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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for July 15, 2015:
"Department officials
attribute the declines to the increased rigor of the state standardized tests. This past school year was the first in which
every question aligned with the Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY JULY 14, 2015
The number of Pennsylvania students
who scored "proficient" or "advanced" on state standardized
tests in 2014-15 has fallen precipitously compared with the previous year.
And it marks four
straight years of testing declines. The
Pennsylvania Department of Education confirms the drop, but will not provide
specifics – citing the need to finalize data.
But a chart available
on the department's website offers the ability to provide a clearer picture by
crunching the data. Analysis shows that
an additional 35.4 percent of the state's students in grades three through
eight have fallen into "basic" or "below basic"
designations for math on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)
exam. An additional 9.4 percent of these
students have fallen into those categories, on average, in English language
arts.
Huffington Post by Peter Greene Posted: 07/12/2015 4:34 pm EDT
Brace yourself,
Pennsylvanians. The new cut scores for last years Big Standardized Tests have
been set, and they are not pretty. It
was only this week the State Board of Education met to accept the recommendations of their Council of
Basic Education. Because, yes -- cut scores are set after test results are in,
not before. You'll see why shortly. A
source at those meetings passed along some explanation of how all this works.
We'll get to the bad news in a minute, but first -- here's how we get there.
How Are Scores
Set?
In PA, when it comes
to ranking students, we stick with good, old-fashioned Below Basic, Basic,
Proficient and Advanced. The cut scores -- the scores that decide where we draw
the line between those designations -- come from two groups.
As Pa.
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY WILSON JULY 15, 2015
The political debate
over the state budget has hit a lull within the walls of Pennsylvania 's Capitol, but it's very much
alive on roadside billboards, radio ads, and in mailboxes. "We're in a messaging war, but that's on
both sides," said Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna, this week. GOP ally Americans
for Prosperity has radio ads and billboards blasting the governor for trying to
raise taxes. An affiliate of the
Democratic Governors Association has its own TV and radio ads, as well as
mailers slamming individual Republicans for not supporting the governor's
budget vision. State Sen. Mario
Scavello, R-Monroe, said the attacks on lawmakers will hurt Wolf's ability to
make a deal with Republicans. "Oh
my gosh, yeah. Definitely," said Scavello. "Because, you know what, I
could be one of those swing votes, I tell you right now." And after his
district was blanketed by critical mailers? Not so much, Scavello said. "It's called communication," said a
disdainful Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia. He said there's nothing
unexpected about the current messaging war – including any proxy-attacks
against lawmakers. "It has no interference with the negotiating practice,
and it's exactly what we would all do," Hughes said.
Democrats meet with Gov.
Wolf on budget
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, July 14,
2015
Democratic
legislative leaders met with Gov. Tom Wolf Tuesday where they discussed the
progress of talks on getting to an agreement on a budget as well as natural gas
extraction tax and property tax relief proposals. “We’re trying to understand how it is that
Speaker Turzai does not want to do a Marcellus Shale tax that at the end of the
day means that we’re not going to provide education funding for our kids,”
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) told The PLS Reporter.
“That’s disturbing to us and we’re just trying to get our arms around that.” While he did not comment on what strategy
might develop to have severance tax negotiations that do not include the
Speaker, Sen. Costa indicated Democrats will continue to try to build consensus
with Republicans and the governor on getting to a budget.
Democratic leaders further
budget talks with Gov. Tom Wolf
Penn Live By Christian Alexandersen |
calexandersen@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on July 14, 2015 at 3:38 PM
Democrats in the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives and Senate met with Gov. Tom Wolf Tuesday morning
as part of ongoing budget talks with lawmakers.
House Democratic Spokesman Bill Patton said the meeting between
Democratic leaders and the governor went well. Democrats are unified in pushing
for better school funding, lower property taxes and closing the deficit with
sustainable revenues, he said. Following
the budget meeting, Wolf traveled to Philadelphia
to give a speech at the NAACP annual conference. Senate Majority Caucus Spokeswoman Jennifer
Kocher said she is not aware of any meetings between
Republicans and the governor on Tuesday.
'Don't be fooled' by Wolf
attacks, House GOP lawmaker bites back in mailer: Tuesday Morning Coffee
House Republican mailer hitting
back against PAC-funded budget attacks.
Penn Live By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on
July 14, 2015 at 8:27 AM, updated July 14, 2015 at 9:29 AM
(*This piece has been updated to include comment from House GOP spokesman
Steve Miskin.)
Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
House Republicans are hitting back against attacks by the Democratic Governors Association in a new bulk mailing to voters, warning them to not "be fooled" as tensions ratchet ever upward in Budget Impasse 2015. Normally, lawmakers reserve these mailers for voter updates and news on local goings-on. This is the first time we can recall them being enlisted in the cause of a budgetary back-and-forth -- particularly in response to attacks by a third-party issue group. Here's a look at one obtained by PennLive Opinion this week:
House Republicans are hitting back against attacks by the Democratic Governors Association in a new bulk mailing to voters, warning them to not "be fooled" as tensions ratchet ever upward in Budget Impasse 2015. Normally, lawmakers reserve these mailers for voter updates and news on local goings-on. This is the first time we can recall them being enlisted in the cause of a budgetary back-and-forth -- particularly in response to attacks by a third-party issue group. Here's a look at one obtained by PennLive Opinion this week:
PA-BGT: Don’t Expect a
Budget This Week
PoliticsPA Written by Jason Addy, Contributing Writer July 14, 2015
At this rate, the
state budget may not be passed before PA schools are back in session, with
school funding at thecenter
of the storm in Harrisburg . Relations between Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and
GOP legislative leaders are being strained to the breaking point, two weeks
after Wolf vetoed a
GOP-passed budget, leaving the state to enter the new fiscal year
without a taxing and spending plan. On
Monday, Wolf took his “Schools that Teach” tour to the home districts of Senate
Majority Leader Jake Corman and Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai, both
Republicans. While not an unusual move from a Governor, Wolf did not extend
an invitation to either legislator, leaving discussions on the
edge of turning sour. Monday morning,
Wolf held a seemingly
fruitless meeting with GOP President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati. “I want to have a conversation,” Wolf told
reporters outside. “I want to move beyond the posturing that these meetings
have been and get into actually some substantive conversations.”
New proposed state
education funding
WeAreCentralPA.com By
Christian Heilman | cheilman@wtajtv.com 07/13 2015 06:14PM
This new formula is
the result of a bipartisan committee. One of the major changes is giving school
districts more money if they're growing in population -- but where does that
leave school districts like some in our region that have been seeing enrollment
drop? The halls inside Everett High School
Editorial: School formula
hardly harmless
Pocono Record
Editorial Posted Jul. 14, 2015 at 6:12 PM
State Rep. David Parker, R-115, is calling needed attention toPennsylvania 's misguided
“hold-harmless” and other provisions that create funding imbalances for local
school districts.
State Rep. David Parker, R-115, is calling needed attention to
Parker cites the
recently released Basic Education Funding Commission report that found 320 of
the state’s 500 school districts are receiving $1 billion more than warranted,
while 180 districts, including financially strapped school districts in Monroe
County, receive $1 billion less annually than they need. These districts have
lost billions of dollars in funding since 1991, when lawmakers adopted the
so-called “hold harmless” policy, which guaranteed no district would ever
receive less funding. As a result even districts that lost students continued
receiving funding at the same rate or more, at the expense of districts like
those in Monroe ,
which grew rapidly in the early 2000s. Parker estimates state government
underfunded Monroe 's
districts by more than $717 million over that period. Meanwhile taxpayers have
shouldered a crushing burden of school taxes.
Property tax elimination
closer than ever?
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, July 14,
2015
Sponsors of a
proposal to eliminate school property taxes in Pennsylvania are feeling more optimistic
than ever before about its chances for passage.
“We are closer than we have ever been before in this long, painful
process, but we still have a long way to go,” Sen. Dave Argall (R-Schuylkill)
told The PLS Reporter. “We believe we have the votes that we need
for the first time in the Senate.” His
proposal, Senate Bill 76, plans to eliminate Pennsylvania ’s school property taxes by
raising the personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.34 percent and
increasing the sales tax from six to seven percent while also expanding the
base. Those tax increases would also
rise with inflation based upon the statewide weekly wage. Sen. Argall anticipates the proposal will
raise $12 billion, enough money to completely eliminate the school property
tax.
State's demon property tax
remains elusive
JOHN BAER, DAILY NEWS POLITICAL COLUMNIST Wednesday,
July 15, 2015, 12:16 AM
THE GREAT WHITE Whale of Pennsylvania politics, the property tax, is
swimming away from yet another effort to kill or curtail it. This despite Gov. Wolf and Republicans saying
they want reform and want it now and, my goodness, how historic it'll be. Yet this bipartisan goal, presenting
opportunity for bipartisan credit, is poised to join many other reforms in a
capital city known best as a graveyard of good ideas. Why? Tradition and politics.
The tax is regressive and loathed; unfair to those on fixed
incomes; complex due to uneven assessments across 67 counties; challenging for
poorer school districts struggling to raise local money; and wildly different
across the state.
The median annual tax in Forest
County is $860; in Chester County
The scope of the issue is, as Donald Trump would say, huuuuge.
Property taxes total about $14 billion. Elimination means
finding money to replace that hefty sum.
For too long, Pa.
Philly.com Opinion By State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams POSTED: Wednesday, July 15, 2015, 1:07
AM
It's budget season in Pennsylvania ,
and once again our schools need more money.
I am once again prepared to lead that fight in Harrisburg , but for the
first time in recent memory, this budget battle is bigger than just money. All over Pennsylvania , people are realizing that
money alone cannot fix the problems of public education. Schools need to be
accountable to the children and families they serve, and it's time we accepted
this fact, too. It is a major part of the Philadelphia
mayoral campaign, it has been the dominant theme in recent research on public
education, and last month, City Council even conditioned an award of additional
local tax dollars on a measurable set of school performance factors.
Learn more about the
Easton Cyber Academy
By Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on
July 14, 2015 at 2:38 PM, updated July 14, 2015 at 2:39 PM
Parents considering enrolling their children in the new
Easton Area School District-affiliated cyber school can learn more at an
information session next month. The Easton Cyber
Academy 's parent information meeting
will be 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the Easton
Area Middle
School 7/8 library, 1010 Echo Trail in Forks Township Easton Cyber
Academy Easton Area
High School
School property taxes
rising at 14 of 17 Lancaster
County
Another year, another school tax increase.
That's how local homeowners may feel as tax bills go out
this month.
With little certainty on Harrisburg's budget by the end of June,
14 of 17 Lancaster
County Elizabethtown .
The average increase is 1.7 percent. The
increases continue a years-long trend as districts have responded to the
economic recession, state and federal budget cuts and rising mandated costs,
such as pensions. Local school districts have raised taxes by an average
of 38 percent in the last decade.
11 Numbers to know about Lancaster County
Changes to Pennsylvania
school funding have been widely promoted in the last year, but neither Gov. Tom
Wolf's promised increases nor changes to the state funding formula were certain
when district budgets were due on June 30.
Without guarantees, school boards across Lancaster County
Here are 11 noteworthy numbers about local school budgets.
Senate rejects plan to allow parents to opt out of
state standardized tests
The Senate on Tuesday defeated an amendment to the
Every Child Achieves Act that would have allowed parents nationwide to opt out
of state standardized tests without putting school districts at risk of federal
sanctions. The chamber voted 64 to 32
against the amendment, proposed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) amid a backlash
against mandated standardized tests. “Parents, not politicians or bureaucrats,
will have the final say over whether individual children take tests,” he said. But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) — the
Republican co-sponsor of the carefully crafted bipartisan bill — spoke
forcefully against the proposal, saying it would strip states of the right to
decide whether to allow parents to opt out.
“I say to my Republican friends, do we only agree with local control
when we agree with the local policy?” said Alexander, who has framed the bill
as an effort to transfer power over education from the federal government to
the states.
The vote sets up an important difference to reconcile
between the House and Senate bills to rewrite No Child Left Behind, the
nation’s main federal education law.
Amid Cries of Overtesting,
a Crazy Quilt of State Responses
Education Week By Andrew
Ujifusa Published Online: July 8, 2015
After years of outcry and intensifying public debate about
whether students are overtested, many states are attempting to definitively
address the issue this year. But there's no consistent strategy across the
country, and just what the proposed solutions will mean for assessments could
vary dramatically. The Council of Chief
State School Officers says that 39 states are examining how to reduce
overtesting or cut redundant tests in some fashion, as part of
their efforts to "reduce unnecessary burden" from testing. Yet many states, rather than placing hard
caps on testing time or cutting specific exams through legislation, are
choosing to hand responsibility for reducing testing to new state commissions
or to work directly with local schools.
Blogger note: there are
approximately 120 Gulen charter schools in the US
In
Blow to Erdogan, Turkish Court
New York Times By CEYLAN YEGINSU JULY 14, 2015
ISTANBUL — In a blow to the government, Turkey’s highest court has
overturned a law that would have closed thousands of preparatory schools linked
to an influential Muslim cleric and rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Constitutional
Court ruled on Monday that the legislation to shut
the schools, passed in 2014 while Mr. Erdogan was prime minister and his
governing Justice and Development Party had a majority in Parliament, violated
the freedom of education enshrined in the Turkish Constitution, according to
local news reports. Although the court’s decision was handed down on Monday, it
was not expected to be published until Wednesday. The schools, attended by students seeking to
pass national high school and university entrance exams, are run by Fethullah
Gulen, a cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania . He presides over a network of
millions of followers worldwide, some of whom hold high-ranking positions in
law enforcement, the judiciary and business in Turkey.
Nominations for PSBA's
Allwein Advocacy Award now open
PSBA July 7, 2015
PSBA July 7, 2015
The Timothy M.
Allwein Advocacy Award was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania School
Boards Association and may be presented annually to the individual school
director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in
legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that
are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. The 2015 Allwein Award nomination process
will close on Aug. 28, 2015. The 2015 Allwein Award Nomination Form is available online. More details on the
award and nominations process can be found online.
Register Now – PAESSP
State Conference – Oct. 18-20 – State College, PA
Registration is now
open for PAESSP's State Conference to be held October 18-20 at The
Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College, PA! This year's
theme is @EVERYLEADER and features three nationally-known keynote
speakers (Dr. James Stronge, Justin Baeder and Dr. Mike Schmoker), professional
breakout sessions, a legal update, exhibits, Tech Learning Labs and many
opportunities to network with your colleagues (Monday evening event with Jay
Paterno). Once again, in conjunction
with its conference, PAESSP will offer two 30-hour Act 45 PIL-approved
programs, Linking Student Learning to Teacher Supervision and Evaluation
(pre-conference offering on 10/17/15); and Improving Student Learning
Through Research-Based Practices: The Power of an Effective Principal (held
during the conference, 10/18/15 -10/20/15). Register for either or both PIL
programs when you register for the Full Conference!
REGISTER TODAY for
the Conference and Act 45 PIL program/s at:
Apply
now for EPLC’s 2015-2016 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program
Applications are
available now for the 2015-2016 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in
Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC). With more than 400 graduates in its
first sixteen years, this Program is a premier professional development
opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates, and
community leaders. State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are available
to certified public accountants. Past
participants include state policymakers, district superintendents and
principals, charter school leaders, school business officers, school board
members, education deans/chairs, statewide association leaders, parent leaders,
education advocates, and other education and community leaders. Fellows
are typically sponsored by their employer or another organization. The Fellowship Program begins with a two-day
retreat on September 17-18, 2015 and continues to graduation in June
2016.
Click here to read about
the Education Policy Fellowship Program.
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