Sunday, August 16, 2015

PA Ed Policy Roundup Aug 16: If the district’s 44 Blended School students attended cyber charter schools it would cost about $757,000. However, actual cost to the district for the entire Blended School program is $49,557

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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for August 16, 2015:
If the district’s 44 Blended School students attended cyber charter schools it would cost about $757,000. However, actual cost to the district for the entire Blended School program is $49,557



Interested in letting our elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax, property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf, (717) 787-2500
Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377



"Many education reformers tout school choice as a tool for parent empowerment and school improvement through competitive pressure. But Hattie says his research shows that once you account for the economic background of students, private schools offer no significant advantages on average. As for charter schools? "The effect of charter schools, for example, across three meta-analyses based on 246 studies is a minuscule .07," he writes."
5 Big Ideas That Don't Work In Education
Better measurements help make learning visible, says John Hattie.
There are few household names in education research. Maybe that in itself constitutes a problem. But if there was an Education Researcher Hall Of Fame, one member would be a silver-haired, plainspoken Kiwi named John Hattie.  Hattie directs the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He also directs something called the Science of Learning Research Centre, which works with over 7,000 schools worldwide.
Over the past 28 years he has published a dozen books, mostly on a theory he calls Visible Learning. His life's work boils down to one proposition: To improve schools, draw on the best evidence available.  Obvious? Maybe, but it's rarely honored in reality, Hattie claims. "Senior politicians and government officials clearly want to make a difference," he says. "But they want to do this, that and the other silly thing which has failed everywhere else, and I want to know why." In a new paper, "What Doesn't Work In Education: The Politics Of Distraction," published by Pearson Education, Hattie takes on some of the most popular approaches to reform.  Small classes. High standards. More money. These popular and oft-prescribed remedies from both the right and the left, he argues, haven't been shown to work as well as alternatives.  Hattie doesn't run his own studies. Nor does he analyze groups of studies on a single variable, a technique called meta-analysis. He goes one step further and synthesizes the findings of many meta-analyses, a kind of meta-meta-analysis.  Over the years, he has scrutinized — and ranked — 1,200 different meta-analyses looking at all types of interventions, ranging from increased parental involvement to ADHD medications to longer school days to performance pay for teachers, as well as other factors affecting education, like socioeconomic status. He has examined studies covering a combined 250 million students around the world.

"Battestelli said Haverford Middle School and High School’s Blended School programs had School Performance Profiles of 88.4 and 99 respectively, outperforming popular cyber charters like 21st Century Cyber School, which had an SPP of 66, and Agora Cyber School, with 42.4.
Haverford’s Blended School program also saves taxpayers money, she said. If the district’s 44 Blended School students attended cyber charter schools it would cost about $757,000. However, actual cost to the district for the entire Blended School program is $49,557, including professional development, teachers’ salaries, license and technology fees."
Haverford School District hires Jennifer Saksa to be new director of curriculum and instruction
Delco Times By Lois Puglionesi, Times Correspondent 08/15/15, 12:39 AM EDT
.....In other meeting business, instructor Nicole Battestelli updated the board on the district’s Blended School program, which provides a combination of online learning with instructional support by qualified Haverford teachers. Instructional locations include Haverford Middle School, Haverford High School, Oakmont administration building and students’ homes.
The program serves students recovering course credit or accelerating, students returning from cyber charters, homebound students, those seeking alternatives to out of district placement and more.  Blended School students are eligible for all activities and electives Haverford offers, and have the ability to earn a Haverford High School diploma.  Haverford’s Blended School has grown each year since it began in 2009-10, with 44 students currently enrolled.

Blogger Note: "Pennsylvania Failing Schools" List
PA Cyber Charter School Performance Profile Scores for 2013 and 2014
Here are the Pennsylvania Department of Education Cyber Charter School Performance Profile Scores for 2013 and 2014.. A score of 70 is considered passing. No cyber charter achieved a score of 70 in either year.  Additionally, most cybers never made AYP under No Child Left Behind during the period 2005 thru 2012.
School                                                                         2013                 2014
21st Century Cyber CS                                              66.5                 66.0
Achievement House CS                                             39.7                 37.5
ACT Academy Cyber CS                                            30.6                 28.9
Agora Cyber CS                                                          48.3                 42.4
ASPIRA Bilingual CS                                                 29.0                  39.0
Central PA Digital Lrng Foundation CS                  31.7                  48.8
Commonwealth Connections Academy CS            54.6                  52.2
Education Plus Academy Cyber CS                        59.0                  50.0
Esperanza Cyber CS                                                 32.7                  47.7
Pennsylvania Cyber CS                                            59.4                  55.5
Pennsylvania Distance Learning CS                       54.7                  50.9
Pennsylvania Leadership CS                                   64.7                  59.3
Pennsylvania Virtual CS                                           67.9                  63.4
Solomon Charter School Inc.                                  36.9                  Closed
Susq-Cyber CS                                                          46.4                  42.4

While Cyber charters might not necessarily be great for kids, they have been positively awesome for the top execs at K12, Inc., which manages the Agora Cyber Charter school.
School Choices: K12 Inc execs taking $2K per student in salary. 8 execs, 75K students, $21M in salaries. 20% of revenue in 8 pockets.
Morningstar Executive Compensation

Pottsgrove School Board takes stand against standardized testing
By Evan Brandt, The Mercury POSTED: 08/16/15, 2:00 AM EDT |
LOWER POTTSGROVE >> The school board would like Pennsylvania to back off with the standardized tests.  At its meeting Tuesday, the board unanimously adopted a resolution making the rounds of other districts which notes that it “continues to oppose the state mandate that requires Keystone Exams in all Pennsylvania public schools as graduation requirements.”  Further, the resolution notes that the board is “very concerned with the resources being diverted to standardized testing in classrooms and in districts across the state and the overuse of standardized tests.”  That concern extends to the use of those tests to evaluate teachers and school performance.  The resolution also “calls upon legislators to strive to minimize the amount of mandated testing and the use of standardized testing for teacher and school evaluation.”  The unanimous vote comes as the district braces itself for the impact of the statewide phenomenon of lowered scores on the latest round of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA, tests.

Wolf floats offer that claims $17B in pension debt reduction
AP State Wire By MARK SCOLFORO Published: August 14, 2015
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Gov. Tom Wolf is pushing a set of changes to Pennsylvania's large public-sector pension plans that he says would reduce the state's pension debt by more than $17 billion in the coming decades.  Wolf provided legislative leaders this week with a written document, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, as they work to resolve the state budget stalemate.  The document is titled "Revised Pension Plan" and incorporates some elements of a Republican-backed pension bill that he vetoed along with the state budget last month.  The Wolf plan would restrict salary spiking that helps teachers and state workers boost their pensions and would expand investment risk sharing to cover existing employees.  The governor says he's willing to consider limiting how much of an employee's salary would count toward a traditional pension.

Wolf, GOP leaders have a shot to make progress on state budget this week
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on August 16, 2015 at 7:00 AM, updated August 16, 2015 at 7:12 AM
It's been said that the players on the stage that is Pennsylvania's state government can always strike a deal when they want to strike a deal.  This week, we should find out a lot about who wants to make a deal to reach a state budget before the impacts of living without onestart to pinch a much broader cross-section of their voting constituents.  State government has been without a budget since July 1, and talks have made little progress thus far.  Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, hit a potentially important reset button Wednesday by opening the door to consideration of a new type of pension benefits plan for future state and public school employees.

"Apparently the legislators were the only ones who didn’t see Wolf’s election — and Corbett’s trouncing—  as a public mandate to focus on improving education and educational outcomes statewide instead of evicerating them.
We’re sure those legislators would say they are pro-education too ... but Pennsylvania has no fair education funding formula in place, and throughout  the Corbett years the state  share of school funding dropped to a shameful 30 percent.  The schools (and students) most penalized by this parsimonious  history are, of course, low-income ones. There is a tremendous funding gap between wealthy and poor districts ... according to the National Center for Education Statistics, it is the widest funding gap in the nation. "
Who is ready for school? Hint: not the state
Al Dia Editorial August 13, 2015
Pity our kids.   While they are dutifully prepping themselves for a new school year, their elders — i.e., elected officials — are pretending it is still the middle of summer.   There is no state budget yet, so more than a month into the state’s fiscal year school districts don’t know what sort of funding they will be getting.   The rub is Governor Tom Wolf’s and the Republican-led legislators’ absolutely inimical view of what deserves increased funding — and who deserves to be taxed to sustain it. While budgets are complex things, from a purely educational perspective it’s the governor who seeks to restore the deep cuts to education made by his predecessor Tom Corbett, and the state legislators who are balking. 

Two issues keep Pa. budget resolution stalled
Philly Trib by Damon C. Williams Tribune Staff Writer Posted: August 14, 2015 12:00 am
State Sen. Vincent Hughes said Thursday that Democrats will not budge on two core issues in the 44-day state budget impasse: restoring the cuts to education funding and exercising a severance tax on the Marcellus Shale sector.  Hughes, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, had planned to use the city school district headquarters as a backdrop for his pronouncement Thursday, but then rushed back to Harrisburg for ongoing budget talks. Instead, he spoke with reporters by phone and focused most of his comments on education, natural gas and the state of negotiations on the whole.  “I will also say that, without a full restoration of education funding — which has not been agreed to, nor has the Marcellus Shale tax — there is no deal, no arrangement, Hughes said. “Everything else is sidebar.”

Budget must be bold, brilliant
Philly.com Opinion by DAN WHITE POSTED: Sunday, August 16, 2015, 1:08 AM
Dan White is a senior economist at Moody's Analytics.
In the past few months there have been a lot of arguments made against Gov. Wolf's budget proposal. Some have been measured and well thought out, while others have been nonsensical diatribes. Most, however, have been political in nature.  Allow me to offer my own humble critique through the eyes of an economist. As part of my job, I am lucky enough to travel the country and work closely with various states and local governments to develop their budgets and chart out sustainable fiscal policies. As someone who has spent his career trying to help policymakers make sound fiscal decisions, I am often saddened when I come home and open up the local newspaper.  Pennsylvania's fiscal situation is dire. We are one of only two states, along with Illinois, still without a budget. We have one of the lowest funded pension systems in the country, and one of the highest structural deficits. Worse, the long-term forces at work behind each of those concerns are going nowhere fast.

"The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the industry’s trade group, is the state’s most active lobbying concern. It reports spending just under $14.1 million since 2010."
Lobbyist spending in Harrisburg trending upward
It totaled $106 million in ’14; Marcellus shale, health care at top
By Chris Potter / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette August 16, 2015 12:00 AM
Even in a budget season as contentious as this year’s, Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to raise taxes on tobacco products would seem like a winner. Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn’t charge an additional tax on smokeless tobacco, and one of two not to tax cigars. “In the polls I’ve done, taxing cigars and smokeless tobacco has been very popular,” said veteran state pollster Terry Madonna.  But politicians have at least 8,627,278 reasons to oppose the idea — one for every dollar the nation’s two largest tobacco companies have spent lobbying Harrisburg since 2007.  RAI Services and Altria Client Services are far from Harrisburg’s biggest spenders. According to a Post-Gazette review of a Pennsylvania’s Department of State database, nearly 2,700 interest groups have spent $791 million lobbying in Harrisburg between 2007 and March 2015. Tobacco is dwarfed by health care concerns and the Marcellus Shale industry, also the target of a tax proposed by Mr. Wolf.

Schools rely on local funds as they await state budget
Lancaster Online By TIM STUHLDREHER | Staff Writer August 16, 2015
What does Pennsylvania’s budget impasse mean for Manheim Central School District?
About $1.5 million through the end of August, business manager Bryan Howett estimated.
That’s the amount of state money that's not flowing in to the district on time because of Pennsylvania’s lack of a 2015-16 budget. The state’s fiscal year began July 1.  By now the district would have received a special education payment and a reimbursement for Social Security costs, Howett said. A basic education subsidy payment normally would arrive before the end of the month.  Without a budget, none of that money has been appropriated, so Manheim Central, like other school districts across the state, will use revenue collected locally to tide itself over.  “We’re certainly hoping that this gets resolved,” Howett said Monday.  The district has no immediate cash flow concerns. Between reserves and local revenue, “we could certainly get through December” operating normally, Howett said — not that he's eager to go that route.  Business managers at other school districts likewise said they see no near-term issues arising from the budget stalemate.  In the School District of Lancaster, “schools will be ready for students in August with no adjustments to programs or services, regardless of the status of the state budget in August or September,” chief financial and operations officer Matt Przywara said by email.

Pennsylvania school funding, explained
Lancaster Online By TIM BUCKWALTER | Data Journalist August 16, 2015
Funding for public schools is one of the key disagreements as Pennsylvania plows through its second month without a state budget.  Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican leaders in the Legislature have been unable to agree on how much of an increase is needed, and how to pay for it.  Wolf wants to increase K-12 funding by $400 million for 2015-16 and pay for it with a new severance tax on natural gas. The GOP is proposing a $100 million increase with no new taxes.  School funding in Pennsylvania involves a complicated soup of revenue sources but relies heavily on local real estate taxes. Many say the system is uneven, unfair and unsustainable, and major changes have been proposed. Let's take a look at how school funding currently works.

How do Pa's property taxes stack up nationally? This map will tell you
Penn Live By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on August 14, 2015 at 8:38 AM, updated August 14, 2015 at 10:15 AM
If you're a Pennsylvania homeowner, there's probably one bill you dread more than any other: The annual property tax bill from your local school district.  The debate over how to lower real estate taxes, which provide the backbone of public school funding in the Keystone State, is currently front and center in budget talks this summer. And, for years, lawmakers have been unsuccessfully searching for a way to hand homeowners a break.  But where does Pa. stack up nationally when it comes to property taxes?   In an attempt to cut through the clutter, the number-crunchers at The Tax Foundation have compiled a map, ranking states based on their effective tax rates on owner-occupied housing.  The rate is the "average amount of residential property tax actually paid, expressed as a percentage of home value."  Based on that metric, Pennsylvania, with an effective tax rate of 1.54 percent, ranks 13th nationwide for property taxes - which isn't the highest, but is certainly right up there.

Pennsylvania's PSSA opt-out rates tripled in 2015
By Sara K. Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on August 14, 2015 at 11:04 AM, updated August 14, 2015 at 12:27 PM
Pennsylvania's standardized testing opt out rates took a major jump in 2015, showing the national backlash to high stakes testing is resonating in the state.  The number of parents opting their children out of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment math and reading tests tripled from 2014 to this year.  This represents the highest jump in the last nine years of available data.  Students in grades three through eight annually take the math and reading PSSAs. Students in fifth and eighth grades also take the PSSA writing tests while students in fourth and eighth grades are also assessed in science.  The high school PSSA exams have been replaced by the Keystone exams. Opt-out rates for the Keystones are not yet available.  A provision of Pennsylvania law allows parents to opt their children out of standardized testing for religious reasons. Districts cannot deny an opt-out request and families can't be forced to prove how the testing violates their religious beliefs.

Private investor school plan in Wilkes-Barre creative but fraught with risks, expert says
Times Leader By Mark Guydish - mguydish@timesleader.com First Posted: 5:08 pm - August 13th, 2015 -WILKES-BARRE — The proposal that private investors renovate or build schools for cash-strapped Wilkes-Barre Area is “absolutely blue sky thinking and a very creative approach,” but is also “likely fraught with many legal and operational questions,” according to the head of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO).  While the specific transaction proposed to the school board by Bob Sypniewski at best falls in a gray area of the school code — the state law governing much of public education — there’s no clear ban against it.  A 1994 graduate of GAR High School, Sypniewski told the school board and the public that investors are lined up to provide as much as $300 million to either renovate Meyers High School or replace it, and to replace Coughlin High School either on the same site or elsewhere.

Kane school directors taking part in school governance program
The Bradford Era By CHUCK ABRAHAM Era Correspondent cabraham.era@gmail.com | 0 comments Posted: Sunday, July 26, 2015 9:51 pm
KANE — Three directors from the Kane Area School District are taking part in the first Fellowship in School Governance program, initiated by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association this year.  School board vice president Maj. Thomas Kerek (Ret.) addressed Kane Borough Council about the program at the panel’s July meeting. Kerek credited Dr. Janet McNally as the brainchild behind the program during the meeting. He also encouraged those in attendance to attend the school board meetings, saying that the local government is an integral part of the county’s governmental system, and the influence of the local municipal voice is felt on the state and federal levels of government.  “We make government work,” said Kerek.  School board president Claire Ann Buckley said the Kane school district has three board members participating in the program — what she believes is the most serving from any district in the state. Buckley said there are approximately 30 serving in the program from districts across the Commonwealth.  Buckley said she will serve in the program along with Kerek and school director Keith Hastings.
According to the PSBA’s website, the Fellowship in School Governance program is “capstone program for interested school board members who wish to go ‘above and beyond’ in their commitment and professional preparation.” The program requires an approximate 35 additional hours in time commitment from the school board directors. All program members take online courses in conflict resolution, team building and mentoring.

“We always said that compliance just means more of the same,” said Jeanette Deutermann, a central figure in Long Island’s test-refusal movement. “The hope was to disrupt it to the point where it cannot be used,” she continued, to where “there are not enough children taking the test to close a school, or not enough data to fire a teacher.”
Test-Refusal Movement’s Success Hampers Analysis of New York State Exam Results
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS AUG. 14, 2015
With 20 percent of eligible students sitting out the New York state standardized tests this year, even some central organizers of the “opt out” movement were surprised at their own success.  But those numbers are more than just a thumb in the eye of state education officials. They also are a significant setback for the educational accountability movement in New York, which has sought to use data to evaluate educational progress on all levels, including the success of districts, schools and individual teachers. Now, in many districts with high rates of test refusals, the data has been badly crippled.

NYT Editorial: Opting Out of Standardized Tests Isn’t the Answer
New York Times By THE EDITORIAL BOARD AUG. 14, 2015
An alarming 200,000, or 20 percent, of the students in grades three through eight in New York State public schools this yearrefused to take the state’s standardized tests in reading and math that are supposed to measure progress in meeting national academic standards.  This ill-conceived boycott could damage educational reform — desperately needed in poor and rural communities — and undermine the Common Core standards adopted by New York and many other states. The standards offer the best hope for holding school districts accountable for educating all students, regardless of race or income.  The 200,000 students, out of 1.1 million, who skipped the tests did not have a known valid reason, like illness. That was quadruple the number from the year before and by far the highest opt-out rate for any state. In some school districts the opt-out rate was above 80 percent. For the most part, those opting out were white and in wealthy or middle-class communities. In New York City, less than 2 percent opted out.

Controversial teacher evaluation method is on trial — literally — and the judge is not amused
Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss August 15  
Here is a report on what happened this week in a New York court where a judge is hearing the case brought by Sheri G. Lederman, a fourth-grade teacher in the Great Neck public school district, against state education officials over their controversial method of evaluating her — and, by extension, other N.Y. teachers.  The method is known as “value-added modeling,” or VAM, and it purports to be able to use student standardized test scores to determine the “value” of a teacher while factoring out every other influence on a student (including, for example, hunger, sickness, and stress). One way it works is by predicting, through a complicated computer model, how students with similar characteristics are supposed to perform on the exams, and teachers are then evaluated on how well their students measure up to the theoretical students. New York is just one of the many states where VAM is a key component of teacher assessment. Evaluation experts have warned  policymakers that this method is not reliable for evaluating teachers, but VAM became popular among school reformers as a “data-driven” evaluation solution.  Lederman’s suit against state education officials — including John King, the former state education commissioner who is now a top adviser to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan — challenges the rationality of the VAM model, and it alleges that the New York State Growth Measures “actually punishes excellence in education through a statistical black box which no rational educator or fact finder could see as fair, accurate or reliable.”


PCCY: Get on the Bus to Harrisburg August 25th
As parents, teachers and advocates, you know first hand how difficult it is to get the resources needed to support our students. Harrisburg continues to be mired in political gridlock and has failed to pass a budget for Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts. 
Teachers, parents and students have no idea what they will be walking into come September for the start of school. We say enough is enough.
We are contacting you because on August 25th the PA House is scheduled to return to the Capitol—and we want to be there to meet them. Could you give us a few hours of your day and help make it clear that we demand a budget? 
  • Join your neighbors and other concerned citizens who believe that investing in our kids is non-negotiable
  • We’ll provide: FREE Transportation to and from the Capitol and lunch; a brief training on the bus, materials, and day of schedule
  • Scheduled visits with elected officials  
Kids are off from school so bring them with you – after all, it concerns their future!
Details:
  • Bus will depart from in front of the United Way Building at 7:45am at 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
  • We will return to Philly by approximately 4:30pm.  (Discounted parking ($8) available at the Sheraton Hotel at 17th & Race)
  • If you plan to drive yourself, we will meet at the Capitol between 10am and 10:30am.

The John Stoops Lecture Series: Dr. Pasi Sahlberg "Education Around the World: Past, Present & Future" Lehigh University October 8, 2015 6:00 p.m.
Baker Hall | Zoellner Arts Center | 420 E. Packer Avenue | Bethlehem, PA 18015
Free and open to the public!
Ticketing is general admission - no preseating will be assigned. Arrive early for the best seats.
Please plan to stay post-lecture for an open reception where you will have an opportunity to meet with students from all of our programs to learn about the latest innovations in education and human services.

Register now for the 2015 PASCD 65th Annual Conference, Leading and Achieving in an Interconnected World, to be held November 15-17, 2015 at Pittsburgh Monroeville Convention Center.
The Conference will Feature Keynote Speakers: Meenoo Rami – Teacher and Author “Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching,”  Mr. Pedro Rivera, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Heidi Hayes-Jacobs – Founder and President of Curriculum Design, Inc. and David Griffith – ASCD Senior Director of Public Policy.  This annual conference features small group sessions focused on: Curriculum and Supervision, Personalized and Individualized Learning, Innovation, and Blended and Online Learning. The PASCD Conference is a great opportunity to stay connected to the latest approaches for innovative change in your school or district.  Join us forPASCD 2015!  Online registration is available by visiting www.pascd.org <http://www.pascd.org/>

Nominations for PSBA's Allwein Advocacy Award now open
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

Slate of candidates for PSBA offices now available online
PSBA website July 31, 2015
The slate of candidates for 2016 PSBA officer and at-large representatives is now available online, including bios, photos and videos. According to recent PSBA Bylaws changes, each member school entity casts one vote per office. Voting will again take place online through a secure, third-party website -- Simply Voting. Voting will openAug. 17 and closes Sept. 28. One person from the school entity (usually the board secretary) is authorized to register the vote on behalf of the member school entity and each board will need to put on its agenda discussion and voting at one of its meetings in August or September. Each person authorized to register the school entity's votes has received an email on July 16 to verify the email address and confirm they are the person to register the vote on behalf of their school entity. 

Register Now for PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 14-16, 2015 Hershey Lodge & Convention Center
Save the date for the professional development event of the year. Be inspired at more than four exciting venues and invest in professional development for top administrators and school board members. Online registration is live at:

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.

1 comment:

  1. Regarding the post on K12 Exec Compensation - less than 2% of total revenue is targeted for executive salaries. Click the Morningstar link - it shows $16.5 million, and total K12 revenue was almost $950 million. Shareholders would go nuts if 20% of revenue went to executives. More importantly, Agora Cyber Charter School ended their partnership with K12 and is now self-managing the school. Good for them!

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