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These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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Meet the
new PA House Republican Representatives for 2013-14
Meet the new PA House Democratic
lawmakers for 2013-14
A state
legislative update from the PA House
Democratic Caucus
http://enews.pahouse.net/q/UI_eLf6NjO9zk1kOAlgCpqUpwv03VKX0meBcMofgTT1B8TAQ5AfVIhhe2
http://enews.pahouse.net/q/UI_eLf6NjO9zk1kOAlgCpqUpwv03VKX0meBcMofgTT1B8TAQ5AfVIhhe2
Focus on Pa Cyber: Auditor general's report reveals pressing problems
A lot of the negative attention
focused on the Pennsylvania
Cyber Charter
School
A grand jury
investigation is believed to be focused on former school executives who wore
multiple hats at Pa Cyber, the Avanti Management Group and the nonprofit
National Network of Digital Schools Management Foundation. Millions of dollars
that started out as revenue from taxpayers flowed through Pa Cyber to those
spin-offs, and sorting that all out is a matter for federal investigators.
But the result of
Auditor General Jack Wagner's most recent review of the Beaver County-based
school, released Thursday, points to a different set of problems, ones that are
pronounced at Pa Cyber but also prevalent at other charter schools throughout
the state.
by thenotebook on
Dec 07 2012
by Benjamin Herold
for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner
Outgoing state Auditor General Jack Wagner has
said for years that Pennsylvania
This week, Wagner said an audit of the state's
largest cyber school showed the outcomes of that flawed funding system: unspent
millions of taxpayer dollars, wasteful contracts, and too much money spent on
advertising.
Why Is Pennsylvania
Diane Ravitch’s Blog December 8, 2012 //
Saturday postings: Why do hedge funds
ADORE charters? Pt. II: 39%+ Return/Meet PA new House members
Editorial:
When it comes to pension crisis, Corbett has right idea
State Sen. Dominic Pileggi and
most others in the legislature concur, at least about changing the sytem. The
former Chester mayor and Republican leader in the Senate has proposed a change
in the pension system, moving future employees from a defined benefit to a
defined contribution, pretty much what most workers in the state already are
doing. In other words, welcome to the world of 401Ks.
But Corbett seems ready to go further, talking about actually reducing or rolling back benefits in the future. Good for him. The state cannot and probably should not look to reduce benefits already owed to unionized state employees, teachers and lawmakers.
But the state is peering into the abyss of a $41 billion pension shortfall that is a powder keg, threatening to wreak havoc not only on the state budget, but at the local level for municipalities and school districts as well. Taxpayers already are on the hook for a $1.6 billion public pension hit this year. That number is expected to balloon to as much as $4 billion a year and stay there for decades.
But Corbett seems ready to go further, talking about actually reducing or rolling back benefits in the future. Good for him. The state cannot and probably should not look to reduce benefits already owed to unionized state employees, teachers and lawmakers.
But the state is peering into the abyss of a $41 billion pension shortfall that is a powder keg, threatening to wreak havoc not only on the state budget, but at the local level for municipalities and school districts as well. Taxpayers already are on the hook for a $1.6 billion public pension hit this year. That number is expected to balloon to as much as $4 billion a year and stay there for decades.
Philly District has new model for handling students' academic and
behavioral problems
by thenotebook on
Dec 07 2012
by Charlotte Pope
The School District
has begun to roll out a new system for responding to poor classroom
performance, bad behavior, and truancy in students.
The West Philadelphia Parent and Family Resource
Center , in collaboration with the School District of Philadelphia ’s
Parent University
The RtII model promises targeted interventions
and the differentiation of universal instruction to meet individual student
needs. The model is built around levels of school support in academics,
behavior, discipline, and attendance. All of them use alternatives to
suspension and expulsion, routine intervention assessments, and frequent
progress monitoring.
How one school
‘turnaround’ worked (without firing the teachers)
New data released
by the Education Department shows that the results of its efforts so far to
turn around the country’s lowest-performing schools are mixed. The Obama
administration has been pushing its turnaround policy through
the School Improvement Grant program, which requires districts that get the
money to choose one of four corporate-based options to improve student
achievement (which is evaluated on standardized test scores).
Critics
say that the four options — which all involve changing some or all of the
teachers and administrators, including one that calls for closing the school
entirely — are all punitive and won’t likely work in
the long run. There are, though, other ways to improve schools that focus on
the children, not the adults. Here’s the story of one troubled school that was
turned around with help from a data-driven dropout program called Diplomas Now, which targets and provides support to
middle school students through mentoring relationships and is based on research
by Johns Hopkins University Professor Bob Balfanz. Here, NPR’s Ray Suarez
reports on a Baton Rouge
“It would be one thing if
charter schools were vast improvements, but what we know is they’re not.
Essentially (CPS) is cannibalizing the system to privatize it.”
Parents United for Responsible Eduction
From today’s Tribune: Chicago Public Schools
said Friday it plans to add four more charter schools to the nine charters
previously approved for the coming year, which quickly became fuel for critics
of the district’s plans to close many neighborhood schools.
Converting schools to
charters a simmering issue in Miami-Dade
Two parents in Key
Biscayne have hired an attorney to negotiate the procedure for voting on
converting their school into a charter.
BY LAURA ISENSEE LISENSEE@MIAMIHERALD.COM
For the second year in a
row, Florida parents are preparing to battle
in Tallahassee
And the issue — enabling
parents to convert traditional public schools into charter shools — is
simmering in Miami-Dade.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/07/3131200/converting-schools-to-charters.html#storylink=cpy
