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, 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.
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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for Nov. 30, 2020
Help Keep Our Schools
Open – Mask, Social Distance, Avoid Gatherings
Source: Sen.
Mastriano gets a positive test at Trump meeting
Gettysburg
Times By Mark Scolforo Associated Press November 30, 2020
HARRISBURG,
Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state senator abruptly left a West Wing meeting with
President Donald Trump after being informed he had tested positive for the
coronavirus, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told The Associated
Press on Sunday. Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano had gone to the White
House last Wednesday with like-minded Republican state lawmakers shortly after
a four-hour-plus public meeting that Mastriano helped host in Gettysburg —
maskless — to discuss efforts to overturn president-elect Joe Biden’s victory
in the state. Trump told Mastriano that White House medical personnel would
take care of him, his son and his son’s friend, who were also there for the
Oval Office meeting and tested positive. The meeting continued after Mastriano
and the others left, the person said.
https://www.gettysburgtimes.com/ap/politics/article_258a9f9c-40b6-5348-a0c7-e9369beaeb75.html
“In photos, a maskless Mastriano can be
seen speaking with fellow lawmakers during the meeting.”
Report: Pa. Sen.
Mastriano tested positive for COVID-19 at White House meeting with Trump
PA Capital
Star By John
L. Micek November 29, 2020
A Republican
lawmaker from south-central Pennsylvania who has been a leading opponent of the
Wolf administration’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic “abruptly left” a
White House meeting with President Donald Trump last week after being told he
had tested positive for the disease, according to a published report. Just
hours after sitting shoulder to shoulder with fellow lawmakers for hours during
a meeting in Gettysburg, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Adams, was told he’d
tested positive for the virus as he and other Republicans huddled with
President Donald Trump to discuss Pennsylvania’s election results, according
to the Associated Press, citing a
source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Members of the Senate Republican
Policy Committee, joined by GOP colleagues from the state House, spent
more than four hours taking testimony during a Thanksgiving
Eve hearing about claims of impropriety in the Nov. 3 election. None of the
witnesses, including Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, presented actual evidence of
fraud.
Standardized tests
raise questions in time of pandemic
Delco Times By
Alex Rose arose@21st-centirymedia.com @arosedelco on Twitter November 29, 2020
UPPER DARBY
>> Upper Darby School District Superintendent Dr. Dan McGarry is
questioning a push for standardized testing this year even as the state is
recommending that schools go to virtual learning in areas seeing a surge of
coronavirus infections. “Is it really smart to put an emphasis on state testing
during a pandemic?” he said. “That’s where it’s a head scratcher for me, and I
would hope that the state and federal government would come together and say,
‘Look, let’s champion our schools, try to get them to open, support them trying
to get open, but let’s not make the focus on state testing.’” McGarry said
schools are getting a mixed message as the state government attempts to quell a
rising surge of COVID-19 cases by placing restrictions on things like public
gatherings while still requiring thousands of students to come to schools for
in-person testing. “While the window has been extended a little bit for this
school year, and of course we obviously appreciate that, we’re still in a
pandemic,” he said. “So if you can imagine in Upper Darby High School, when
we’re having to test over 1,000 students in the high school alone at a time,
the longer we push off the window for meeting those requirements, the more
complicated it becomes.” As it stands now, the Pennsylvania Department of
Education is requiring that schools continue to administer tests mandated at
the federal level – including the Keystone Exams that are tied to graduation.
Special Report: To
reopen or not to reopen - That is the fraught question for U.S. schools
Reuters By Kristina
Cooke, Benjamin
Lesser, M.B.
Pell November
25, 2020
(Reuters) -
After a two-week deluge of calls and messages from parents - and at least one
death threat - the school board in Chandler, Arizona, called a special meeting
this fall. The board would revisit its decision, prompted by the coronavirus,
to temporarily close local campuses and offer all classes online. Parents,
teachers and others poured out their thoughts in 1,100 public comments posted
online before the September meeting. “If our schools do not open in person I
will yank both my boys OUT and take them to another school district!!!” one
parent wrote. Many teachers assailed the district, which serves about 44,000
students near Phoenix, for wavering. “You look weak to the public; you look
unconcerned for safety to your employees,” wrote one instructor. Ultimately,
the board backtracked, voting 3-2 to start reopening school buildings.
Eight-six percent of students returned to campus. Across the United States,
district leaders face pressure from all sides as they grapple with how to
educate children during the pandemic, a Reuters survey of 217 districts showed.
Many parents are balking at online instruction, seeing it as inferior to
classroom learning and disruptive to life at home and work. Other parents worry
about sending kids back into classrooms prematurely amid a raging pandemic.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-schools-reopening-idUSKBN2851MA
Schools struggle to
stay open as quarantines sideline staff
ABC News By
KANTELE FRANKO by Associated Press November 26, 2020
COLUMBUS,
Ohio (AP) — The infection of a single cafeteria worker was all it took to close
classrooms in the small Lowellville school district in northeastern Ohio,
forcing at least two weeks of remote learning. Not only did the worker who
tested positive for the coronavirus need to quarantine, but so did the entire
cafeteria staff and most of the transportation crew, because some employees
work on both. The district of about 500 students sharing one building had
resumed in-person instruction with masks and social distancing and avoided any
student infections. But without enough substitute workers, administrators had
no choice but to temporarily abandon classroom operations and meal services. “It
boils down to the staff,” Lowellville Superintendent Geno Thomas said. “If you
can’t staff a school, you have to bring it to remote.” Around the country,
contact tracing and isolation protocols are sidelining school employees and
closing school buildings. The staffing challenges force students out of
classrooms, even in districts where officials say the health risks of in-person
learning are manageable. And the absences add to the strain from a wave
of early retirements and leaves taken by employees worried about health risks. It’s another
layer of the “tremendous stress” faced by administrators and educators
navigating the pandemic, said Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, the nation’s
leading school superintendents association.
HB1737: Wolf plans to
veto bill that would have limited COVID-related lawsuits
Post Gazette
by PATRICK BUCHNOWSKI The
Tribune-Democrat NOV 27, 2020 5:13 PM
HARRISBURG —
Gov. Tom Wolf plans to veto legislation that would give protection against
COVID-related lawsuits to schools, businesses and nursing homes, his
spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger said this week. House Bill 1737 had been backed
by groups lobbying for local schools, as well as business and healthcare
industry groups. Mr. Wolf is rejecting the legislation as being “too broad,”
Ms. Kensinger said. “That’s a big disappointment,” said Curt Schroder,
executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform,
based in Harrisburg. “I hope he will reconsider.” Mr. Schroder said HB 1737 was
“drafted carefully to be targeted and temporary.” The bill would have provided
one year of liability protection from COVID-related lawsuits. Mark DiRocco,
executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators,
said that if Mr. Wolf is vetoing HB 1737, the governor should use an executive
order to extend liability protection to schools. “We’re very concerned about
litigation coming down the road,” he said.
Pennsylvania senators
try to have it both ways in Gettysburg hearing [opinion]
Lancaster
Online Opinion by BRAD BUMSTED | Commentary Nov 29, 2020
Brad Bumsted
is the bureau chief of The Caucus, an LNP Media Group watchdog publication.
The hearing
smacked of blatant hypocrisy. The Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy
Committee’s field trip to Gettysburg on Wednesday featured President Donald
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and testimony from Republican elections workers
who alleged improprieties and outright fraud in the Nov. 3 election. Let me be
clear at the outset: This column is not about Trump-bashing, debunking
conspiracy theories, or attacking the notion of a “stolen” election. It’s about
inconsistency by Republican Senate and House members who went out of their way
to attend the hearing in person or via Zoom. One of the chief Trumpers in
Pennsylvania is Sen. Doug Mastriano, a freshman dynamo and retired Army colonel
who wears his conservatism on his sleeve and makes no secret he is running for
governor in 2022. Mastriano, R-Chambersburg, asked that the committee hearing
be held in his district and invited Giuliani, whose appearance was touted in a
Trump campaign press release breathlessly headlined “PENNSYLVANIA, ARIZONA, MICHIGAN
LEGISLATURES TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARINGS ON 2020 ELECTION.”
Philly-area school
district’s commitment to in-person classes put to the test by COVID surge
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent November 30, 2020
On
Wednesday, Nov. 18, Superintendent William Harner roved Quakertown Senior High
School looking for trouble. He wasn’t looking for typical teenage trouble —
your bathroom vapers and hallway scufflers. He was looking for viral trouble —
warning signs of potential COVID-19 transmission. The classrooms looked OK. It
seemed they could keep three-to-six feet of space between desks, as promised. “But
we’re crunched in a couple places,” Harner admitted. “The problem there is the
hallways. They just look like regular class changes.” His survey came on the
first day that the Quakertown Community School District welcomed middle and
high school students back on a full-time basis. About three-quarters had taken
the Bucks County district up on its offer, with another quarter choosing
all-virtual instruction instead. It had already been a bumpy week — in a school
year spent slaloming between challenges.
Virtual Charter
Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation
WESA By ANYA KAMENETZ & ROBBY KORTH • NPR November 30, 2020
Parent
Mandii Brower vividly remembers what it was like when her kids' school in
Yukon, Okla., switched to distance learning in the spring: "It was just
like, we never learned with our teachers again. They never checked on things
again." She says "school" consisted of just a few short daily
assignments. "I [couldn't] see my kids' education going that way." So
this fall, Brower enrolled her two daughters in Epic Charter Schools, a virtual
program that allows students to study online, at their own pace, with pre-recorded
lessons and one-on-one teacher support. For Brower, the difference has been
night and day. She says Epic "[has] it down pat, and they know how to help
families." Brower wasn't the only parent to give the Oklahoma-based
virtual school a try this year. Since last spring, Epic enrollment has grown to
be double the size of the state's largest public school district. In fact,
across the country, fully virtual K-12 charter schools have experienced a
pandemic-induced "surge," as one
sector observer put it. K12 Inc.,
one of the biggest in the business, has reported a 57% enrollment increase,
taking it up to 195,000 students; Connections Academy, another heavy hitter,
has reported a 41% jump, and the
list goes on.
https://www.wesa.fm/post/virtual-charter-schools-are-booming-despite-checkered-reputation#stream/0
The cyber switch is
on in Schuylkill County
Hazelton
Standard Speaker By Christine Lee Staff Writer Nov 29, 2020
More than
1,000 students who were attending public schools in Schuylkill County last year
are now attending an independent charter or cyber school, or a public school
district’s cyber academy, the trend fueled by the pandemic, administrators say.
The 1,031 students who have made the switch are from 11 public school districts
for which numbers were provided. A majority, 838, are attending cyber academies
within their own school districts, while 193 are enrolled in charter schools, a
majority of them cyber-based. The total represents approximately 15% of the
combined enrollment for those public schools. The numbers do not include
students who may be learning virtually temporarily as districts limit or avoid
in-person classes because of the coronavirus. “There is an upward trend of
students choosing cyber education,” Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 Executive
Director Gregory S. Koons said. “But districts are doing a good job of
providing their own curriculum to students in a virtual format.”
Montgomery County
parents stage another COVID-19 school-closing protest, this time with a road
rally
Inquirer by Jason Nark, Posted: November 29, 2020- 6:18
PM
The road to
reopening schools for in-person learning in Montgomery County appears to be a
long one as COVID-19 cases surge. Clarice Schillinger thinks the worst-case
scenario for the restart is September of 2021, but the mother of two from
Horsham doesn’t like to think about it. “My 14-year-old was crying last week,”
Schillinger, 33, said Sunday. “She said ‘Mom, all I want for Christmas is to go
back to school, to go back and play sports.’” Schillinger said her children
have had just three days of in-person learning in the Hatboro-Horsham School
District since March. That’s why she helped organize “Voice for Choice — Open
Our Schools,” a car rally that drove through Montgomery County on Sunday
afternoon. “We don’t want to take away virtual learning, but we want a choice
between that and in-person learning,” Schillinger said. “The kids are suffering
right now.” Montgomery County has had 935 COVID-19 deaths this year, the second
most in the state behind Philadelphia. The county had 21,021 total confirmed
cases as of Sunday night and, like most areas, those numbers are going up.
Virus or not,
Pottstown High's homecoming seeks a sense of the normal
Pottstown
Mercury by Evan
Brandt ebrandt@21st-centurymedia.com @PottstownNews on Twitter Nov 27, 2020
POTTSTOWN —
Add homecoming celebrations to the list of things the coronavirus pandemic has
turned on its head. With masks hiding smiles, social distancing stretching the
sense of togetherness and a sparse-if-any cheering crowd across southeastern
Pennsylvania homecoming celebrations, if they've happened at all, have been
like nothing we've ever seen before — and hopefully, won't see again. Just ask
John Armato, the Pottstown School District's director of community relations
and a person who has attended every single Pottstown High School Homecoming
since he first joined the district in the 1969-1970 school year. So we did ask
him.
Report: The most and
least equitable schools in Pa. | The Numbers Racket
PA Capital
Star By Cassie
Miller November 30, 2020
The gap
between the rich and poor have been exacerbated by the global COVID-19
pandemic. Unfortunately, one of the areas where those discrepancies is most
prevalent is in education. An August
study from WalletHub, a
financial news website, found that Pennsylvania has the 24th least
equitable school districts in the U.S. Methodology - WalletHub based its
rankings of school districts throughout the country on two metrics:
- Average household income
- Expenditures for public elementary and
secondary schools per pupil
WalletHub
acquired this data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for
Education Statistics. The districts are ranked based on the total score of each
district with the lowest value representing the most equitable.
“Education today is facing the worst
crisis in over 100 years,” Dinniman said. “Many students, especially in poorer
areas, just are not learning online.” These students were already vulnerable
prior to the pandemic and “we have increased their vulnerability,” he said,
noting many students, living in poverty, have not been in a classroom setting
since March.”
As Dinniman nears
retirement, he sets sight on forming PAC for transformative education
West Chester
Daily Local By
Jen Samuel jsamuel@dailylocal.com @jenpoetess on Twitter Nov 29, 2020
WEST CHESTER
— The ability for a person to create transformative change for a better
community is everyone’s responsibility. That’s according to retiring state Sen.
Andy Dinniman, D-19th, of West Whiteland. He did not run for reelection in
2020. His current term in the State Senate ends in December. “I am not retiring
from my effort to create change,” Dinniman said. The senator told the Daily
Local News that he plans to create change after retiring from the
State Senate as an advocate for “transformative” education. Dinniman said he is
forming a Political Action Committee (super PAC) for education advocacy. He
said he plans to officially launch the PAC this winter beginning in December.
His term in the senate ends Monday. “One has a responsibility, all of one’s
life, to make things better for your community,” Dinniman said. It will be a
nonpartisan PAC, Dinniman said. Dinniman has served in government as an elected
official for more than 30 years. He spent 14 years as a Chester County
Commissioner prior to becoming an elected state senator in 2006. Further,
Dinniman has launched a weekly podcast on education to continue his advocacy
work. It is available on Spotify and via other digital platforms. He said the
hope is for the issues PAC to advance solutions in education for students in
Pennsylvania. The PAC will work together to collaborate on solutions and
present its findings to the State Legislature and the governor.
Sturla booted from
leadership position after 12 years, Pa. House Democrats moving in a 'new
direction'
Lancaster
Online by GILLIAN
McGOLDRICK | Staff Writer November
30, 2020
Pennsylvania
Democrats fell well short of their goal of reclaiming majorities in one or both
chambers of the state legislature this year, and the party’s failure to win
races the polls showed were in their grasp has cost Lancaster’s lone Democratic
state representative his role in the party’s leadership. Rep. Mike Sturla, the
15-term legislator from Lancaster city, easily won reelection on Nov. 3,
running unopposed. But nine days after the election, a majority of his
colleagues voted against his bid to return as chairman of the House Democratic
Policy Committee, a key leadership post responsible for setting the caucus
agenda. Sturla was the last of the party’s senior leadership in the House to be
reelected. Even the chamber’s top Democrat, Frank Dermody of Allegheny County,
lost his seat, one of a net three Democratic districts picked up by
Republicans. Dermody’s loss left Sturla, 64, as the longest-serving party
leader running for another term.
Ziccarrelli continues
to say certain mail-in ballots shouldn’t be counted, even after courts disagree
PA Capital
Star By Kim
Lyons November 30, 2020
Republican
state Senate candidate Nicole Ziccarelli trails incumbent Democrat Jim Brewster
by 91 votes in Pennsylvania’s 45th state Senate District, but she is still
fighting over whether
hundreds of mail-in ballots should be counted. About 300 mail-in ballots from Allegheny
County, which were turned in on time and filled out properly except were
missing hand-written dates on their outer envelopes, were recently counted
thanks to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. When it meets Monday, the
Westmoreland County Board of Electors is expected to decide whether to allow
some 343 mail-in ballots cast in the 45th Senatorial District to be counted.
These undated ballots are similar to those in Allegheny County that were
recently ruled valid. However, Ziccarelli doesn’t believe they should be
counted, while Brewster says they should be counted.
New Jersey moves to
strengthen Black history education mandates
Inquirer by Melanie Burney, Posted: November 27, 2020
When Cherry
Hill seventh grader Ebele Azikiwe told her mother about a Black history lesson,
she was surprised by the response. It was virtually the same lesson her mother
learned 20 years ago at the same school. Ebele, 12, like many of her peers
across the region, has been on a mission to change how Black history is taught.
She wrote a letter to her principal and last month testified via Zoom at the
Statehouse about a bill that would make sweeping changes to the curriculum. New
Jersey lawmakers approved a bill last month to change how public schools
teach Black history and hold them more accountable. If signed into law by Gov.
Phil Murphy it would require lessons about racism and social justice and
contributions made by prominent African Americans from the past to the present
like Kamala Harris, the first woman, and person of Black and South Asian
descent elected vice president. “Our children will learn about Black history
and not just being a slave,” said Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D., Hudson),
one of the bill’s sponsors. “We will know the contributions that Black people
continue to do.”
Pa. high school staff
member dies of COVID-19 complications
Penn Live By Tribune News Service Updated Nov 28, 7:34 PM; Posted Nov 28,
2:40 PM
A staff
member at Greater Latrobe Senior High has died of complications of COVID-19,
according to the school district. On Wednesday, the school board voted to
continue offering in-person instruction for students, while COVID-19 case
levels are in the “substantial” range and rising in Westmoreland County. Superintendent
Georgia Teppert stated in an email sent to district faculty and staff on
Thanksgiving Day that district officials learned Terri Sherwin, a senior high
secretary, died Wednesday evening from COVID-19 complications.
The list:
Pittsburgh-area school districts shift back to remote learning as COVID-19
cases surge
PITTSBURGH
POST-GAZETTE NOV 29, 2020 5:38 PM
An
increasing number of schools and districts in southwestern Pennsylvania are
transitioning to remote instruction as the Pittsburgh region continues to experience a spike in COVID-19 cases. The districts said they plan to monitor
conditions in Allegheny County and adjust their instruction schedules
accordingly. Here are the districts that have announced changes (in alphabetical
order):
Beaver County schools
go virtual as COVID-19 rates climb
Many Beaver
County school districts are transitioning to remote learning through at least
early December as COVID-19 transmission spikes regionally.
Chrissy
Suttles Daveen
Rae Kurutz Beaver County Times November 27, 2020
Many Beaver
County school districts are transitioning to remote learning through at least
early December as COVID-19 transmission spikes regionally. Students in
districts including Ambridge Area, Freedom Area and New Brighton Area have all
moved to virtual learning for the foreseeable future, as these districts, as
well as New Horizon School and Baden Academy, have not yet specified return
dates. Big Beaver Falls Area is set to return on Tuesday, Rochester
Area on Dec. 11, and Central Valley on Dec. 14. Midland Borough, Beaver County
Career and Technology Center and Beaver Area could all return as early as Dec.
7, although decisions are subject to recommendations from state departments of
health and education. Hopewell Area School District will go fully remote
through Jan. 15, suspending all sports through at least Dec. 7. South
Side Area will go virtual through at least Dec. 11.
CTC of Lackawanna
County transitions to online-only learning
Times
Tribune BY
JEFF HORVATH STAFF WRITER Nov 29,
2020 Updated 1 hr ago
Students at
the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County will learn exclusively online
until at least after the New Year’s holiday, Administrative Director Thomas
Baileys, Ed.D., said. During a virtual meeting Sunday, the CTC’s Joint
Operating Committee, composed of members from sending districts, voted 6-0 to
switch from a hybrid model to full virtual education amid the ongoing threat of
COVID-19. An earlier motion to continue with hybrid learning failed when the
board deadlocked at 3-3. Board members Ronald Bukowski of Mid Valley and
Stephen Ursich of Forest City did not participate in the virtual session. The transition to full virtual learning is
effective immediately, officials said. Exactly when CTC students will return to
classrooms remains to be seen.
Central York High
School, middle school closed for another week
York
Dispatch Staff report November 30, 2020
Central York
School District announced that the district's high school and middle school
will remain closed through Tuesday, Dec. 8. The schools are closed because of
the number of positive coronavirus cases linked to the buildings, the district
said. "This extension of our closure of the secondary schools is an
attempt to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19 within our schools and
facilities and in accordance with the Pennsylvania Department of Health recommendations,"
the district stated in a post on its website.
Hazleton Area schools
stock up on computers, sprayers and thermometers for pandemic
Hazelton
Standard Speaker By
Kent Jackson Staff Writer Nov 27,
2020 Updated 10 hrs ago
No child
should be left without a computer after 992 more machines purchased by the
Hazleton Area school board arrive. “When we get them, we should have enough to
deliver to all students,” Dr. Kenneth Briggs, technology director, told the
board during a Nov. 11 committee meeting. On Tuesday, the board agreed to buy
the computers with $849,115 of federal pandemic funds. The board also spent
pandemic grants on cameras that take body temperatures and sprayers and
scrubbers for cleaning schools. With other funds, the board bought two-way
radios for buses and a system that will translate and display announcements in
Spanish on screens inside Hazleton Area High School. To equip 11,498 students
with computers that they can use while studying at home during the pandemic,
the board has been buying computers since April. Also Amazon donated 500 Kindle
Fire tablets, and a grant from the foundation of Mericle Commercial Real Estate
paid for 1,077 computers. Briggs said a supplier told him that computers
purchased Tuesday will arrive in December. But supplies for computers have
exceeded demand worldwide during the pandemic.
“Several of the president-elect's
cabinet picks, including, possibly, secretary of education, will be announced
Tuesday, according to Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain.”
Five ways Joe Biden
can "de-DeVos" U.S. education
Trump’s
education secretary seemed to be at war with the idea of public education. How
much can Joe Biden roll back
Salon.com By LARRY BUHL NOVEMBER 29, 2020 3:08PM (UTC)
This article
originally appeared on Capital & Main.
Teachers and
other education advocates are feeling giddy at the possibility of moving
forward a progressive agenda that the current education secretary, Betsy DeVos,
stopped dead in its tracks four years ago. President-elect Joe Biden campaign's
policy director, Stef Feldman, told the Education Writers Association that as
president, Biden would "get some big, bold education legislation passed
and certainly immediate relief for our schools and our educators," and
said Biden would take executive actions as well. Many of those executive
actions, education advocates hope, will de-DeVos the Department of
Education. Here are some of the likeliest ways public education will change in
a Biden-Harris administration.
DeVos calls on
Congress to postpone federal standardized NAEP exams until 2022
Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed pushing back the 2021 National Assessment of
Educational Progress exams.
Washington
Post By Perry
Stein November
25, 2020 at 7:26 p.m. EST
The national
standardized test regarded as a crucial barometer of student achievement could
be postponed until 2022 due to the coronavirus, the Education Department announced Wednesday. Federal officials said
that too many students are participating in virtual learning or are attending
schools that prohibit outside visitors, making it impossible to effectively
administer the exam. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called on the National
Center for Education Statistics — a branch of the Education Department
responsible for the federal tests — to stop any further spending in preparation
for the January exam. She also wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that removing the mandate to take the test should be an
act of Congress and called on legislators to postpone it. The National
Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the NAEP, often referred to
as the “nation’s report card,” is a closely watched exam because it assesses
the performance of children from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds in
urban, suburban and rural communities.
Teaching in the
Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’
Teacher
burnout could erode instructional quality, stymie working parents and hinder
the reopening of the economy.
New York
Times By Natasha Singer Nov. 30, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
At
Farmington Central Junior High in rural Illinois, classes still start at 8 a.m.
But that’s about the only part of the school day that has not changed for
Caitlyn Clayton, an eighth-grade English teacher tirelessly toggling between
in-person and remote students. At the start of the school day, Ms. Clayton
stands in front of the classroom, reminding her students to properly pull their
masks over their noses. Then she delves into a writing lesson, all the while
scanning the room for possible virus threats. She stops students from sharing
supplies. She keeps her distance when answering their questions. She disinfects
the desks between classes. Then in the afternoon, just as her in-person
students head home, Ms. Clayton begins her second day: remote teaching. Sitting
in her classroom, she checks in one-on-one via video with eighth graders who
have opted for distance learning. To make sure they are not missing out, she
spends hours more recording instructional videos that replicate her in-person
classroom lessons. “The days where it’s 13-plus hours at school, you’re just
exhausted, hoping to make it to the car at night,” Ms. Clayton said, noting
that many of her colleagues feel similarly depleted. “We’re seeing an extreme
level of teacher burnout.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/us/teachers-remote-learning-burnout.html
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.
Resolution for charter funding reform (pdf)
Link
to submit your adopted resolution to PSBA
332 PA school boards have
adopted charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 330 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.
https://www.psba.org/2020/03/adopted-charter-reform-resolutions/
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
https://www.pacharterchange.org/
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.
