Started in November 2010, daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education
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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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Brookings: “We find the impact of attending a virtual
charter on student achievement is uniformly and profoundly negative… There is
no evidence that virtual charter students improve in subsequent years.”
Half of the locally
elected school boards in the state have now passed resolutions in support of
charter school funding reform. Is your district one of them?
“We find the impact of attending a virtual charter on student
achievement is uniformly and profoundly negative, equating to a third of a
standard deviation in English/language arts (ELA) and a half of a standard
deviation in math. …There is no evidence that virtual charter students improve
in subsequent years.”
Virtual charter schools and online learning during
COVID-19
An imperfect comparison
Brookings Brown Center by Brian Fitzpatrick, Mark Berends, Joseph J. Ferrare, and R. Joseph Waddington Tuesday, June 2, 2020
With the onset of the global pandemic caused
by COVID-19, nearly all K-12
students in the United States have experienced an unprecedented interruption to
their formal schooling. Students and parents with lack of access to
technological devices, high-speed internet, and information to navigate online
learning are among the most likely to face growing inequalities. This includes
many low-income and rural families. As Susan Dynarski described in her
recent New York Times article,
“[COVID-19] has exposed and intensified enormous gaps in schools’ and families’
capacity to support children’s learning.” We agree that the circumstances are
dire. The current situation is without precedent, so researchers and parents alike
are scrambling to find out the effect of near-universal online instruction. To
this end, one case worth considering is a relatively new learning environment
with a set of schools that uniquely deliver instruction in an online mode:
virtual charter schools. While some insights can be gained, we recommend
caution when comparing the two cases. Virtual
charter schools deliver instruction in online or blended (online with some
face-to-face instruction) formats and operate in 21 states. Like other
charter schools, virtual charters are publicly funded, do not have admissions
criteria, and have their charter (or contract) authorized by a state-approved
entity. Families may choose to enroll their children in a virtual charter
school for myriad reasons. At first glance, virtual charter schools offer
students and their families the ability to tailor learning experiences to
specialized needs. However, if such advantages are available to students in
virtual charters, there is no evidence that the benefits transfer into gains on
student test scores.
Many school leaders say they won’t be able to resume
normal operations by July 1
Trib Live by TEGHAN SIMONTON | Sunday, June
7, 2020 8:58 a.m.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education said
Wednesday that school districts are allowed to resume in-person teaching and
other activities July 1, but local school leaders say it’s unlikely they’ll be
able to resume normal operations by then. efore schools can open, districts are
required to create their own health and safety plans. School
leaders said they’ll be challenged to draw up those plans and get approval by
their respective school boards by July 1. Most districts are setting their
sights on a fall reopening. Kiski Area School District had already announced a fall plan before
the state’s announcement, deciding to maintain distance learning at the onset.
A hybrid model will subsequently be developed to incorporate virtual and
in-person learning. The state’s new guidelines don’t change that plan, Kiski
Area School District Superintendent Tim Scott said. “It reaffirms our approach
to just trying to keep our community informed, because there really isn’t
anything coming out at this point,” he said. Highlands School District
Superintendent Monique Mawhinney sent a recorded message to parents saying the
district won’t be in a position to begin phased reopening by July 1. She said a
health and safety plan hasn’t been created. A task force will be formed to
create a plan and deal with significant restrictions. Pittsburgh Public
Schools, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and the nonprofit One PA likewise
announced a plan that focuses on next school year. The plan, according to a
news release, involves 16 subcommittees dedicated to gathering input from
various community stakeholders.
Bucks County Schools Plan for Fall Reopening
Bucks County Courier Times By Chris English @CourierEnglish
Posted Jun 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM
The state is allowing in-person instruction
to start again July 1, but is requiring each school district to have a health
and safety plan in place before bringing students back to school. Bucks County
schools will reopen in the fall, but what it will look like is unknown. Some
might look at the preliminary state plan for reopening schools and see a lack
of concrete direction in some areas. Central Bucks School District
Superintendent John Kopicki prefers to view it as flexibility. Pennsylvania
Department of Education officials announced Wednesday that in-person
instruction can resume July 1. Bringing students back to schools will require
each district to have a health and safety plan developed using guidelines from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department,
and approved by school boards. And while PDE officials said more guidance will
be issued in the coming weeks and months, specific reopening protocols for
classroom instruction, extracurricular activities and other areas are being
largely left up to individual districts in consultation with federal and state
health officials. “It’s never bad when the state secretary of education (Pedro
Rivera) reaches out and tries to offer some guidelines and assistance to
districts that are all struggling to provide for the health and safety of our
kids,” said Kopicki, top administrator at the largest school district in Bucks
County. “I think the state is trying to give us as much local control as
possible and put decision-making into the hands of individual communities,
because every community knows their school district best. If the plan is vague
and not detailed enough in some areas, it’s because the state is trying not to
mandate, but guide and leave decisions to local districts.” The Bucks County
Intermediate Unit issued a news release late Thursday on behalf of itself and
the county’s 13 school districts and three career and technical centers. It
stated that all planned to reopen schools in the fall and the IU would continue
offering help and guidance.
“Black students make up the plurality of charter school students
in Pennsylvania. Across the state, roughly 60 percent of students in charter
schools are either black or hispanic. Meyers’ organization is the primary
lobbying group for the state’s charter-school sector, which educates over
140,000 students statewide.”
Pa. charter school leader blasts George Floyd protestors,
then apologizes
Avi Wolfman-Arent/Keystone
Crossroads JUNE 6, 2020 | 12:49 PM
The head of an influential Pennsylvania
charter school advocacy group has apologized for a Facebook post about the
ongoing civil rights protests in which she said: “these protesters disgust me.
All lives matter!” She later called her comments “insensitive and
inappropriate” and said she meant to imply that the looting and violence that
occurred last weekend disgusted her. Ana Meyers, head of the Pennsylvania
Coalition of Public Charter Schools, posted — and then deleted — a statement on
her personal Facebook page in which she called the protests spurred by the killing
of George Floyd “not okay.” Meyers’ original post linked to an emergency alert
that mentioned “violent protests” in Philadelphia. When Keystone Crossroads
contacted Meyers, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., to ask about the post, she said that
she’d removed the original statement and posted an apology.
Comment from the
largest charter-school organization in Philadelphia:
Quote Tweet
Mastery Schools @mastery_schools
Replying to @Avi_WA
We condemn the
remarks of Ana Meyers. She does not speak for Mastery Schools.
#blacklivesmatter
Blogger note: here’s some background on Ana Meyers (formerly Ana
Puig) that might shed some light on the ideological attributes that
Pennsylvania’s charter schools were looking for when they sought an executive
director for their statewide organization.
“When Gov. Corbett named Puig to his transition team's education
committee, Democrats pounced, highlighting Puig's attacks on Obama and claims
that Democrats are aligned with radical Islam. The Kitchen Table Patriots'
leaders "are extremists with beliefs and agendas well outside those held
by Pennsylvanians," Mark Nicastre, a spokesman for state Democrats, said
last week.”
Reprise 2011: Two Bucks County women are darlings of the
tea party movement
Inquirer by John P. Martin, Inquirer Staff
Writer, Posted: August 8, 2011
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - The event was over, but
many of the 75 or so people who crammed the hotel conference room Thursday for
the monthly gathering of the Williamsport Tea Party lingered, clustering around
two guests from Bucks County. Anastasia Przybylski doled out bumper magnets
sporting the "Don't Tread on Me" flag while Ana Puig cradled an
infant and urged his mother, an immigrant like Puig, to join the fight against
President Obama and the Marxist blueprint she said he was following. At the front
of the room, Lee Fessler gushed: "Ana for president." In less than
three years, Puig and Przybylski, both 39, have rocketed from Doylestown
stay-at-home mothers to nationally known activists, sharing stages with
presidential contender Michele Bachmann, snagging money from conservative
groups, and drawing a stream of invitations and inquiries from rally
organizers, GOP stalwarts, candidates, and worldwide media. The two-year-old
Bucks group they co-chair, Kitchen Table Patriots, claims thousands of followers
and credit for lifting Republicans Pat Toomey and Mike Fitzpatrick into
Congress. Ned Ryun, whose activist group, American Majority Action, enlisted
and funded Puig and Przybylski when looking for Pennsylvania foot soldiers last
fall, ranks them among the most influential tea-party members.
Blogger note: Senator Leach has been a long time member of the
Senate Education Committee and was a staunch opponent of private school voucher
legislation.
Amanda Cappelletti defeats Daylin Leach in 17th District
primary
Delco Times June 7, 2020
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania state
senator Daylin Leach, who lost the support of Democratic officials after he was
criticized for his treatment of women in his office and on his campaign, has
lost his primary contest. The Associated Press projected Saturday that Amanda
Cappelletti, former head of public policy for Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania,
had prevailed in the suburban Philadelphia 17th district primary in Montgomery
County. Totals on the Pennsylvania Department of State election site indicated
Amanda Cappelletti was leading Leach by about 62-38 percent. Leach, a longtime
standard-bearer for liberal causes in the state Legislature, had rebuffed calls
from Democrats to resign going back to 2017. Some of the accusations against
Leach involved alleged behavior that Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa,
D-Allegheny, said created an unprofessional and sexualized environment in
Leach’s office. Leach denied any predatory actions and said he never
deliberately made anyone uncomfortable, though he acknowledged that he has used
poor judgment in his choice of humor.
Teaching race: How George Floyd's death could spark
change in the classroom
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Jun 6, 2020
Anger built up inside Brandon Allen as he
watched a video of George Floyd plead for his life while a Minneapolis police
officer knelt on his neck until he stopped breathing. “It literally broke my
heart,” said Allen, a 2015 McCaskey Campus graduate who recently completed his
history-secondary education degree at Towson University and hopes to soon
manage a classroom of his own. It made him think of how he could prevent
incidents like this from happening. And for many teachers, the work to defeat
racism starts in the classroom. Educators with ties to Lancaster County said
Floyd’s death, and the international protests that followed, were a stark
reminder that education — intentional or not — is too often focused on white
students and the generations before them that recorded history from their own,
singular perspective. Teachers, they said, must step up and make sure students
of color can relate to what they’re learning and feel their voice is heard and
appreciated in the classroom. And that means all teachers — not just those of
color.
@AASAHQ and @ASBOIntl info graphic
detailing additional costs associated with complying with #CDC guidelines to reopen
schools
These retiring teachers won’t get a final goodbye — so
we’re telling their stories
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent June 8, 2020
When the coronavirus outbreak canceled
traditional school graduations, the Class of 2020 received a well-deserved wave
of sympathy. There have been celebrity-studded tributes, television commercials, and too many Instagram posts to
count. But seniors aren’t the only ones leaving their schools for the final
time under these often stressful and surreal circumstances. In June, retiring
teachers and school staff will leave their classrooms without any of the
traditional rituals that mark the end of an academic year — or a career. In
tribute, Keystone Crossroads brings you five stories of Pennsylvanians who
served their school communities for decades.
'It's not cutting it': Significant roadblocks deter
special education students from progressing at home
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer June 8,
2020
Denise Schwebel and her daughter, Emma, sat
at the head of their dining room table on a recent Friday afternoon to finish
the final few online assignments of the school year. Schoolwork for Emma, who
is in a multiple disabilities support program run by the Lancaster-Lebanon
Intermediate Unit 13 at Conestoga Valley High School, is always a team effort.
The 20-year-old is cognitively delayed and in a wheelchair, can’t talk and only
eats pureed foods. But because she hasn’t been in school since mid-March
because of the coronavirus shutdown, her mom has been by her side to help.
On this day, they were working on a science assignment based
on the energy that makes roller coasters run. “How does a roller coaster go up
a hill? Does the chain pull it up the hill? Yes or no?” Denise asked her
daughter, holding up two laminated cards – a yellow smiley face for yes and a
red “x” for no. With the dog, Ginger, on guard duty next to them, Emma looked
at her mom. Then looked at the cards. She slowly reached her hand toward the
yellow smiley face. It was one of a select few of victories throughout the day,
as online learning for students requiring special education services represents
significant challenges and roadblocks. Parents and experts say falling behind
for such students is a very real possibility.
Drive-in theater, parades and more: Centre County
celebrates the class of 2020 amid pandemic
Centre Daily Times by Marley Parish June 7,
2020
Lydia Collison put photos in a school time capsule last
fall, thinking they would best represent
the class of 2020. But she had no idea its story would change the following spring.
When Collison imagined graduation, it didn’t involve family cheers from the car
or congratulatory honks from peers. She pictured sitting with classmates, walking
across stage to receive her diploma and hugging her friends and teachers
goodbye after the ceremony. But the Penns Valley Area School District graduate
is one of many who had to change their picture of senior year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In an alternative ceremony Friday, Collison received her
diploma in a drive-thru procession while
a limited number of friends and family looked on to watch her walk across the
outdoor stage in her cap and gown. The socially distanced commencement was one
of the ways Centre County school districts celebrated and honored the class of
2020 while adhering to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state
Department of Health guidelines. In planning the events that were unlike any
other in the schools’ histories, district officials and families got creative —
heavily decorated vehicles for Penns Valley’s drive-thru ceremony, a parade
leading up to a virtual ceremony for State College Area School District
seniors, a drive-in movie theater component at Philipsburg-Osceola Area School
District, matching face masks for Bald Eagle Area graduates, pandemic-inspired
senior T-shirts for Centre County Christian Academy and zip lining for Grace
Prep grads.
EDITORIAL: A class like no other
York Dispatch Editorial Board Published 5:48
a.m. ET June 5, 2020
One by one, you walk across a stage or drive
up to your school. Moms adjust your mortarboards as a few family members look
on, and principals and superintendents in masks direct you to pick up a
diploma from a table or maybe hand it over at arm's length, possibly
accompanied by an elbow bump. Congratulations, Class of 2020. Graduation
has never looked like this before. There's no band playing endless loops of
"Pomp and Circumstance" while hundreds of students file into a
stadium or auditorium filled with hundreds of family members and friends. No speeches
from classmates and teachers. There was no prom, no honors dinner, no sports
championship. No last day at school. No chance to say goodbye to so many people
you will never see again. Instead, you have the virtual commencement, a video
of each one of you individually receiving that diploma you have worked so hard
for. Or maybe your school is putting off the ceremony, hoping that next month,
or maybe the month after that, there can be a large gathering to celebrate the
end of high school. This wasn't what anyone expected. No one knew your
final day at your school would happen in March. No one knew you would finish
your classes online. No one knew you would need a mask that matched your cap
and gown. But don't let that lessen your achievement. You've spent 12 years
learning, working, making friends, taking tests, building up a store of
knowledge and skills that will take you into the next phase of your life,
whether that's college, trade school, the military or the workforce.
Greensburg Salem students and parents try to stop band
cuts
Trib Live by JACOB TIERNEY | Saturday,
June 6, 2020 4:44 p.m.
A group of Greensburg Salem School District
students and parents are trying to prevent district leaders from making cuts to
the music program. “We love these programs, they mean the world to us,” said
Ryann Shirey, who just finished her sophomore year at Greensburg Salem High
School. She’s been involved in music programs since fourth grade. “Marching
band is my favorite thing in the whole world.” Shirey and several other
students created a group called Student Advocates for Arts in Education in
response to the school board’s proposed cuts. “We’ve been fighting the school
board on stuff like this,” Shirey said, “so me and a small group of other
students got together and decided enough is enough.” They created an online petition on
change.org that had more than 12,600
signatures as of Friday night. “I didn’t expect there to be this many
signatures, and I didn’t expect it to be this soon,” Shirey said. “I think it’s
great, there are people in the community behind us, people from all over are
behind us and what we’re trying to accomplish.” The board’s proposed budget
would eliminate the sole elementary band teacher’s position, saving about
$85,000. That teacher would be moved to replace a high school chorus teacher
who retired this month, according to Tom McGuire, president of the Greensburg
Salem Band Parents Association. The budget would also eliminate the marching
band majorette advisor supplemental position, saving about $4,000. Additionally,
the board last month reversed an earlier decision to spend $50,000 to replace
the district’s 15-year-old marching band uniforms.
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/greensburg-salem-students-and-parents-try-to-stop-band-cuts/
Taxes hiked in new Springfield School District budget
Delco Times By Susan L. Serbin Times
Correspondent June 7, 2020
SPRINGFIELD >> The school board
approved the 2020-2021 General Fund Proposed Final Budget of $88.3 million,
which is $1.45 million above 2019-2020. The increase in taxes is 2.6 percent
which is the district’s index set by Act I. Executive Director Don Mooney
presented the 18-page Power Point to the board which held a virtual meeting at
the end of May. Mooney, Superintendent Tony Barber, and board President Bruce
Lord were socially distanced in the board room with other directors on a
conference call. Director Frank Agovino was not available. The tax summary
shows the millage set at 34.5997, an increase of 0.877 mills. Mooney gave the
following examples for over all rates (including the portion of taxes from the
high school master plan): A property assessed at $100,000 has at tax of $3,460,
an $88 increase ($31): the property at the $147,020 median assessment will be
$5,087, a $146 increase ($53); and an $250,000 assessed value property has a
tax of $8,650, a $219 increase ($79). The projected Homestead Exclusive
(applied to taxes for eligible properties) remains unchanged at $186.
Amish schools: ‘Distance learning’ involves paper and
pencil
WITF By Alex Geli/LNP JUNE 6, 2020 | 12:42 PM
(Lancaster) — In mid-March, Pennsylvania Gov.
Tom Wolf ordered all Pennsylvania schools to close, prompting an abrupt
shutdown of the state’s public and private schools – and, it turns out, Amish
one-room schoolhouses. Local experts in Amish and Old Order Mennonite culture
say most, if not all, of the 250-or-so area Amish-run schools closed in
accordance with Wolf’s order. And, just like at many traditional schools,
learning never stopped. While most schools in the state shifted instruction
online, Amish schools switched to remote assignments with paper and pencil. “It
was kind of their version of virtual education,” said Charles Jantzi, a
psychology professor at Messiah College who has done extensive research on the
Amish and Old Order Mennonites, particularly related to mental health and
social media. Teachers, often young women who haven’t married yet, sent home
worksheets and textbooks with directions on how to finish the school year.
Students occasionally visited the teacher at school or her home so she could
grade their work. Teachers replenished assignments if necessary. Some even gave
private, at-home lessons. Such a task wouldn’t be all that difficult for a
teacher, said Donald Kraybill, senior fellow emeritus at Elizabethtown
College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. There’s often less
than 30 kids in a single school, and many of them could be siblings in the same
household, Kraybill said. The teacher could walk, scooter, take a horse and
buggy or use an “Amish taxi” – a non-Amish, or English, driver – depending on
how far away she lives. Still, this wasn’t typical for Amish students.
From Zoom to the streets, students and schools find
teachable moments in protests of police violence
Washington Post By Laura Meckler, Valerie Strauss and Perry Stein June
8, 2020 at 7:11 a.m. EDT
In Berkeley, Calif., black and white students
spent one of their final Zoom sessions dissecting raw emotions around race and
inequity. In Chicago, a teacher challenged his students to reconsider the
implications of violent protest. And in California, the top school official is
working to add implicit bias training for the state’s educators. In the final
days of a disrupted and tense school year, teachers, administrators and
students, forced apart by the coronavirus, are
working to process emotions and spark change following the killing of George
Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his
neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. They’ve mourned and debated the events
over Zoom, unable to comfort or challenge one another in person. They’ve begun
plotting policy changes aimed at dismantling inequities in schools. And from
coast to coast, students have joined in — and sometimes led — protests, without
year-end testing and other pressures typical of spring.
The Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work
The pandemic forced schools into a crash
course in online education. Problems piled up quickly. ‘I find it hectic and
stressful’
Wall Street Journal By Tawnell D. Hobbs and Lee
Hawkins June 5, 2020 12:42 pm ET
This spring, America took an involuntary
crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the
grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was
a failure. School districts closed campuses in March in response to the
coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or
training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students
from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology.
How to Reopen America’s Schools
Many questions remain as experts weigh
options for getting children back into the classroom.
New York Times By The Editorial Board June 6,
2020
Parents who have watched their children
struggle with online learning since schools across the country were closed in March are
painfully aware that virtual classes are no substitute for face-to-face
instruction. Even so, many of these parents worry that schools might hastily reopen without
taking the necessary precautions to shield children — and everyone in the
school community — from infection. If this crisis of confidence continues to
fester, millions of families could well decide to keep their children home when
schools begin opening around the nation this fall. This would further harm the
prospects of schoolchildren who have already lost ground because
of the pandemic and who are at risk of falling irretrievably behind. By the
start of the next school year, the average student could have already lost a
third of his or her expected progress in reading and half in math, according to
a recent working paper from
the nonprofit NWEA and scholars at Brown and the University of Virginia. The
learning losses are greatest among
black and Hispanic students. The decision to keep some children home next year
would also undermine support for public education generally and damage the
possibility of economic recovery by keeping caretaking parents at home and out
of the work force.
Celebrating 125 years at PSBA
POSTED ON JUNE 5, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
Over the past 125 years, a lot has
happened at PSBA. From its founding in 1895 by H.H. Quimby to serving
nearly 100% of Pennsylvania’s school districts by 1970 to hosting
the first fully virtual conference in 2020, time and technology
have presented opportunities for growth as well
as challenges. To learn more about how PSBA has evolved over the
years, watch this brief video celebrating
the association's monumental anniversary!
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 245 PA school boards adopt charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 245 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.
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
The Network for Public Education Action Conference has
been rescheduled to April 24-25, 2021 at the Philadelphia Doubletree Hotel
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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