bold
move to mandate later start times for middle and high schools could produce
ripple effects far beyond the state, even as it’s yet to be seen whether
pushing back start times on such a large scale will deliver major benefits for
teenagers and for schools. While health experts generally agree that getting
adequate amounts of sleep is crucial to teens’ still-developing brains, the
research on whether starting school later actually translates into more
sleep—and better academic performance—is far from settled. But there may be
further-reaching benefits beyond higher test scores. While school
administrators have generally balked at the costs associated with starting
school later, one recent study estimates that doing so across the country could
add billions of dollars to the economy.
Wake up, Pennsylvania: Teens need more sleep, later
school start times | Opinion
Inquirer by Lawrence
Brown Updated: October
21, 2019 - 11:18 AM
Dr. Lawrence W.
Brown is a pediatric neurologist and sleep medicine physician at the Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia and Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at
the Perelman School of Medicine. He represented the PA chapter of the American
Academy of Pediatrics on the Advisory Committee on Later School Start Times at
Secondary Schools to the PA Joint State Government Commission.
Teenagers’ sleep
time has been declining for over a center. A recent national study found that
only one-fourth of middle and high school students get the nightly 8-to-10
hours of sleep that is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Sleep
Foundation. The
outcome is a sleepy generation whose academics and health are suffering
unnecessarily. One major step that some high schools are beginning to take that
can make a difference is simply delaying school start time. The biology of
adolescents has shown that their bodies want a later bedtime and later arousal
than is true of either younger children or adults. Many studies clearly demonstrate that delaying school start time not only
results in significantly increased sleep time, but many other benefits-- from
increased alertness to decreased lateness and absenteeism, better grades, less
anxiety and depression, fewer car accidents and even fewer sports concussions. While
delaying the school bell to at least 8:30 a.m. to accommodate teens’ delayed
biological clock is not the whole answer, it is one potential and realistic
answer to the problem, as recommended first by the American Academy of
Pediatrics in 2014 and subsequently by many other organizations. It isn’t just smart, it is a public health issue. For the past eight
months an advisory committee to the state legislature, has been studying how to
implement later high school starts. Last week the Advisory Committee on Later
School Start Times at Secondary Schools to the Pennsylvania Joint State
Government Commission issued its report.
Letter From the
Editor: The world comes to Upper Darby, in more ways than one
By Phil Heron
pheron@delcotimes.com @philheron on Twitter October 21, 2019
I’m going to go out
on a limb here and guess it was not the best of weeks for Dan McGarry and the
Upper Darby School District. That’s what happens when an incident that happened
in one of your school parking lots makes its way to the network news. That’s right,
McGarry, the youthful Upper Darby superintendent, went from fielding calls from
the Daily Times to being asked for comment from the CBS Evening News and CNN. What
started as an unfortunate fender-bender in the parking lot of the Drexel Hill
Middle School exploded into national news when one of those involved – who just
happens to be a teacher at the school – unloads on the other driver, the parent
of a student, in a racially charged diatribe. She was white. He was
African-American. Of course it was captured by the parent on his cell phone
video. Isn’t everything these days? The parent posted the ugly incident to his
Facebook feed. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. It’s the social
media-drenched world we live in today. As soon as I saw the video, I knew what
was going to happen next. The softball-sized rock I carry around in my gut each
day was going to get a little bigger. So I can only imagine what was happening
in McGarry’s intestines. To his credit, McGarry never flinched. He didn’t put
the wagons in a circle and offer the standard “the district is aware of the
incident and it is under investigation.” Instead, McGarry took a different
tack. He took an awful moment, one drenched in racial invective, one that had
the ability to drive a divisive wedge through the heart of the school
community, and used it as a teachable moment.
Community Briefs:
Chester Charter School awarded $775,000 Grant from U.S. Department of Justice
Delco Times by Peg DeGrassa
pdegrassa@21st-centurymedia.com @PeggyDe5 on Twitter October 22, 2019
CHESTER — Chester
Community Charter School (CCCS) has been awarded a $775,000 grant by the U.S.
Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
CCCS is one of only
eight grantees across the United States to receive this award, and the
only public charter school. The grant will fund a project called “A
Violence-Free School.” Goals of the project will include improving CCCS’s
safety and social climate, and preventing student violence, delinquency, and
victimization. Mental health services will be offered to help students cope
with personal problems that inhibit learning, and peer-to-peer support
activities and restorative practices will be used to engage alienated youth. The
city of Chester has the second highest murder rate in the U.S., as well as a
three times greater rate of poverty than the rest of the country. Some 95% of
CCCS students are low-income, and 99% are members of minority groups. The “A
Violence-Free School” project has the goal of improving academic achievement
levels and socio-emotional personal skills, thereby giving the children of the
CCCS community a greater opportunity to change their community and their
circumstances. The project also aims to improve attendance rates, decrease
violence-related suspensions, and foster a greater sense of belonging among
students.
Blogger note: Vahan Gureghian and his
attorney wife, Danielle are the principles in CSMI, which manages Chester
Community Charter, the state's largest brick and mortar charter. PA's right to
know laws do not apply for charter management companies. Are these our tax
dollars?
Biggest off-season Palm Beach real estate deals,
including $105M record-setter
$40.87 million, 1071 N. Ocean Blvd.: This never-lived-in Palm Beach mansion sold in July for a price
recorded at $40.87 million, although the sellers, businessman Vahan Gureghian
and his attorney wife, Danielle, said the amount that changed hands was $43.42
million. An entity named Reiwa LLC was the buyer. Broker Lawrence Moens of
Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented the buyer opposite a listing team from
Douglas Elliman Real Estate comprising agents Ashley McIntosh, Gary Pohrer and
Vince Spadea.
Attending Hallahan changed my life, but it wasn’t perfect
Reflecting
on the lessons of an integrated Catholic high school in the 1960s.
The notebook by Eileen
McCafferty DiFranco Commentary October 22 — 2:51
pm, 2019
Earlier this month,
Philadelphia school officials were forced to
scramble and
temporarily relocate about 1,000 students from Science Leadership Academy and
Benjamin Franklin High School due to an incomplete and troubled construction
project. One of the alternate sites they considered was an unoccupied wing of
Hallahan High School, a Catholic girls’ school located a few blocks away.
Alarmed alumnae circulated a
petition, which
quickly gathered hundreds of signatures, protesting the presence of “public
school students” in the building. The District ultimately chose other sites.
“O Girls of
Hallahan High” I wish I could recall all of the words of our school song, which
begins: “Let a flood tide of song from our hearts pour along, O girls of the
Hallahan High.” But it will be 50 years in June since I left those hallowed
halls. Although I forget the words to the song, I do remember the four years I
spent at the school because my experience at Hallahan made me the person I am
today. While cities throughout the nation were violently protesting school
integration, way back in 1970, Hallahan was a peacefully integrated urban
school. This peaceful integration occurred not because of any farsightedness on
the part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It occurred because happenstance,
geographic proximity, and socioeconomics – with a little religion thrown in for
good measure – brought African American, Caucasian, Asian American, and Latino
girls together as classmates.
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2019/10/22/attending-hallahan-changed-my-life-but-it-wasnt-perfect/
These Philly seniors
are making the most out of high school, prepping for their futures
By Chanel Hill Special to the
Capital-Star October 22, 2019
PHILADELPHIA — Saffiyah Franklin and
Cira Diop knows firsthand the importance of hard work. Both seniors at George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and
Science, they’ve have mastered success both inside the classroom and out. Safiyyah
has been going to Carver for four years. Since being a student at Carver, she
has kept a busy schedule. “During my freshman year, I started participating in
a lot of different programs,” Safiyyah said. “It was good because I was able to
be mentored by the seniors. They taught me a lot of things early on. I’m the
captain of the Gear Girls robotics team. This is my fourth year participating
in that. “I do ACE (architecture, construction, and engineering), which is a
city-wide thing where we go to different architecture, construction, and
engineering firms,” she added. “I do Women of Tomorrow in school, which is like
a mentoring group that does a lot of community things in the school. I’m in
National Honor Society and I recently joined the Scrabble team. My overall
experience at the school has been really good.” Safiyyah said that once she
graduates from high school, she wants to college for engineering.
Sixers’ Tobias Harris gives $1 million to education
philanthropies
More than
$600,000 of the total is to groups in Philadelphia
The notebook by Dale Mezzacappa October 22 — 9:59
pm, 2019
Philadelphia 76ers
forward Tobias Harris is interested in educational justice and in giving back
to his adopted home. Tuesday, at a glitzy event dubbed Tobias Community Draft
2019, he gave away $1 million to nine organizations, including three in
Philadelphia that collectively received $625,000 of the total. His focus is on
promoting literacy and supporting excellent teaching. Among the recipients were
the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, which received $100,000; the
city’s Read by 4th campaign, which received $200,000, and the Center for Black
Educator Development, which received $300,000. Team Up Philly, a nonprofit that
works to empower girls, received $25,000. Among the other organizations that
received money include the fund supporting schools in Orange County, FL, where
he previously played for the Orlando Magic. Harris, who is 27 years old and
signed a $180 million contract with the Sixers last summer, has directed his
philanthropic endeavors toward helping underserved communities, focusing on
literacy and on supporting teachers and the teaching profession.
WEEK 7: JASON KELCE’S EAGLES EDUCATION SEASON
Each week this season, the Super Bowl-winning
offensive lineman compares Philly schools to those of our on-field
competitors—and celebrates a local education innovation. This week, he looks at
Dallas
Philadelphia
Citizen BY JASON KELCE
It was a perfectly
blue-sky day, and as the sun shone down on the National Constitution Center (NCC), you could hear the unbridled laughter and high-pitched
squeals of 3,500 students: They’d descended upon the sprawling campus in Old
City in honor of National Constitution Day, September 17. “That’s the sound of learning,” said School
District of Philadelphia Superintendent William Hite. He was there for the
celebration, and for an announcement about a groundbreaking program I think is
super cool: NCC just rolled out an awesome (and, rest assured, totally
nonpartisan), free tool called Interactive Constitution: Classroom Edition, that allows classrooms all around the country to interact with each
other to discuss Constitutional issues via video chat, with the guidance of
judges and master teachers. There are also videos, podcasts, lesson plans and a
neat feature called the Drafting Table, which lets students explore early
drafts of the Constitutional text. So, for example, classrooms in Dallas, where
we’ll be playing this weekend, can dive into conversations with classrooms
right here in Philly. Students can get out of their silos, and be exposed to
different viewpoints. It’s just a really cool way to bring the Constitution
into the classroom, and connect students to our country’s legislation.
Millions of your tax dollars have disappeared into NJ's
flawed charter school experiment
Jean Rimbach, and Abbott Koloff, North Jersey
Record Updated 5:52 p.m. EDT July 15, 2019
A series in five parts
CASHING IN ON CHARTER SCHOOLS: PART ONE
NJ taxpayers are spending hundreds of
millions of dollars to construct and renovate charter school buildings, but the
public doesn't own them.
School buildings
that are paid for with millions of dollars in public money but owned by private
groups.
Inflated rents,
high interest rates and unexplained costs borne by taxpayers.
And tax dollars
used to pay rents that far exceed the debt on some school buildings.
This is the world
of charter school real estate in New Jersey.
Where public money
can disappear in a maze of intertwined companies.
Where businesses
and investors can turn a profit at taxpayer expense.
And where decisions
about millions in tax dollars are made privately, with little public input and
little to no oversight by multiple state agencies.
Elizabeth Warren
Unveils Education Plan To Fight Segregation And High-Stakes Testing
The sweeping
plan also takes aim at charters, suggesting they divert precious resources away
from traditional public schools.
Huffington Post By Rebecca
Klein10/21/2019 09:00 am
ET
Presidential
candidate Sen. Elizabeth
Warren (D-Mass.)
released a sweeping K-12 education plan Monday, unveiling proposals designed to chip away at school
segregation, beat back high-stakes testing and crack down on charter schools. The
detailed plan also seeks to equalize school funding between low and high-income
areas and decrease the influence of police in schools. It proposes a new
education grant program funded at a whopping $100 billion over 10 years — the
equivalent of $1 million for every school in the country — for schools to use
on programs or resources of their choice. Her plan would be paid for by a
wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million. In recent months, Warren’s views of
K-12 education have been a source of source of speculation and scrutiny. Soon after
announcing a run for the presidency, she unveiled an expansive college and child care plan. But she
disclosed fewer details on her plans for K-12, touching on an opposition to
charter schools and pledging to appoint a public school teacher as the U.S.
secretary of education. However, her newly released plan is extensive, taking
direct aim at some of the most entrenched sources of inequality in K-12
education.
Elizabeth Warren calls for billions of new dollars to
reform pre-K-12 schools and fight privatization. Here’s how she plans to pay
for it.
Washington Post Answer
Sheet By Valerie Strauss Oct. 21, 2019 at 5:15 p.m. EDT
(Update: Comment from charter school
supporters)
Democratic
presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) unveiled a broad plan Monday
that calls for spending hundreds of billions of dollars to improve public
schools from prekindergarten through 12th grade. She wants America’s wealthiest
people to pay for it. Her plan also would eliminate use of test scores for
high-stakes decisions and end federal funding for new charter schools Warren, who in some recent polls has topped
the other 18 candidates running for the Democratic nomination, would steer U.S.
education policy away from that of President Trump and Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos, who have said their priority is expanding alternatives to
traditional public schools. “To keep our traditional public school systems
strong, we must resist efforts to divert public funds out of traditional public
schools,” Warren said in the plan. She pointed to charter schools, which are
publicly funded but privately operated (and which Warren once supported), and
to DeVos-backed voucher and tuition tax-credit programs that use public money
for private and religious school education. “We should fight back against the
privatization, corporatization, and profiteering in our nation’s schools,” she
said in her plan, which was applauded by the leaders of the two major teachers
unions.
Testing Resistance
& Reform News: October 16 - 22, 2019
Submitted by
fairtest on October 22, 2019 - 12:32pm
Victories -- both
large and small-- in many states paint a bright picture for the grassroots
assessment reform movement. As a momentous election season draws near,
politicians will be paying even more attention to the concerns of their
constituents. Parents, students, educators and community activists need
to make sure policy makers know you want them to end standardized testing
misuse and overuse.
'Backpack Full of
Cash' Screening Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 5 – 7:30 pm St. Joseph’s
University
Narrated by Matt
Damon, this feature-length documentary explores the growing privatization of
public schools and the resulting impact on America's most vulnerable children.
Filmed in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Nashville and other cities, it takes
viewers through the tumultuous 2013-14 school year, exposing the world of
education "reform" where public education - starved of resources-
hangs in the balance.
Film Screening: PERSONAL STATEMENT with director Julie
Dressner Penn C89 Sat, November 9, 2019, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM EST
Location: Zellerbach
Theatre, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia,
PA 19104
Please join us for
a free screening and panel discussion of PERSONAL STATEMENT. This award-winning
documentary film created by a Penn alumna features three inspirational high
school seniors who are working as college counselors in their schools and are determined
to get their entire classes to college, even though they are not sure they are
going to make it there themselves. Screening will be followed by a panel
discussion with director Julie Dressner (C’89), cast member Enoch Jemmott,
Netter Center founding director Dr. Ira Harkavy (C'70 GR'79), and others. Free
and open to the public! (Registration strongly encouraged but not required.)
FOR TEACHERS:
Whatever your math objective may be, we have something to fit your goals,
passion, and schedule!
The Barnes Foundation
Website
The Barnes
Foundation partners with the School District of Philadelphia (pre-K and grades
3, 5, and 7), Catholic schools in the Delaware Valley (grades 5 and 7), and
Camden Catholic Partnership Schools (grade 3) to provide free in-depth
programming to schools. Students receive two one-hour outreach lessons with a
Barnes educator in their classroom, before and after a field trip to the Barnes
Foundation. These programs include materials, busing, and admission.
Career, Trades &
Labor Apprenticeship Fair Saturday • October 26, 10 a.m.– 2 p.m.
Delaware County
Intermediate Unit (DCIU) Marple Education Center • 85 N. Malin Road • Broomall,
PA
Sponsors: Senator
Kearney’s Office, Delco AFL-CIO and DCIU
This event will be
open to students from grades 8 – 12, along with their parents and guardians. We
are also inviting school administrators and teachers, local businesses and
trades, and all community stakeholders who are interested in preparing today’s
students for tomorrow’s opportunities. The 26th Senate District
has a wide range of career, technical, and labor apprenticeship training
programs for young people seeking careers in growing fields where they can earn
living wages and, in some cases, even Associate degrees during their training.
We hope to connect students with these opportunities and to build new
relationships between everyone invested in our young people’s educational and
career paths. Please RSVP no later than October 25, 2019. You can RSVP online
at https://www.senatorkearney.com/apprenticeship-fair/ or by contacting Gina Curry, my Constituent Relations
Associate, at Gina.Curry@pasenate.com or
610-352-3409 (ext. 222). We look forward to seeing you at the fair!
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA PA Charter
Change Website September 2019
Register now for PSBA’s
Sleep & Student Performance Webcast OCT
31, 2019 • 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 27,
2019 IN PSBA
NEWS
Our students face
many issues today, but who would have imagined sleep deprivation could be a
significant issue? The Joint State Government Commission established an
advisory committee to study the issues, benefits and options related to school
districts instituting later start times in secondary schools. Register now to hear from the executive director of the Commission, Glenn
Pasewicz, commission staff and David Hutchinson, PSBA’s appointee to the
commission, on the results of their study and work.
Adolescent Health and
School Start Times: Science, Strategies, Tactics, & Logistics
Workshop Nov 13, Exton
Join school administrators and staff, including superintendents, transportation directors, principals, athletic directors, teachers, counselors, nurses, and school board members, parents, guardians, health professionals and other concerned community members for an interactive and solutions-oriented workshop on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Join school administrators and staff, including superintendents, transportation directors, principals, athletic directors, teachers, counselors, nurses, and school board members, parents, guardians, health professionals and other concerned community members for an interactive and solutions-oriented workshop on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Clarion Hotel in
Exton, PA
The science is clear. Many middle and high school days in Pennsylvania, and across the nation, start too early in the morning. The American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other major health and education leaders agree and have issued policy statements recommending that secondary schools start no earlier than 8:30 am to allow for sleep, health, and learning. Implementing these recommendations, however, can seem daunting. Discussions will include the science of sleep and its connection to school start times, as well as proven strategies for successfully making change--how to generate optimum community support and work through implementation challenges such as bus routes, athletics, and more. Register for the workshop here: https://ssl-workshop-pa.eventbrite.com Thanks to our generous sponsors, we are able to offer early bird registration for $25, which includes a box-lunch and coffee service. Seating is limited and early bird registration ends on Friday, September 13.
For more information visit the workshop website www.startschoollater.net/workshop---pa or email contact@startschoollater.net
The science is clear. Many middle and high school days in Pennsylvania, and across the nation, start too early in the morning. The American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other major health and education leaders agree and have issued policy statements recommending that secondary schools start no earlier than 8:30 am to allow for sleep, health, and learning. Implementing these recommendations, however, can seem daunting. Discussions will include the science of sleep and its connection to school start times, as well as proven strategies for successfully making change--how to generate optimum community support and work through implementation challenges such as bus routes, athletics, and more. Register for the workshop here: https://ssl-workshop-pa.eventbrite.com Thanks to our generous sponsors, we are able to offer early bird registration for $25, which includes a box-lunch and coffee service. Seating is limited and early bird registration ends on Friday, September 13.
For more information visit the workshop website www.startschoollater.net/workshop---pa or email contact@startschoollater.net
Congress, Courts, and
a National Election: 50 Million Children’s Futures Are at Stake. Be their
champion at the 2020 Advocacy Institute.
NSBA Advocacy
Institute Feb. 2-4, 2020 Marriot Marquis, Washington, D.C.
Join school leaders
from across the country on Capitol Hill, Feb. 2-4, 2020 to influence the
legislative agenda & shape decisions that impact public schools. Check out
the schedule & more at https://nsba.org/Events/Advocacy-Institute
Register now for Network
for Public Education Action National Conference in Philadelphia March 28-29,
2020
Registration, hotel
information, keynote speakers and panels:
Any comments contained herein are my comments, alone, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other person or organization
that I may be affiliated with.
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