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
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principals, charter school leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher
leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
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PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 21, 2020
Delaware County Teen Town Hall Virtual
Meeting Friday May 22nd 11 am
Join Congresswoman Mary Gay
Scanlon along with State Lawmakers and Students from Delaware County. CLICK HERE TO
REGISTER VIA ZOOM
Playbook for reopening schools: CHOP calls for face
shields, staggered schedules, temp checks
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent May 20, 2020
If Pennsylvania schools reopen their doors
this fall, local health experts expect they’ll look quite different than they
did before the coronavirus pandemic. Just how different?
A new policy review from
the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) —
whose researchers have been advising state leaders during the outbreak —
provides an eye-opening glimpse.
Here are just a few of the safety
recommendations:
- Hold
classes in gyms or outdoors
- Open
windows for ventilation
- Give
protective face shields to adults
- Create
staggered schedules where students attend in-person or online depending on
the day
- Start
the school year earlier in case the virus reemerges in the winter
- Reduce
class sizes to 10 or 15 students
- Conduct
regular temperature checks and other types of “symptom surveillance” to
ensure sick kids stay home
Are these measures overkill? Insufficient?
Based on what researchers know about
transmission, it’s hard to gauge.
Scientifically, there’s no clear consensus
yet on the effectiveness of school closures in stopping the spread of COVID-19.
In the absence of consensus, there is debate.
CHOP Policy Review: Evidence and Considerations for
School Reopenings
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Policy
Review
With schools in the United States—from
preschool, to K-12, to higher education—considering strategies to safely reopen
following their closure for the COVID-19 pandemic, we prepared this policy
review to support local jurisdictions and school administrators in their
planning. It provides emerging evidence that can guide safety protocols,
highlights where there is limited research, and features the experiences of
school districts and universities across the world. To inform this document,
PolicyLab has been tracking academic literature, scientific pre-prints, global
school reopening policies, and guidance from public health and education
institutions related to schools, occupational safety, and child health more
broadly in the context of COVID19. We intend for this policy review to serve as
a guide from which decision-makers can consider interventions for health
protections to reduce transmission risk in a school environment. We caution
that data from this pandemic remains sparse; considerations featured in this
document are guided by best interpretation of transmission risk, sometimes for
SARS-CoV-2, but more often based on experience with other respiratory viruses
like influenza. As additional evidence becomes available, our team will update
this guidance. For questions or feedback, please reference the contact/author
list on page 11. For those seeking additional sources of information on health
and safety considerations for school reopening, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the
American Federation of Teachers provide useful guidance on school-level
reopening policies and procedures as well.
Here is exactly what the CDC wants schools and camps to
do before reopening
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss May
21, 2020 at 4:20 a.m. EDT
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has finally issued full interim guidance on how
schools and other establishments can safely open during the covid-19 pandemic,
and below are all of the recommendations for schools and camps. They are
detailed but worth reading to see the level of care that CDC experts want
school officials to consider before reopening campuses. Last week, the CDC
released a series of short “decision trees” in six
areas but held off on this more detailed version because that is all the Trump
administration would allow the country’s premier health agency to do then. The
CDC later published the extensive set of guidelines on its website without
announcing the move. President Trump has repeatedly urged states to allow
businesses and other sectors of the economy and civic life to reopen and has
mocked calls by experts such as Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to go slowly so as not to spark a
surge in novel coronavirus cases.
The new extended guidance covers reopening schools, child-care facilities,
restaurants and mass transit, as explained in this Washington Post story. You
can also read the entire set of guidelines at the bottom of this post. The CDC
made clear that opening many institutions should be guided by the transmission
rates of the novel coronavirus in each community. Here’s what the CDC issued
for schools and camps, complete with every link the agency provided.
Reopening Schools in the Context of COVID-19: Health and
Safety Guidelines From Other Countries
Learning Policy Institute Authors Hanna Melnick, Linda Darling-Hammond, Melanie Leung, Cathy Yun, Abby Schachner, Sara Plasencia , Naomi Ondrasek MAY 15 2020
Abstract: As the
United States considers reopening schools after the first wave of the COVID-19
pandemic, policymakers and administrators need to consider how to reopen in a
way that keeps students and staff safe. This brief provides insight into health
and safety guidelines and social distancing strategies used in other countries
that have successfully reopened their schools in the context of COVID-19.
Examples are intended to support school policymakers and administrators in the
United States as they plan for reopening.
Dozens of Korean schools close hours after reopening
CNN Published at: 03:13 AM, Thu May 21 2020
Video Runtime 3:45
South Korea has begun a phased reopening of
schools, starting with classes for high school seniors. But reopening is not
without risks: Dozens of schools in the city of Incheon, South Korea, closed
hours after reopening due to new infections. CNN's Paula Hancocks reports.
Task force created to plan for the safe reopening of
Pennsylvania’s schools
POSTED ON MAY 11, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
Eight PA education associations, including
PSBA, have formed a new task force aimed at getting Pennsylvania’s students
back into their schools and classrooms as safely as possible. The other key
education associations represented on the task force include the Pennsylvania
State Education Association (PSEA), the Pennsylvania Association of School
Administrators (PASA), the Pennsylvania Association of School Business
Officials (PASBO), the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units (PAIU),
PA Principals Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Career and Technical
Administrators (PACTA), and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small
Schools (PARSS). The task force will review all issues
related to the safe return of Pennsylvania’s students and draft plans for
school districts’ use. The joint effort will include working groups categorized
by key operational areas that include facility/logistics, staffing,
instruction, transportation, special education, extracurricular activities,
health and safety, communication, resources and community. Issues for
consideration will include the potential staggering of school schedules to
reduce the size of classrooms and open space gatherings, enhanced cleaning
procedures and equipment for buildings and buses, implementation of additional
policies related to PPE and masks, air quality measurements and enhanced
filtration, meal preparation and serving procedures, after-school activity
precautions to mitigate the potential spread of germs, redesigning of
facilities to enhance social distancing, and procedures for student assemblies.
“Monday’s veto was one of three issued that day; he has vetoed
five bills during the pandemic so far. Wednesday’s vote was the first override
attempt by the GOP-controlled chamber of the session. In his six years in
office, Wolf has never had a veto overturned.”
Pa. House fails to override Wolf’s reopening veto
PA Capital Star By Stephen Caruso May 20,
2020
Playing its final trump card, Republicans in
the state House failed to win enough votes Wednesday to override Gov. Tom
Wolf’s veto of a bill that would have allowed hundreds of businesses, from
manufacturers to pet groomers to reopen. A veto override requires two-thirds of
the 203 member chamber, or 136 votes. The override only garnered 115 votes —
every Republican, as well as six conservative Democrats from the western and
northeast parts of the state. Eighty-seven Democrats opposed the measure.
Speaking on the House Floor, Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, argued
that the bill would simply allow business owners to rebuild their livelihood as
COVID-19 cases continue to decline in the Commonwealth.
Abington Heights superintendent offers plans for future
Scranton Times Tribune BY ROBERT TOMCAVAGE /
PUBLISHED: MAY 21, 2020
Abington Heights Superintendent of Schools
Michael Mahon, Ph.D., offered potential plans for the end of the current school
year and the start of the next one during a virtual meeting Wednesday night. Mahon
said the district identified possible dates in July and August to hold an
in-person graduation ceremony, if circumstances allow, after the seniors made
it clear that’s what they prefer. However, if the county remains in the red or
yellow phase of Gov. Wolf’s reopening plan, an in-person graduation would not
be allowed. He added production is underway for a virtual graduation ceremony
that will be held on June 25 at the Circle Drive-In. Mahon outlined three
options for schooling in the fall.
PIAA will follow Pa. reopening guidelines to decide when
high school sports can start
Penn Live By Edward
Sutelan | esutelan@pennlive.com Updated May
21, 2020; Posted May 20, 2020
High school athletes have remained in limbo,
as has most of the country, about when sports will be able to resume. The PIAA
has shed some more light on the situation as it relates to interscholastic
sports in Pa. Teams will be allowed to restart athletic activities once the
governor’s office gives approval to the school’s respective counties, the PIAA
Board of Directors decided on Wednesday. While not providing a clear date for
when workouts and team activities can resume, the Board of Directors voted
unanimously to give executive director Bob Lombardi the sole authority to
decide when workouts can resume ahead of the fall season. “Why should we deny
any kid or group of kids if they’re permitted to do what they can do?"
District 11 chairman Bob Hartman said. "I understand the concern of state
championships down the road and what’s fair and what’s equitable, but you know
what, that’s October and November and that discussion. But that’s six months
from now. Five months from now and my opinion is if we can let kids go, let’s
let them go, let’s let them be kids, let them be student-athletes, let them do
their thing.” For right now, nothing will be able to open until at least June
30, and Lombardi said all schools have closed activities until then, which is
when the current school year ends.
When will high school sports return? Here’s a road map
GoErie By Daniel LoGiudice, Asbury Park Press
Posted May 20, 2020 at 11:38 AMUpdated
at 5:17 AM
National governing body offers guidance to
states, including phased plan and ranking of lower risk, moderate risk and
higher risk sports
The governing body that writes the rules for
the majority of high school athletics in the United States has released
guidelines that provide a road map for a return to sports amid the coronavirus
pandemic. The National Federation of
State High School Associations released
a 16-page document Tuesday
that outlines a safe return to high school sports. The document lists
precautionary measures that must take place before any contact play resumes and
says that until a valid treatment or vaccine is available, or herd immunity is
reached, preventive measures such as social distancing and face covering should
be used if practices or games are to take place in the fall. In its guidelines,
the NFHS recommends that athletes wear cloth face masks in order to prevent the
spread of the virus. It also says that, in the event of an outbreak, teams
would need to prepare to self-isolate for two or three weeks during the season.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association is a member of the NFHS
and generally uses its rules to govern high school sports in Pennsylvania.
Council Rock teachers, administrators making salary
concessions to help with budget crunch
Bucks County Courier Times By Chris
English @CourierEnglish Posted May 20,
2020
The concessions are expected to save about
$4.6 million and help with economic impacts of the coronavirus.
Council Rock School District teachers and
administrators have agreed in principle to make salary concessions that are
expected to save the district about $4.6 million and help with a budget crunch
brought on largely by economic impacts of the coronavirus. The formal agreements with
teachers and other professionals in their union, the Council Rock
Administrators Association, and four high-level administrators who have
individual contracts will be voted on by the school board at Thursday night’s
virtual meeting. The Council Rock Education Association, which includes
teachers, psychologists, guidance counselors, librarians and several other
positions, will also vote on Thursday. The administrators association and
Superintendent Robert Fraser, Assistant Superintendent Susan Elliott, Business
Administrator William Stone and Human Resources Director Christine Taylor have
already agreed to the concessions. Concessions from the teachers union will
save about $4.2 million — $2.3 million in 2020-21 and $1.9 million in 2021-22.
The revised agreement extends the CREA contract by one year through June 30,
2022 and calls for an 18-month total freeze on all horizontal (educational
credits) and step (years of service) movement starting from the end of this
school year on June 30.
“But the dominant theme was the need for sufficient funds to
avoid a repeat of what happened during the last recession, when state and
federal dollars to the state’s school districts were slashed by $1 billion,
with Philadelphia absorbing a quarter of those cuts. This resulted in thousands
of layoffs, including all counselors and nurses.”
Philly school officials plead their case for more funds
before Council
Superintendent also says that service
providers declined to increase internet access by opening residential hotspots
for more general use.
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa May 20 — 10:19 pm, 2020
School District officials, the teachers union
president and advocates implored City Council on Wednesday to do all it can to
make sure that Philadelphia schoolchildren don’t suffer from severe cuts to
educational programs, especially in this time of crisis. At the annual District
budget hearing, Council members were receptive and praised the District for its
response to the pandemic and its work in pivoting to online learning. But they
were largely noncommittal about supporting a property tax hike proposed by
Mayor Kenney that would raise more money for the District. Several topics
dominated the discussion, including the need to improve internet access across
the city. In response to a question from Council member Helen Gym,
Superintendent William Hite said that Comcast and other internet service
providers had been asked, but declined to open residential hotspots to general
use. A Comcast spokeswoman said in response that these are not designed for
broad public use. Council members also
questioned Hite, Chief Financial Officer Uri Monson, and Acting Facilities and
Operations Chief Jim Creedon about ongoing work to make schools safe from lead
and asbestos hazards. They praised the District for taking advantage of the
empty school buildings to catch up on remediation work. And they extracted a
promise from Hite that all students would be given a cap and gown they can wear
for a virtual graduation.
Philly schools chief says internet providers refuse to
open their networks so students can access education
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Updated: May
20, 2020- 6:56 PM
As the pandemic forced tens of thousands of
Philadelphia students into online-only education, Superintendent William R.
Hite Jr. asked Comcast and other internet providers to open their WiFi networks
so all students could learn through their laptops — but all refused, he said
Wednesday. Addressing City Council as it considers School District funding for
next year, Hite said internet access remains a “critical infrastructure issue,”
and if public schools require children to use the internet for educational purposes,
that access should be free in the way that school meals are free to low-income
families. The School District has distributed more than 81,000 Chromebooks to
students in an effort to keep them learning while schools are closed for
face-to-face instruction. But just 57% of students
are participating in some way, according
to the most recent district data, and officials say a lack of wireless access
is in part to blame. “It becomes sort of futile to provide the Chromebooks if
we’re not providing the internet access,” Councilmember Cindy Bass said. “We
might as well give them a piece of paper and a pencil and sit them down at a
table and tell them to figure it out.”
New CMU study shows inequity in internet access among
children
Trib Live by TEGHAN SIMONTON | Monday, May
18, 2020 4:33 p.m.
A study led by a Carnegie Mellon University
professor used national data to measure how many children have internet access
at home and what factors contribute to the long-existing digital divide. The
findings, said lead researcher Ananya Sen, are especially potent as most K-12
school districts have moved to online instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The study found low-income and non-white children have less accessibility to
the internet and suggests children in these groups will be especially harmed by
social distancing requirements. “Since we’re in this pandemic and so many
things are changing, we wanted to present facts related to access to the
internet for school children,” said Sen, an assistant professor of information
systems and economics at CMU’s Heinz College. “As digital scholars we think the
digital divide is still a very real thing. We wanted to see what it looks like
and how that might exacerbate existing educational inequality.” The study, “Social Distancing and
School Closures: Documenting Disparity in Internet Access among School Children,” was
conducted by researchers at CMU and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The research used data from the 2018 American Community Survey, which is
administered by the Census Bureau.
Schools studying virtual learning as year nears end
WFMZ by Caitlin Rearden May 19, 2020 Updated
11 hrs ago
MUHLENBERG TWP., Pa. - After about eight
weeks of virtual learning, school districts in Berks County are taking a look
at the progress. "What we need to do here is evaluate and research... and
look at where we did good things and where we need to improve," said
Joseph Macharola, the Muhlenberg School District's superintendent. Local
educators said most of their students adapted quickly to the changes, which
completely altered the way teachers do their jobs and the way student progress
is evaluated. "When we're in the typical school environment, it may be
hour-by-hour or class-by-class, but I know that while it's different by every
teacher, it's really looking at a week at a glance," said Jill Hackman,
the executive director of the Berks County Intermediate Unit. Macharola said
he's seen a lot of student success in his district over the last third of the
academic year, but it's not without a major effort on the part of teachers as
well as parents. "The virtual learning piece of the challenge is going to
equate to change, and if we don't change, we're going to fail," Macharola
said. The Pennsylvania Department of Education is working on a blueprint for
what the next school year will look like.
Central Pa. charter school official charged with stealing
more than $60K in federal funds
Penn Live By Matt
Miller | mmiller@pennlive.com Posted May
20, 2020
Federal officials have charged a top official
of a midstate charter school with embezzling more than $61,000. According to
filings in U.S. Middle District Court, Eliseo Sierra, operations manager for
the Lincoln Charter School in York, already has struck a tentative deal to
plead guilty in return for a pledge by prosecutors to recommend a probationary
sentence. Sierra is accused of stealing money the school received from the U.S.
Department of Education in 2014. His plea deal calls for him to plead guilty to
a charge of federal program theft and to pay $61,337 in restitution. The plea
agreement won’t become final unless it is approved by Judge Jennifer P. Wilson.
The maximum penalty for the crime is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Should Philly students be graded during the pandemic? |
Pro/Con
Inquirer Staff Reports Updated: May 21, 2020 - 5:00 AM
After schools closed due to the coronavirus,
the Philadelphia district began graded digital instruction on May 4. Although
students’ final grades for the year will be an average of their pre-pandemic
performance, their work starting from May 4 can raise their grades if they do
well — while their lack of participation can lower them. The District says it
is trying to factor in students’ individual circumstances at home. While some
believe grading is necessary to keep students on track, others argue it is punishing
during a crisis. A physician and local parent debates a policy analyst: Should
Philly students be graded right now?
Schools must keep serving English learners during
pandemic, federal ed officials say
Chalkbeat By Kalyn Belsha May 19, 2020, 7:00pm EDT
Schools that have switched to remote learning
can’t give up on language services for their students learning English, the
federal education department reminded school districts this week. New guidance, published
Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, answers questions facing schools
serving the nation’s some 5 million English learners during the coronavirus
pandemic, which has closed schools across the country. The department already
gave states permission to skip one critical requirement: giving an annual
English proficiency exam. But the guidance goes into more detail about how
schools might make up those tests next year, decide what kinds of classes
students should be placed in this fall, and handle students who might have
“tested out” of language services this spring. The guidance comes two months
after schools began closing, several weeks after the department clarified schools’ responsibilities to
students with disabilities, and as some school districts are
wrapping up their academic years. But it could help districts still confused
about their responsibilities and districts planning how they will serve English
learners in the fall. Here are a few takeaways:
Asked whether she is using crisis to support private
school choice, DeVos says ‘yes, absolutely’
Chalkbeat By Matt Barnum May 20, 2020, 5:17pm EDT
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday
that the coronavirus pandemic has offered a chance to advance a longstanding
goal of hers: to use public dollars to support access to private schools. In an
conversation with DeVos on SiriusXM radio, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Catholic
archbishop of New York, suggested that the secretary was trying to “utilize
this particular crisis to ensure that justice is finally done to our kids and
the parents who choose to send them to faith-based schools,” including through
a new program that encourages states to offer voucher-like grants for parents. “Am
I correct in understanding what your agenda is?” Dolan asks. “Yes, absolutely,”
DeVos responded. “For more than three decades that has been something that I’ve
been passionate about. This whole pandemic has brought into clear focus that
everyone has been impacted, and we shouldn’t be thinking about students that
are in public schools versus private schools.” The comments are DeVos’ clearest
statement to date about how she hopes to pull the levers of federal power to
support students already in — or who want to attend — private schools. She has
already made that intention clear with her actions: releasing guidance that
would effectively direct more federal relief funds to private schools, and
using some relief dollars to encourage states to
support alternatives to traditional public school districts.
Adopt the 2020 PSBA resolution for charter school funding
reform
In this legislative session, PSBA has been
leading the charge with the Senate, House of Representatives and the Governor’s
Administration to push for positive charter reform. We’re now asking you to
join the campaign: Adopt the resolution: We’re asking all school
boards to adopt the 2020 resolution for charter school funding reform at your
next board meeting and submit it to your legislators and to PSBA.
Over 230 PA school boards adopt charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 230 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.
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
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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