Monday, June 8, 2020

PA Ed Policy Roundup for June 8: Brookings: “We find the impact of attending a virtual charter on student achievement is uniformly and profoundly negative… There is no evidence that virtual charter students improve in subsequent years.”


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, Wolf education transition team members, 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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PA Ed Policy Roundup for June 8, 2020
Brookings: “We find the impact of attending a virtual charter on student achievement is uniformly and profoundly negative… There is no evidence that virtual charter students improve in subsequent years.”


Half of the locally elected school boards in the state have now passed resolutions in support of charter school funding reform. Is your district one of them?


“We find the impact of attending a virtual charter on student achievement is uniformly and profoundly negative, equating to a third of a standard deviation in English/language arts (ELA) and a half of a standard deviation in math. …There is no evidence that virtual charter students improve in subsequent years.”
Virtual charter schools and online learning during COVID-19
An imperfect comparison
Brookings Brown Center by Brian FitzpatrickMark BerendsJoseph J. Ferrare, and R. Joseph Waddington  Tuesday, June 2, 2020
With the onset of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, nearly all K-12 students in the United States have experienced an unprecedented interruption to their formal schooling. Students and parents with lack of access to technological devices, high-speed internet, and information to navigate online learning are among the most likely to face growing inequalities. This includes many low-income and rural families. As Susan Dynarski described in her recent New York Times article, “[COVID-19] has exposed and intensified enormous gaps in schools’ and families’ capacity to support children’s learning.” We agree that the circumstances are dire. The current situation is without precedent, so researchers and parents alike are scrambling to find out the effect of near-universal online instruction. To this end, one case worth considering is a relatively new learning environment with a set of schools that uniquely deliver instruction in an online mode: virtual charter schools. While some insights can be gained, we recommend caution when comparing the two cases.  Virtual charter schools deliver instruction in online or blended (online with some face-to-face instruction) formats and operate in 21 states. Like other charter schools, virtual charters are publicly funded, do not have admissions criteria, and have their charter (or contract) authorized by a state-approved entity. Families may choose to enroll their children in a virtual charter school for myriad reasons. At first glance, virtual charter schools offer students and their families the ability to tailor learning experiences to specialized needs. However, if such advantages are available to students in virtual charters, there is no evidence that the benefits transfer into gains on student test scores.

Many school leaders say they won’t be able to resume normal operations by July 1
Trib Live by TEGHAN SIMONTON   | Sunday, June 7, 2020 8:58 a.m.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education said Wednesday that school districts are allowed to resume in-person teaching and other activities July 1, but local school leaders say it’s unlikely they’ll be able to resume normal operations by then. efore schools can open, districts are required to create their own health and safety plans. School leaders said they’ll be challenged to draw up those plans and get approval by their respective school boards by July 1. Most districts are setting their sights on a fall reopening. Kiski Area School District had already announced a fall plan before the state’s announcement, deciding to maintain distance learning at the onset. A hybrid model will subsequently be developed to incorporate virtual and in-person learning. The state’s new guidelines don’t change that plan, Kiski Area School District Superintendent Tim Scott said. “It reaffirms our approach to just trying to keep our community informed, because there really isn’t anything coming out at this point,” he said. Highlands School District Superintendent Monique Mawhinney sent a recorded message to parents saying the district won’t be in a position to begin phased reopening by July 1. She said a health and safety plan hasn’t been created. A task force will be formed to create a plan and deal with significant restrictions. Pittsburgh Public Schools, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and the nonprofit One PA likewise announced a plan that focuses on next school year. The plan, according to a news release, involves 16 subcommittees dedicated to gathering input from various community stakeholders.

Bucks County Schools Plan for Fall Reopening
Bucks County Courier Times By Chris English @CourierEnglish Posted Jun 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM
The state is allowing in-person instruction to start again July 1, but is requiring each school district to have a health and safety plan in place before bringing students back to school. Bucks County schools will reopen in the fall, but what it will look like is unknown. Some might look at the preliminary state plan for reopening schools and see a lack of concrete direction in some areas. Central Bucks School District Superintendent John Kopicki prefers to view it as flexibility. Pennsylvania Department of Education officials announced Wednesday that in-person instruction can resume July 1. Bringing students back to schools will require each district to have a health and safety plan developed using guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department, and approved by school boards. And while PDE officials said more guidance will be issued in the coming weeks and months, specific reopening protocols for classroom instruction, extracurricular activities and other areas are being largely left up to individual districts in consultation with federal and state health officials. “It’s never bad when the state secretary of education (Pedro Rivera) reaches out and tries to offer some guidelines and assistance to districts that are all struggling to provide for the health and safety of our kids,” said Kopicki, top administrator at the largest school district in Bucks County. “I think the state is trying to give us as much local control as possible and put decision-making into the hands of individual communities, because every community knows their school district best. If the plan is vague and not detailed enough in some areas, it’s because the state is trying not to mandate, but guide and leave decisions to local districts.” The Bucks County Intermediate Unit issued a news release late Thursday on behalf of itself and the county’s 13 school districts and three career and technical centers. It stated that all planned to reopen schools in the fall and the IU would continue offering help and guidance.

“Black students make up the plurality of charter school students in Pennsylvania. Across the state, roughly 60 percent of students in charter schools are either black or hispanic. Meyers’ organization is the primary lobbying group for the state’s charter-school sector, which educates over 140,000 students statewide.”
Pa. charter school leader blasts George Floyd protestors, then apologizes
Avi Wolfman-Arent/Keystone Crossroads JUNE 6, 2020 | 12:49 PM
The head of an influential Pennsylvania charter school advocacy group has apologized for a Facebook post about the ongoing civil rights protests in which she said: “these protesters disgust me. All lives matter!” She later called her comments “insensitive and inappropriate” and said she meant to imply that the looting and violence that occurred last weekend disgusted her. Ana Meyers, head of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, posted — and then deleted — a statement on her personal Facebook page in which she called the protests spurred by the killing of George Floyd “not okay.” Meyers’ original post linked to an emergency alert that mentioned “violent protests” in Philadelphia. When Keystone Crossroads contacted Meyers, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., to ask about the post, she said that she’d removed the original statement and posted an apology.

Here’s a follow-up tweet….
Comment from the largest charter-school organization in Philadelphia:
Quote Tweet
Mastery Schools @mastery_schools
Replying to @Avi_WA
We condemn the remarks of Ana Meyers. She does not speak for Mastery Schools. #blacklivesmatter

Blogger note: here’s some background on Ana Meyers (formerly Ana Puig) that might shed some light on the ideological attributes that Pennsylvania’s charter schools were looking for when they sought an executive director for their statewide organization.

“When Gov. Corbett named Puig to his transition team's education committee, Democrats pounced, highlighting Puig's attacks on Obama and claims that Democrats are aligned with radical Islam. The Kitchen Table Patriots' leaders "are extremists with beliefs and agendas well outside those held by Pennsylvanians," Mark Nicastre, a spokesman for state Democrats, said last week.”
Reprise 2011: Two Bucks County women are darlings of the tea party movement
Inquirer by John P. Martin, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted: August 8, 2011
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - The event was over, but many of the 75 or so people who crammed the hotel conference room Thursday for the monthly gathering of the Williamsport Tea Party lingered, clustering around two guests from Bucks County. Anastasia Przybylski doled out bumper magnets sporting the "Don't Tread on Me" flag while Ana Puig cradled an infant and urged his mother, an immigrant like Puig, to join the fight against President Obama and the Marxist blueprint she said he was following. At the front of the room, Lee Fessler gushed: "Ana for president." In less than three years, Puig and Przybylski, both 39, have rocketed from Doylestown stay-at-home mothers to nationally known activists, sharing stages with presidential contender Michele Bachmann, snagging money from conservative groups, and drawing a stream of invitations and inquiries from rally organizers, GOP stalwarts, candidates, and worldwide media. The two-year-old Bucks group they co-chair, Kitchen Table Patriots, claims thousands of followers and credit for lifting Republicans Pat Toomey and Mike Fitzpatrick into Congress. Ned Ryun, whose activist group, American Majority Action, enlisted and funded Puig and Przybylski when looking for Pennsylvania foot soldiers last fall, ranks them among the most influential tea-party members.

Blogger note: Senator Leach has been a long time member of the Senate Education Committee and was a staunch opponent of private school voucher legislation.
Amanda Cappelletti defeats Daylin Leach in 17th District primary
Delco Times June 7, 2020
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania state senator Daylin Leach, who lost the support of Democratic officials after he was criticized for his treatment of women in his office and on his campaign, has lost his primary contest. The Associated Press projected Saturday that Amanda Cappelletti, former head of public policy for Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania, had prevailed in the suburban Philadelphia 17th district primary in Montgomery County. Totals on the Pennsylvania Department of State election site indicated Amanda Cappelletti was leading Leach by about 62-38 percent. Leach, a longtime standard-bearer for liberal causes in the state Legislature, had rebuffed calls from Democrats to resign going back to 2017. Some of the accusations against Leach involved alleged behavior that Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said created an unprofessional and sexualized environment in Leach’s office. Leach denied any predatory actions and said he never deliberately made anyone uncomfortable, though he acknowledged that he has used poor judgment in his choice of humor.

Teaching race: How George Floyd's death could spark change in the classroom
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Jun 6, 2020
Anger built up inside Brandon Allen as he watched a video of George Floyd plead for his life while a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck until he stopped breathing. “It literally broke my heart,” said Allen, a 2015 McCaskey Campus graduate who recently completed his history-secondary education degree at Towson University and hopes to soon manage a classroom of his own. It made him think of how he could prevent incidents like this from happening. And for many teachers, the work to defeat racism starts in the classroom. Educators with ties to Lancaster County said Floyd’s death, and the international protests that followed, were a stark reminder that education — intentional or not — is too often focused on white students and the generations before them that recorded history from their own, singular perspective. Teachers, they said, must step up and make sure students of color can relate to what they’re learning and feel their voice is heard and appreciated in the classroom. And that means all teachers — not just those of color.

@AASAHQ and @ASBOIntl info graphic detailing additional costs associated with complying with #CDC guidelines to reopen schools

These retiring teachers won’t get a final goodbye — so we’re telling their stories
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent June 8, 2020
When the coronavirus outbreak canceled traditional school graduations, the Class of 2020 received a well-deserved wave of sympathy. There have been celebrity-studded tributes, television commercials, and too many Instagram posts to count. But seniors aren’t the only ones leaving their schools for the final time under these often stressful and surreal circumstances. In June, retiring teachers and school staff will leave their classrooms without any of the traditional rituals that mark the end of an academic year — or a career. In tribute, Keystone Crossroads brings you five stories of Pennsylvanians who served their school communities for decades.

'It's not cutting it': Significant roadblocks deter special education students from progressing at home
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer June 8, 2020
Denise Schwebel and her daughter, Emma, sat at the head of their dining room table on a recent Friday afternoon to finish the final few online assignments of the school year. Schoolwork for Emma, who is in a multiple disabilities support program run by the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 at Conestoga Valley High School, is always a team effort. The 20-year-old is cognitively delayed and in a wheelchair, can’t talk and only eats pureed foods. But because she hasn’t been in school since mid-March because of the coronavirus shutdown, her mom has been by her side to help. On this day, they were working on a science assignment based on the energy that makes roller coasters run. “How does a roller coaster go up a hill? Does the chain pull it up the hill? Yes or no?” Denise asked her daughter, holding up two laminated cards – a yellow smiley face for yes and a red “x” for no. With the dog, Ginger, on guard duty next to them, Emma looked at her mom. Then looked at the cards. She slowly reached her hand toward the yellow smiley face. It was one of a select few of victories throughout the day, as online learning for students requiring special education services represents significant challenges and roadblocks. Parents and experts say falling behind for such students is a very real possibility.

Drive-in theater, parades and more: Centre County celebrates the class of 2020 amid pandemic
Centre Daily Times by Marley Parish June 7, 2020
Lydia Collison put photos in a school time capsule last fall, thinking they would best represent the class of 2020. But she had no idea its story would change the following spring. When Collison imagined graduation, it didn’t involve family cheers from the car or congratulatory honks from peers. She pictured sitting with classmates, walking across stage to receive her diploma and hugging her friends and teachers goodbye after the ceremony. But the Penns Valley Area School District graduate is one of many who had to change their picture of senior year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an alternative ceremony Friday, Collison received her diploma in a drive-thru procession while a limited number of friends and family looked on to watch her walk across the outdoor stage in her cap and gown. The socially distanced commencement was one of the ways Centre County school districts celebrated and honored the class of 2020 while adhering to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state Department of Health guidelines. In planning the events that were unlike any other in the schools’ histories, district officials and families got creative — heavily decorated vehicles for Penns Valley’s drive-thru ceremony, a parade leading up to a virtual ceremony for State College Area School District seniors, a drive-in movie theater component at Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District, matching face masks for Bald Eagle Area graduates, pandemic-inspired senior T-shirts for Centre County Christian Academy and zip lining for Grace Prep grads.

EDITORIAL: A class like no other
York Dispatch Editorial Board Published 5:48 a.m. ET June 5, 2020
One by one, you walk across a stage or drive up to your school. Moms adjust your mortarboards as a few family members look on, and principals and superintendents in masks direct you to pick up a diploma from a table or maybe hand it over at arm's length, possibly accompanied by an elbow bump. Congratulations, Class of 2020.  Graduation has never looked like this before. There's no band playing endless loops of "Pomp and Circumstance" while hundreds of students file into a stadium or auditorium filled with hundreds of family members and friends. No speeches from classmates and teachers. There was no prom, no honors dinner, no sports championship. No last day at school. No chance to say goodbye to so many people you will never see again. Instead, you have the virtual commencement, a video of each one of you individually receiving that diploma you have worked so hard for. Or maybe your school is putting off the ceremony, hoping that next month, or maybe the month after that, there can be a large gathering to celebrate the end of high school. This wasn't what anyone expected. No one knew your final day at your school would happen in March. No one knew you would finish your classes online. No one knew you would need a mask that matched your cap and gown. But don't let that lessen your achievement. You've spent 12 years learning, working, making friends, taking tests, building up a store of knowledge and skills that will take you into the next phase of your life, whether that's college, trade school, the military or the workforce.

Greensburg Salem students and parents try to stop band cuts
Trib Live by JACOB TIERNEY   | Saturday, June 6, 2020 4:44 p.m.
A group of Greensburg Salem School District students and parents are trying to prevent district leaders from making cuts to the music program. “We love these programs, they mean the world to us,” said Ryann Shirey, who just finished her sophomore year at Greensburg Salem High School. She’s been involved in music programs since fourth grade. “Marching band is my favorite thing in the whole world.” Shirey and several other students created a group called Student Advocates for Arts in Education in response to the school board’s proposed cuts. “We’ve been fighting the school board on stuff like this,” Shirey said, “so me and a small group of other students got together and decided enough is enough.” They created an online petition on change.org that had more than 12,600 signatures as of Friday night. “I didn’t expect there to be this many signatures, and I didn’t expect it to be this soon,” Shirey said. “I think it’s great, there are people in the community behind us, people from all over are behind us and what we’re trying to accomplish.” The board’s proposed budget would eliminate the sole elementary band teacher’s position, saving about $85,000. That teacher would be moved to replace a high school chorus teacher who retired this month, according to Tom McGuire, president of the Greensburg Salem Band Parents Association. The budget would also eliminate the marching band majorette advisor supplemental position, saving about $4,000. Additionally, the board last month reversed an earlier decision to spend $50,000 to replace the district’s 15-year-old marching band uniforms.

Taxes hiked in new Springfield School District budget
Delco Times By Susan L. Serbin Times Correspondent June 7, 2020
SPRINGFIELD >> The school board approved the 2020-2021 General Fund Proposed Final Budget of $88.3 million, which is $1.45 million above 2019-2020. The increase in taxes is 2.6 percent which is the district’s index set by Act I. Executive Director Don Mooney presented the 18-page Power Point to the board which held a virtual meeting at the end of May. Mooney, Superintendent Tony Barber, and board President Bruce Lord were socially distanced in the board room with other directors on a conference call. Director Frank Agovino was not available. The tax summary shows the millage set at 34.5997, an increase of 0.877 mills. Mooney gave the following examples for over all rates (including the portion of taxes from the high school master plan): A property assessed at $100,000 has at tax of $3,460, an $88 increase ($31): the property at the $147,020 median assessment will be $5,087, a $146 increase ($53); and an $250,000 assessed value property has a tax of $8,650, a $219 increase ($79). The projected Homestead Exclusive (applied to taxes for eligible properties) remains unchanged at $186.

Amish schools: ‘Distance learning’ involves paper and pencil
WITF By Alex Geli/LNP JUNE 6, 2020 | 12:42 PM
(Lancaster) — In mid-March, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all Pennsylvania schools to close, prompting an abrupt shutdown of the state’s public and private schools – and, it turns out, Amish one-room schoolhouses. Local experts in Amish and Old Order Mennonite culture say most, if not all, of the 250-or-so area Amish-run schools closed in accordance with Wolf’s order. And, just like at many traditional schools, learning never stopped. While most schools in the state shifted instruction online, Amish schools switched to remote assignments with paper and pencil. “It was kind of their version of virtual education,” said Charles Jantzi, a psychology professor at Messiah College who has done extensive research on the Amish and Old Order Mennonites, particularly related to mental health and social media. Teachers, often young women who haven’t married yet, sent home worksheets and textbooks with directions on how to finish the school year. Students occasionally visited the teacher at school or her home so she could grade their work. Teachers replenished assignments if necessary. Some even gave private, at-home lessons. Such a task wouldn’t be all that difficult for a teacher, said Donald Kraybill, senior fellow emeritus at Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. There’s often less than 30 kids in a single school, and many of them could be siblings in the same household, Kraybill said. The teacher could walk, scooter, take a horse and buggy or use an “Amish taxi” – a non-Amish, or English, driver – depending on how far away she lives. Still, this wasn’t typical for Amish students.

From Zoom to the streets, students and schools find teachable moments in protests of police violence
Washington Post By Laura MecklerValerie Strauss and Perry Stein June 8, 2020 at 7:11 a.m. EDT
In Berkeley, Calif., black and white students spent one of their final Zoom sessions dissecting raw emotions around race and inequity. In Chicago, a teacher challenged his students to reconsider the implications of violent protest. And in California, the top school official is working to add implicit bias training for the state’s educators. In the final days of a disrupted and tense school year, teachers, administrators and students, forced apart by the coronavirus, are working to process emotions and spark change following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. They’ve mourned and debated the events over Zoom, unable to comfort or challenge one another in person. They’ve begun plotting policy changes aimed at dismantling inequities in schools. And from coast to coast, students have joined in — and sometimes led — protests, without year-end testing and other pressures typical of spring.

The Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work
The pandemic forced schools into a crash course in online education. Problems piled up quickly. ‘I find it hectic and stressful’
Wall Street Journal By Tawnell D. Hobbs  and Lee Hawkins June 5, 2020 12:42 pm ET
This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure. School districts closed campuses in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology.

How to Reopen America’s Schools
Many questions remain as experts weigh options for getting children back into the classroom.
New York Times By The Editorial Board June 6, 2020
Parents who have watched their children struggle with online learning since schools across the country were closed in March are painfully aware that virtual classes are no substitute for face-to-face instruction. Even so, many of these parents worry that schools might hastily reopen without taking the necessary precautions to shield children — and everyone in the school community — from infection. If this crisis of confidence continues to fester, millions of families could well decide to keep their children home when schools begin opening around the nation this fall. This would further harm the prospects of schoolchildren who have already lost ground because of the pandemic and who are at risk of falling irretrievably behind. By the start of the next school year, the average student could have already lost a third of his or her expected progress in reading and half in math, according to a recent working paper from the nonprofit NWEA and scholars at Brown and the University of Virginia. The learning losses are greatest among black and Hispanic students. The decision to keep some children home next year would also undermine support for public education generally and damage the possibility of economic recovery by keeping caretaking parents at home and out of the work force.


Celebrating 125 years at PSBA
POSTED ON JUNE 5, 2020 IN PSBA NEWS
Over the past 125 years, a lot has happened at PSBA. From its founding in 1895 by H.H. Quimby to serving nearly 100% of Pennsylvania’s school districts by 1970 to hosting the first fully virtual conference in 2020, time and technology have presented opportunities for growth as well as challenges. To learn more about how PSBA has evolved over the years, watch this brief video celebrating the association's monumental anniversary!

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.

Over 245 PA school boards adopt charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be a concern as over 245 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.

Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:

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.

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