Daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 3150 Pennsylvania education
policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and
congressional staffers, Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of
Education, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, 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 and Twitter
These daily emails are archived and
searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
The Keystone State Education Coalition
is pleased to be listed among the friends and allies of The Network for Public Education. Are you a member?
Keystone State Education Coalition
Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup
for March 17, 2014:
“The intent of the charter school law really was to provide
educational opportunities for students that did not exist in our traditional public
schools ... to look for ways to do things better and save money. We seem to
have lost sight of those goals.”
Charter schools in tense unions with financially pinched districts
TribLive
By Megan
Harris Published: Monday, March 17, 2014, 12:01 a.m.
Pennsylvania's process for approving charter schools pits would-be school reformers against traditional school districts eager to protect their money and enrollments — a situation that isn't likely to change soon, advocates on both sides say. State law directs districts to approve charter schools to which they must give up millions in per-pupil state funding. Educators and legislators agree the process is contentious and offers no incentive for budget-pinched districts to feed their competition. “The intent of the charter school law really was to provide educational opportunities for students that did not exist in our traditional public schools ... to look for ways to do things better and save money,” said Linda Hippert, executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which represents 42 districts. “We seem to have lost sight of those goals.”
Pennsylvania's process for approving charter schools pits would-be school reformers against traditional school districts eager to protect their money and enrollments — a situation that isn't likely to change soon, advocates on both sides say. State law directs districts to approve charter schools to which they must give up millions in per-pupil state funding. Educators and legislators agree the process is contentious and offers no incentive for budget-pinched districts to feed their competition. “The intent of the charter school law really was to provide educational opportunities for students that did not exist in our traditional public schools ... to look for ways to do things better and save money,” said Linda Hippert, executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which represents 42 districts. “We seem to have lost sight of those goals.”
Did you
catch our weekend postings?
PA Ed Policy Roundup for March 15, 2014: PA Auditor General
concludes statewide series of charter school hearings in Philly
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Flawed charter funding more pressing
Beaver
County Times LTE by Dan Castagna Published: Sunday, March 16, 2014 4:00 am
Daniel R. Castagna is
Superintendent, West Mifflin Area School District
Rep.
Jim Christiana needs to get his legislative priorities and facts straight. In
his op-ed, Christiana makes a flimsy case for needless legislation prohibiting
payroll deduction of union dues when instead; serious reforms are needed to fix
the state’s flawed funding formula to charter/cyber-charter schools. He either
doesn’t grasp the real issues facing public education or doesn’t have a real
concern for taxpayers. A greater concern
to Christiana should be the $365 million overpayment to charter/cyber-charter
schools made at the expense of taxpayers and local school districts across the
Commonwealth. Taxpayers are being fleeced to the tune of over $1 million a day
as a result with no action in Harrisburg.
By
Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette March 16, 2014 11:23 PM
First-grader
Luke Benedict of Beechview wants to get to school and get there on time, according
to his mom. After all, this school year
Pittsburgh Beechwood PreK-5 is honoring those who are on time and have good
attendance with pizza parties, visits by the lion mascot, "purr-fectly
punctual" buttons and other incentives.
"We never really had a problem. It just makes it easier to get him
there in the morning, to get him moving. He's really proud to get
recognized," said his mom, Michelle Benedict. School attendance is up this year at
Beechwood, as it is at about 80 percent of the district's 51 regular schools. "I am really excited by the fact that so
many of our schools are seeing the positive impact of paying attention to good
attendance," said Pete Lavorini, project manager for college and career
readiness for Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Toomey bill would tighten teacher
background checks
A similar measure has stalled in
the state House
While a “pass the trash” bill designed to prevent teachers accused of sexual misconduct from quietly resigning and moving to another district has stalled in the state House, a bill with similar intentions is being pushed on the national level by U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley. Toomey introduced Senate Bill 1596, the “Protecting Students From Sexual and Violent Predators Act” last October. It is intended to set uniform minimum background check requirements for all public schools nationwide, Toomey Press Secretary Steve Kelly said. Kelly cited a Government Accounting Office report released in January on how federal agencies could support state efforts in preventing sexual child abuse by school personnel. “Five states don’t have any background check laws at all,” Kelly said.
Pension pitfall: The Senate Dems’ plan fails to curb future costs
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette Editorial March 16, 2014 12:00 AM
Democratic
lawmakers in Harrisburg have put together what they’re calling a “pension
reform plan,” but the proposal doesn’t live up to its billing. The plan would refinance some of the
obligations to the pension funds of state and school district employees, but it
won’t change the underlying elements that make the system unsustainable.
Read
more: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2014/03/16/Pension-pitfall/stories/201403140012#ixzz2w9yupKc7
"At a recent hearing, one critic pointed out that the
law Saccone is trying to change doesn't apply to the General Assembly. Caucus
meetings would remain shrouded. But Saccone said that shouldn't sink his
bill."
Bill to record private meetings in Pa.
WHYY
Newsworks BY MARY WILSON MARCH 17, 2014
The Pennsylvania lawmaker
who wants to require entities such as school boards and city councils to record
their private meetings is also angling to make them give advance notice of
agenda changes. A bill by Rep. Rick
Saccone, R-Allegheny, was the subject of a committee hearing but a vote hasn't
been scheduled yet. Saccone said he wants to tweak the bill to require any
agenda changes be made with some advance notice to the public. At this point,
he's thinking 24 or 48 hours might work.
The Pulse: SATs don't always mark a successful path
MICHAEL
SMERCONISH, INQUIRER COLUMNIST Sunday, March 16, 2014, 1:09 AM
I just
experienced the thrill of being invited back to the campus of my alma mater to
speak to undergraduate students. The invitation came a few months ago from Jack
Lule, the chair of journalism and communication at Lehigh University, from
which I graduated in 1984. That someone in Lule's position would think students
could benefit from listening to me for an hour gave me a measure of achievement
and acceptance. And I get why I was
invited: The combination of my professional activities since graduation,
including writing for The Inquirer, hosting a daily radio program nationwide on
SiriusXM, writing five books with a novel on the way, and now hosting a
Saturday morning program on CNN.
There's
just one problem: According to my SATs, I was never Lehigh material.
Marie Corfield's Blog Sunday,
March 16, 2014
This is
a story about a hospital in an inner city neighborhood that serves a very high
population of low-income people of color. Many don’t have the resources to
properly care for themselves. Unemployment is high, and many still don’t have
health insurance. A significant number live in poverty, and about one third
don’t speak English as their first language. Many have seen their SNAP benefits
cut so they can’t provide proper nutrition for themselves and their families.
Some areas around the hospital are dangerous; gangs, gun violence, drug trade
and crime have proliferated. The
hospital cannot turn anyone away who comes in for treatment. Some patients follow
the prescribed course of treatment and get better, but others, because of any
number of reasons outside the hospital’s control, don’t. There is only so much
they can do once a patient leaves, especially if the patient is homeless.
“Just as importantly, they must
understand that they have the power to wrest it back. We urge them to start by
rejecting Common Core and PARCC. Massachusetts should return to its own proud
and successful traditions — the civil disobedience embodied by Henry David
Thoreau, and the independence in public education pioneered by Horace Mann. In
so doing, we can set an example for every state.”
Worcester, Massachusetts, Newspaper Urges Parents to Opt Out Of State
Testing and Reject Common Core
The Worcester Telegram
commended parents who choose to opt out of state testing and reminded parents that they–not the
federal government, not the GatesFoundation–are the ultimate controllers of
their children’s education. The paper laments the fact that Massachusetts
dropped its successful state standards to chase federal dollars. After reviewing the genesis of Common
Core,the newspaper concluded: “Thus, the
purity of the motives at play, and the content of Common Core and PARCC, are
important issues, but not the first ones that must be addressed. “That first issue is the unprecedented and
illegal wresting of the core of public education from the hands of local
players. Parents, teachers, and local school boards alike must first understand
that what is happening is authorized by no law, and has no basis in the
Constitution.
Parent to officials: ‘if you know it’s
wrong but remain silent, you’re complicit in educational malpractice’
Here’s
a letter from Massachusetts
parent Ricardo D. Rosa to the New Bedford School Committee and Superintendent
Pia Durkin about high-stakes standardized testing. Rosa
explains why he wants to opt his children out of this month’s Massachusetts
Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams and all upcoming high-stakes
test, including the Common Core-aligned tests being designed by a
consortium of states called PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers). Rosa is an
assistant professor at the University
of Massachusetts at Dartmouth who specializes in curriculum and
instruction, language policies, Literacy and social studies education. In his
letter, he refers to the 2013 Massachusetts
Statement Against High-Stakes Testing, which was signed by more than 130
Massachusetts professors and researchers from some 20 schools
— including Harvard, Tufts, Boston and Brandeis universities —urging
state officials to stop overusing high-stakes standardized tests to assess
students, teachers and schools.
"There are two important takeaways from this story.
First, is that misinformation is part of a continuing strategy to paint a
picture of American public schools as failures in order to sell the public the
Common Core, charter schools and the corporate reform agenda. The second takeaway is that fact-checking is
too often ignored by the press. The distortions are repeated even when,
as in this case, common sense should call them into question. It is the
responsibility of the press, not the public, to get the story straight and make
sure the truth is told."
Are American students grossly
unprepared for college?
It has
become a common refrain from school reformers that a very large percentage of
high school graduates must take remedial classes when they get to college. Are
they right? Award-winning Prinicipal Carol Burris of South
Side High
School in New York
looks at this issue in the following post. She has been exposing the
problems with New York ’s
botched school reform effort for a long time on this blog. (You can read some
of her work here, here, here, here,
and here.) Burris was
named New York ’s
2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association
of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in
2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the
School Administrators Association of New York State. She is the co-author of the
New York Principals letter of concern regarding the evaluation of teachers by
student test scores. It has been signed by thousands of principals teachers,
parents, professors, administrators and citizens. You can read the letter by clicking here.
How Does PISA
Yong
Zhao's Blog 9 MARCH 2014
PISA,
the OECD’s triennial international assessment of 15 year olds in math, reading,
and science, has become one of the most destructive forces in education today.
It creates illusory models of excellence, romanticizes misery, glorifies
educational authoritarianism, and most serious, directs the world’s attention
to the past instead of pointing to the future. In the coming weeks, I will
publish five blog posts detailing each of my “charges,” adapted from parts of
my book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and
Worst) Education.
How Does PISA Put the
World at Risk (Part 2): Glorifying Educational Authoritarianism
Yong Zhao's Blog 16 MARCH 2014
authoritarian: of, relating to, or favoring blind
submission to authority (Merriam-Webster
Dictionary)
authoritarianism: principle of blind submission to
authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action (Encyclopedia Britannica)
PISA’s glorification of educational authoritarianism goes
beyond its romanticization of the misery children suffer in authoritarian
education systems as discussed in my last post. Because some authoritarian education systems
seem to generate better PISA rankings, it has been concluded that educational
authoritarianism, the systemic arrangements designed to enforce
government-prescribed, uniform standards upon all children, should be emulated
by the rest of the world. “High-performing school systems also share clear and
ambitious standards across the board. Everyone knows what is required to get a
given qualification,” writes Andreas Schleicher, the PISA chief. “This remains
one of the most powerful system-level predictors in PISA.”
Does Teaching Kids To Get
'Gritty' Help Them Get Ahead?
NPR by TOVIA SMITH March 17,
2014 5:00 AM
It's become the new buzz phrase in education: "Got
grit?" Around the nation, schools
are beginning to see grit as key to students' success — and just as important
to teach as reading and math. Experts
define grit as persistence, determination and resilience; it's that je
ne sais quoi that drives one kid to practice trumpet or study Spanish
for hours — or years — on end, while another quits after the first setback. "This quality of being able to sustain
your passions, and also work really hard at them, over really disappointingly
long periods of time, that's grit," says Angela Duckworth, a psychology
professor at the University of Pennsylvania who coined the term
"grit" — and won a MacArthur "genius grant" for it. "It's a very, I think, American idea in
some ways, really pursuing something against all odds," she says. Duckworth says that her
research shows grit is actually a better predictor of success than IQ
or other measures when it comes to achievements as varied as graduating West Point or winning the National Spelling Bee.
Education, health, and
social welfare coalition urges Congress to boost K-12 education spending
NSBA School Board News Today March 14, 2014
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) joined more than
1,000 groups asking Congress to restore funds to the appropriations bill that
includes education and related programs to the fiscal year (FY) 2010 level of
$163.6 billion. A letter signed
by 1,065 groups representing the health, education, labor and social services
sectors, based in Washington and in each state, was sent to Congressional
leaders on March 13. The letter noted that despite the profound impact on the
country’s health, education, and productivity, the budget for the federal
programs and services remains below FY 2010 levels and the impacted groups are
buckling under the weight of increased demand. Specifically, the FY 2014
allocation remains 3.6 percent below FY 2010 in nominal dollars, and almost 10
percent lower than FY 2010 when adjusted for inflation.
PA School Board Members
interested in running for PSBA officer positions must file applications no
Later than April 30th
PSBA's website Electing PSBA Officers
All persons seeking nomination for elected positions of the
Association shall file with the Leadership Development Committee chair during
the month of April, an Application for Nomination on a form to be provided by
the Association expressing interest in the office sought. The Application for
nomination shall be marked received at PSBA Headquarters or mailed first class
and postmarked by April 30 to be considered and timely filed. If said date
falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, then the Application for Nomination
shall be considered timely filed if marked received at PSBA headquarters or
mailed and postmarked on the next business day." (PSBA Bylaws, Article IV,
Section 5.E.).
Details and position descriptions: https://www.psba.org/elections/index.asp
Live Chat with PA's Major Education Leadership Organizations on Twitter
Tuesday March 25th at 8:00 p.m.
PSBA
website 3/11/2014
On Tuesday,
March 25 at 8 p.m., Pennsylvania's major education leadership organizations
will host a live chat on Twitter to share the opinions of school leaders from
throughout the state and invite feedback.
Join the conversation using hashtag #PAEdFunding and
lurk, learn or let us know what you think about the state of support for public
schools. If you've never tweeted before,
join us. It's a simple, free and fast-paced way to communicate and share
information. Here are directions and a few tips:
- See
more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=7286#sthash.OGonknCO.dpuf
How the Business Community Can Lead on
Early Education
Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia
Join
business and community leaders to learn about how you can help make sure every
child arrives in kindergarten ready to succeed. On April 29th, the Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and
Southern New Jersey will host a forum featuring business leaders from around
the country talking about why they’re focused on early childhood education and
how they have moved the needle on improving quality and access in their states.
Featured
Speakers
- Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of The
Vanguard Group
- Phil Peterson, Partner, Aon Hewitt and
Co-Chair of America’s Edge/Ready Nation
- And more to be announced!
- Date & Time Tuesday, April
29, 2014 | 5-7 PM
Registration begins at 5 PM;
program from 5:30 to 7:00 PM
- Location Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia
10 North Independence Mall West Philadelphia,
PA 19106
Registration:
http://worldclassgreaterphila.org/worldclasscouncilforum
PILCOP Special Education Seminars 2014
Schedule
Public
Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Register Now! EPLC’s 2014 Education Issues
Workshops for Legislative Candidates, Campaign Staff, and Interested Voters
EPLC’s Education
Issue Workshops Register Now! – Space is Limited!
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program forPennsylvania
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program for
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 in Monroeville ,
PA
Thursday, March 27, 2014 inPhiladelphia ,PA
Thursday, March 27, 2014 in
2014 PA Gubernatorial Candidate Plans for Education
and Arts/Culture in PA
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Below is an alphabetical list of the 2014
Gubernatorial Candidates and links to information about their plans, if
elected, for education and arts/culture in Pennsylvania. This list will be updated, as more
information becomes available.
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