Started in November 2010, daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 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, charter school leaders, 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 advocacy organizations via
emails, website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
If any of your colleagues would
like to be added to the email list please have them send their name, title and
affiliation to KeystoneStateEdCoalition@gmail.com
PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 11, 2020
“While the state will be dealing with revenue challenges of its
own, it is critical that we do not shortchange Pennsylvania public school
students. Now more than ever, the General Assembly must step up by working with
the governor to ensure public schools receive not a penny less than they did in
2019-20.”
Letter to the editor: Pa. must ensure public school
funding
Letter by Kathy Chenot North Huntingdon TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday,
May 10, 2020 9:00 a.m.
It is disheartening to read in the
article “Norwin proposes 2.9% hike in school taxes” (April
21, TribLIVE) that Norwin School Board officials are being forced to raise
taxes. While covid-19-related revenue shortfalls will drive many area schools
to make difficult decisions like Norwin, we can’t ignore other important
factors — things like ballooning costs for charter school tuition and student
services. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Pennsylvania schools were
struggling to keep up with rising costs and to head off program cuts.
Pennsylvania ranks 44th in the country in the state’s share of funding for
public schools. Only about 38% of the costs of public education is covered by
the state. In order to help local districts deal with uncertain revenue and
improve outcomes for students, the General Assembly needs to step up.
“For most of the last decade, the school has consistently ranked
as one of the worst-performing schools in the state.”
Guest columnist: Cyber charter school has failed students
Pottstown Mercury Letter By Jeff Sparagana
Guest columnist May 7, 2020
Jeff Sparagana, Ed.D, is a board member of
Public Citizens for Children and Youth, https://www.pccy.org, an
advocacy group for "quality health care, child care, public education and
family stability."
In a recent article in The Mercury,
"Cyber charters offer help, but have no takers," the Agora CEO
wonders why no districts have come to them to launch their online learning
programs. The reason is obvious. No school would want to replicate Agora's
failures. The school bills itself as a strong alternative to traditional public
schools that provides students with “personalized, innovative, intensive
academic preparation that inspires and educates them to achieve their high
level of academic knowledge and skill.” For most of the last decade, the
school has consistently ranked as one of the worst-performing schools in the
state. And in 2015, Agora hit rock bottom as the lowest-performing cyber
charter school in the state and ranked 2nd from the bottom of the 475 public
school districts in the entire state. During that year, less than a third of
its 3rd graders were reading on grade level and its high school graduation rate
was less than 47%.
And while it is no longer “the worst-performing
school,” Agora’s improvements are hardly worth celebrating. In 2018, 95% of
schools were ranked higher than Agora — the Pennsylvania Department of
Education put it on a corrective action plan reserved for the poorest of all
poorly performing schools. This is a reputation it has earned. Agora’s students
score far below their peers in district schools on all measures of student
achievement. Just last school year, on the PSSA’s — Pennsylvania’s
standardized test for 3rd- 8th graders — only 32% of Agora’s students
tested at or above grade level in reading and barely 10% passed math. To make
matters worse, Agora’s abysmal graduation rate is less than 50%. For context,
the state average is about 85%. Yet, despite its appalling history and
performance, it is not only offering to “help” schools with its cyber programs,
but it is also recruiting students for next year. Every community institution
is struggling, yet continues to serve unconditionally during this crisis. Agora
Cyber Charter school’s offer to assist public school districts with online
instruction is certainly newsworthy. However, Agora has failed its students for
over a decade. The aforementioned data clearly depicts why no public school
district would ever accept help from Agora Cyber Charter school.
Over 220 school boards adopt charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 220 school boards across the state have adopted a resolution
calling for legislators to enact significant reforms to the Charter School Law
to provide funding relief and ensure all schools are held to the same quality
and ethics standards. Now more than ever, there is a growing momentum from
school officials across the state to call for charter school funding reform.
Legislators are hearing loud and clear that school districts need relief from
the unfair funding system that results in school districts overpaying millions
of dollars to charter schools.
The school boards from the following
districts have adopted resolutions calling for charter funding reform.
PSBA to testify today at Senate Education Committee
hearing on continuity of education
POSTED ON MAY 8, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
The Senate Education Committee will conduct a
public hearing on Monday, May 11 regarding school districts' work to provide to
provide education to their students during the COVID-19 health crisis. PSBA
Chief Executive Officer Nathan Mains will present testimony to the committee,
focusing on the challenges faced by districts as they quickly pivoted to
provide education and resources to students, and emphasize the need for the
continuing support of the General Assembly as districts complete this school
year and begin planning for a reopening in the fall. He will also discuss the
joint efforts of PSBA and other key education organizations to provide a series
of policy considerations, recommendations and resources related to the
reopening of schools. The hearing will be held from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and
will be available at this link: https://www.pasenategop.com/committee-activity/
“A close look at these two very different first-grade classes in
two of America’s largest cities shows how the coronavirus pandemic has done nothing to level the
playing field of American education, and instead has widened the gaps that have
always existed.”
The Class Divide: Remote Learning at 2 Schools, Private
and Public
Some private schools provide online luxury
learning during the pandemic. As many public schools struggle to adjust, the
nation’s educational gaps widen.
New York Times By Dana Goldstein May 9, 2020
For Rachel Warach’s class, the 133rd morning
of first grade, numbered on a poster board behind her, was similar to all of
the previous mornings. Her students from across Chicago spent 15 minutes
working quietly on math problems and writing in their journals. They split into
small reading groups, with Ms. Warach bouncing between them to offer feedback.
Later, there was an Earth Day discussion of “The Lorax” and a math lesson on
sorting everyday objects — rolls of tape, coins, pens — according to shape. There
was a break for lunch and recess, followed by Hebrew class. All as Oisabel
sprawled on the floor, Shira snuggled against her mom, and a father whispered
to his son, “Can you take that blanket off your head, please?” This is first
grade at a private school determined to make remote education during the
coronavirus as similar as possible to what it looked like before the pandemic.
Chicago Jewish Day School provides four hours and 15 minutes of daily live
instruction, including yoga, art and music. Students even do messy baking
projects over Zoom, with parents as sous chefs.
It bears little resemblance to the more
typical experience that Jacob Rios is having in Philadelphia, where he attends
first grade at a public school, Spruance Elementary.
Jacob did not see his teacher via video
screen until late April; the district spent the first several weeks of the
shutdown focused on training staff members to use remote teaching tools,
distributing laptops to students and getting meals to low-income families,
which make up a majority of the district’s population. Now Jacob’s teacher,
Dolores Morris, meets with her students each morning for an hour — Jacob’s only
live video instruction, according to his mother. About 11 of the 26 students in
the class attend daily, Ms. Morris said.
“K12 serves 120,000 public school students nationwide; its CEO
Davis made $9.7 million in salary and benefits in 2019. By comparison, Seattle
Public Schools serves about 52,000 students in a single city; its
superintendent Denise Juneau earned about $300,000 plus
benefits this school year.”
Parents gamble on virtual schools amid coronavirus
closures. Who stands to gain?
By Hannah Furfaro Seattle
Times staff reporter May 10, 2020 at 6:00 am
The Riccitti family had a small window of
time to make the switch. So they did.
When Washington schools closed in mid-March, Colleen
Riccitti decided to withdraw her three children from the Kent School
District. Her children’s teachers had no immediate plan to continue
instruction, Riccitti said, calling the moment “chaotic at best.” She soon
found an alternative in Washington Virtual Academies (WAVA), one of the state’s
largest public virtual schools — and one that was accepting new students, even
in the middle of the school year. And like other public schools,
enrollment was free. “It was a no-brainer to try to enroll them right away so
they didn’t really miss anything,” Riccitti said. Hundreds of families are
turning to these schools, some in fear their children will slip backward as
school building closures drag into summer. Virtual
schools were poised to step in. And they have. Like traditional schools,
virtual programs are paid for by taxpayers. This includes schools managed by
for-profit companies: WAVA is one of two virtual schools here operated by
Virginia-based K12 Inc. The publicly traded company is a titan in the
for-profit online education world. It runs about 70 online schools in 30
states, and has about 120,000 full-time students in its public programs.
Teaching through coronavirus: Philly’s star educators,
winners of Lindback prizes, tell all
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, May 11,
2020
Kathryn Harris is a great teacher — so
remarkable, in fact, that she was just named to a list of Philadelphia’s best
educators. But when the coronavirus turned the world upside down, forcing
districts across the country to figure out remote instruction, fast, Harris
found herself in an odd position: not quite sure how best to reach the seventh
graders she teaches at Olney Elementary. In the classroom, she thrives on
discussion and on inspiring students to think deeply, and teaching feels
instinctive and joyous. In many ways, online education “is the opposite of
everything I like about my job; it feels alienating,” Harris said. So when
she’s connecting with students in real time in Google Meet, “I’m as excited as
they are. I’m waving, I’m saying: ‘Don’t hide your screen! Let me see your
face, I want to see you!’” Harris said. Harris is among 60 top Philadelphia
School District educators just awarded the 2020 Lindback Foundation Distinguished Teaching
prize, a $3,500 award given annually to
excellent district teachers selected by school officials and Lindback trustees.
Seven principals also were cited for awards. As the Philadelphia School
District ends its first week of remote instruction of new material, The
Inquirer asked Harris and two other Lindback winners about how their jobs have
changed because of the coronavirus, what complications their students face, and
how education might be different going forward.
‘I just don’t have the bandwidth’: Parents struggle to
‘do it all’ with kids in virtual school
WHYY By Miles
Bryan May 11, 2020
They say there’s success in routine. But what
happens when all that’s normal has gone out the window? Parents across America
have been learning the hard way, as the coronavirus
shutdown has forced most everyone to adapt.
Joys, yes, they are there too. But the headaches are real — especially when it
comes to school. With kids’ classrooms replaced by the kitchen table or living
room couch, many parents have been reluctantly drafted into a new role:
teacher’s assistant. For two months now, Pennsylvania parents able to work from
home have juggled jobs and domestic duties with overseeing their kids’ attempts
at remote learning. ‘Essential’ workers unable to stay home have faced
different challenges: trying to keep tabs on their children through text
messages and calls at break-time. In both cases, the added burdens can often
make parents feel stressed, overwhelmed and inadequate. Keystone Crossroads
checked in with mothers — who continue to do the majority of domestic
work — from across the Philadelphia
region on how they’re handling distance learning.
A strange, disrupted time for high school, college
seniors
Bucks County Courier Times By Chris
English @CourierEnglish May 11,
2020
They’re hanging in there and trying to make
the best of a bad situation, but high school and college seniors can’t help but
think they’re being cheated out of one of life’s milestones. Forced away from
their schools, friends and classmates by the coronavirus pandemic, Class of
2020 members are also dealing with their much anticipated graduation ceremonies
being either canceled or stuck in limbo. To lessen that sadness at least a
little, special graduation drive-bys have been held. On May 2, friends, family
and neighbors of Temple University senior Julia Tosti drove by her Bristol
Township home in a caravan of more than 50 vehicles, honking their horns,
yelling and showing off congratulatory signs. They also stopped to offer cards,
gifts, cupcakes and well wishes, all while wearing masks and social distancing.
No hugs, no hand shakes, but a lot of love.
Want to avoid a cruel summer for Pa. students? Start by
closing the digital divide | Janel Myers and Fletcher McClellan
By Janel Myers and Fletcher McClellan Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor May 6, 2020
Janel Myers holds an undergraduate degree in
political science and a master’s of public policy degree from Elizabethtown
College in Elizabethtown, Pa. Opinion contributor Fletcher McClellan is a
political science professor at Elizabethtown College. His work appears biweekly
on the Capital-Star’s Commentary Page. Follow him on Twitter @McCleleF.
At this time in most school years, teachers
are struggling to maintain the attention of their summer-dazed students. This
year, teachers have an additional layer of challenges as both they and their
students navigate remote learning. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 46 states have
extended their initial school closures for the remainder of the academic year.
In addition, Pennsylvania and several other states are
exploring the possibility of extending the closure beyond this spring. While
the move to online learning protects both student and employee safety, it has
brought into question issues of access and long-term attainment.
More than the three R’s: Midland students learn
compassion, empathy during COVID-19
Beaver County Times By Daveen
Rae Kurutz @DK_NewsData and @DKreports Posted
May 10, 2020 at 3:31 PM
MIDLAND — There’s more to education than
reading, writing and ’rithmetic. While students have been keeping up on math
and language arts lessons from home, teachers at Midland School District have
been making sure their students learn a bit about compassion and empathy.
Students have sent hundreds of letters to front-line essential workers, ranging
from doctors and nurses at area hospitals to grocery workers to police officers
and firefighters. “They’ve done a remarkable at making lemonade here,” said
Superintendent Sean Tanner. “They are surely making the best out of a bad
situation and making some freshly squeezed lemonade.” Students have been
homebound since March 13 when Gov. Tom Wolf closed schools across the state,
ultimately for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. Teachers have had to
get innovative, Tanner said, between adapting lessons from the classroom to
online and finding ways to keep children engaged from afar. Numerous teachers
have taken the opportunity to teach about why some people still have to go to
work when others have to stay home, Tanner said. While some essential workers —
doctors, nurses, first responders — are obvious to students, teachers are
sharing stories with their students about other frontline worker. Teachers have
taken advantage of the opportunity to teach children about being part of a
community, said Nicki Poland, a third-grade teacher at Midland.
Administrator: Teachers are portrayed inaccurately during
coronavirus pandemic
York Daily Record Opinion by Edward Albert Published
11:26 a.m. ET May 8, 2020 | Updated 2:03 p.m. ET May 8, 2020
Dr. Edward Albert is the Executive
Director of the Pennsylvania Association for Rural and Small
Schools.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has thrust
educators from all over the Commonwealth onto the public stage as they’ve
become the central focus of the public, media and politicians. Unfortunately,
they are often portrayed in an unflattering and inaccurate manner. I’ve heard
comments such as, “Teachers are getting paid and they are not working,” “Are
teachers giving their pay back because they did not work for weeks?” and “It
sure must be nice to be a teacher — they did not suffer any hardship at
all.” I am not sure if these comments are related to jealousy, sour grapes or
some politician who wants 20 seconds of media attention. I was in education for
38 years and worked 31 of those years as an administrator. I have seen very
DEDICATED and hardworking teachers who routinely arrive to work early, stay
late and use a full day over the weekend planning the week ahead. Beyond their
teaching, these professionals also assume duties as surrogate mothers, fathers,
referees and bank loan officers for student lunches. And don’t believe for a
second there’s anything as a full summer off. Teachers invest that downtime in
more study and preparation and then return to their rooms by August getting
ready for the first day of school.
From conference calls to Zoom, local governments employ
range of approaches to public meetings during pandemic
Digital divide remains a major challenge in
some parts of Pennsylvania
PA Post by Benjamin Pontz MAY 7, 2020 |
4:23 PM
When the Penn Manor School Board held its
first remote meeting via the video conferencing platform Zoom, remote hijackers
“Zoom bombed” the affair, turning on their microphones and disrupting the board
for a few minutes before they were removed. “It was very dramatic for about two
minutes,” said Charlie Reisinger, the district’s director of technology. That
night in April marked a rocky introduction to the world of virtual meetings for
the Lancaster County school district. A month later, however, Reisinger says
remote meetings are running smoothly. The original disruption happened because
the district was using a free version of Zoom. Now, thanks to a subscription
provided by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Penn Manor and other
member school districts have access to a licensed account that allows the
district to use the webinar feature to limit webcam and microphone access to
board members and school district staff while allowing the public to
participate via a chat feature. “We have conducted two meetings since that time
with no issue,” said Penn Manor Superintendent Mike Leichliter. At the other
end of the spectrum, particularly in parts of the state’s northern tier,
approaches that do not require the internet are more common. A search of
classified ads over the past month in Endeavor
News, which covers Potter and Cameron counties,
shows that some municipalities, like Pike Township in Potter County, which has
a population of about 300, are holding their meetings in person while discouraging residents from attending to
keep with social distancing guidelines. Others, like Keating Township, also in
Potter County, are using a telephone conference call system and inviting
comments to be submitted via a physical drop box or via email.
Wages become a focus as Erie schools cope with crisis
GoErie By Ed
Palattella @etnpalattella May 10,
2020
Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito
raised the possibility of pay freezes as he presented his proposed 2020-21
budget. One of the big assumptions in the Erie School District’s state-mandated
financial improvement plan is that the district would raise taxes by 2.46%
annually through at least the 2025-26 academic year. Another big assumption is
that the district would agree to raises of 2% percent for teachers and other
employees when their labor contracts are up for negotiation. The pandemic has
jeopardized both assumptions. Citing the COVID-19 outbreak’s financial effect
on property owners, Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito has already asked the School Board for a one-year
moratorium on a tax increase in the
the school district’s 2020-21 budget. Polito also said his administration must
review the feasibility of the 2% percent wage increases as the district deals
with pandemic-induced drops in earned income tax revenue and collection of real
estate taxes. The reasons for the potential shift were clear following the
stark budget projections that Polito presented to the School Board at its
monthly nonvoting study session on Wednesday night — the same online meeting at
which Polito presented a $203.4 million preliminary budget for 2020-21 with no
tax increase. He said property owners are ill-equipped to afford a tax increase
due to high unemployment and other financial ramifications of the pandemic. Polito
and the Erie School District’s state-appointed financial adviser, Public
Financial Management, of Philadelphia, based their financial projections on the
revenue collapse that the district experienced during the Great Recession,
which started in 2008. Those projections show that, if it made no cuts or and
did not increase revenue, the Erie School District would finish 2025-26 with a
mid-range budget deficit of about $8.6 million due to the financial effects of
the the pandemic. That scenario includes wage increases of 2%. But the
district’s financial outlook would improve greatly, according to the
projections, if the district capped pay increases at 1% or froze them through
2025-26.
Ridley School Board OKs proposed budget with tax increase
Delco Times By Barbara Ormsby Times
Correspondent May 9, 2020
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP — At a recent virtual
meeting, the Ridley School Board approved a proposed 2020-2021 final budget of
$113,485,863 and a real estate millage increase of 1.400 mills, for a total
millage rate of 42.70 mills or $4.27 for each $100 of assessed value. The tax
increase for a property assessed at the average of $100,000 will be $139.The
proposed budget shows an increase in expenses of $2,395,015 over the current
budget. Final budget adoption will be at the board's June 8 meeting. "We
are hoping to have a face-to-face meeting in June," said Ridley School
District Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel. The superintendent outlined some of
the factors that contributed to the increase in expenditures for the coming
school year, including special education expenditure costs that are going up
13.45 percent due to the lack of correspondnig funding support from federal
resources. Medical benefits are increasing by 5.89 percent while prescription
drug costs are going up 8.78 percent. All employee salaries show an increase of
0.79 percent. "The $254,686 in
additional pension costs is due to the increasing employer share, a 1.34
percent increase," Wentzel noted in the budget presentation. Reductions in
expenses for 2020-2021 listed in the budget presentation include the replacing
of retiring staff only as needed, restrictions of temporary positions and
overtime, reducing discretionary spending, pausing capital projects and,
prioritizing the use of grant funds. "Given the current conditions, this
is a very difficult budget and it takes me back to when I started as
superintendent in the district during the Great Recession," Wentzel
commented.
As Europe Reopens Schools, Relief Combines With Risk
Restarting classes is central to reviving
economies. But one question haunts the efforts: Just how contagious are
children, and could they be the next super spreaders?
New York Times By Katrin Bennhold May 10, 2020
NEUSTRELITZ, Germany — It was Lea
Hammermeister’s first day back at school after almost two months at home and
she was already preparing for a test. Not a math or physics test. A coronavirus
test — one she would administer herself. Ms. Hammermeister, a 17-year-old high
school junior, entered the tent erected in the schoolyard along with some
classmates — all standing six feet apart — and picked up a test kit. She
inserted the swab deep into her throat, gagging slightly as instructed, then
closed and labeled the sample before returning to class. It took less than
three minutes. The results landed in her inbox overnight. A positive test would
require staying home for two weeks. Ms. Hammermeister tested negative. She now
wears a green sticker that allows her to move around the school without a mask
— until the next test four days later. “I was very relieved,” she said happily.
In addition to feeling safe around her classmates and teachers, who all tested
negative, she feels like less of a risk to her grandmother, who eats with the
family every day.
The School Year Really Ended in March
Abrupt closings have stalled the learning of
millions of students. U.S. education needs a rescue, an economist says, and it
won’t be cheap.
New York Times By Susan Dynarski May 7,
2020
School-age children across America are
struggling to learn under challenging conditions. Some, no doubt, have made
real progress. But it’s time to admit that, for the vast majority of
students, online learning and
work sheets are no substitute for trained teachers in classrooms. For most
children, the school year effectively ended in March. If the country doesn’t
recognize this fact and respond accordingly — with large federally funded programs to
reverse the losses — we will do great harm to a
generation of children who will learn less than those who
went before them. They will read and write more poorly and be less likely to
graduate from high school and college. The resulting shortage of highly trained
workers will hamper the economic recovery and intensify earnings inequality. Educators,
parents, students and schools are doing what they can in a harrowing situation.
But for most students it isn’t nearly enough, and the United States will need
to marshal enormous resources to get education back on track. About a third of
the school year has been sacrificed to the pandemic. Consider that a year of
U.S. public education costs about
$400 billion. That implies that about $133 billion may be needed to make up for
lost instructional time.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.