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, 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
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These daily
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Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
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email list please have them send their name, title and affiliation to KeystoneStateEdCoalition@gmail.com
Cyber
charters may benefit from pandemic, but that doesn’t mean their students do |
Editorial
Why are cyber
charter tuition rates the same as brick and mortar tuition?
Taxpayers in Senate Ed Committee Member Ryan Aument’s school districts
paid over $10.5 million in 2018-2019 cyber charter tuition. Statewide, PA taxpayers paid over $600 million for cyber charter
tuition in 2018-2019.
|
Cocalico SD
|
$745,025.81
|
|
Columbia Borough SD
|
$1,071,571.66
|
|
Conestoga Valley SD
|
$685,501.37
|
|
Conrad Weiser Area SD
|
$606,367.70
|
|
Donegal SD
|
$1,259,870.86
|
|
Eastern Lancaster County SD
|
$890,750.67
|
|
Elizabethtown Area SD
|
$1,155,751.38
|
|
Ephrata Area SD
|
$1,137,873.07
|
|
Hempfield SD
|
$1,657,030.71
|
|
Manheim Central SD
|
$650,217.47
|
|
Warwick SD
|
$666,985.57
|
|
|
$10,526,946.27
|
Data Source: PDE
via PSBA
Around the country and the world, images from an unusual
first day of school
By Courtney Riffkin Seattle
Times photo staff
Sep. 8, 2020 at 12:51 pm Updated Sep. 8,
2020 at 12:51 pm
The Inquirer Editorial Board | opinion@inquirer.com September
9, 2020
Every disaster has winners and losers, but
this pandemic has inflicted more loss than most — in terms of both lives and
livelihoods. COVID-19 has also produced winners who have benefited from the
pandemic as a result of disaster capitalism, or just
good timing. They include Amazon, Zoom, and Netflix. They also include
Pennsylvania’s 14 cyber charter schools which are, according to some reports,
seeing skyrocketing interest and increased enrollment. It’s too early for the
Pennsylvania Department of Education to have official tallies of cyber
enrollment for this school session, but many districts have seen increases in
interest in cyber charters. The School District of
Philadelphia says cyber enrollment could be
up by 18%, which could mean 1,200 more students. As districts struggle to find
a clear path to providing public education, those schools that have already
established online learning must seem like attractive and obvious options to
parents. But that’s worrisome, for a number of reasons.
Blogger comment: Not sure that I would call this “education
excellence”: …https://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2020/08/parents-considering-cyber-charters-due.html
My Turn: Pa. cyber charter schools seek to continue
education excellence in a pandemic-
Pocono Record Letter by Jim Hanak Posted
Sep 8, 2020 at 8:06 AM
Dr. Jim Hanak, Executive Director, Public
Cyber Charter School Association (PCCSA); CEO, Pennsylvania Leadership Charter
School (PALCS)
There’s been a good deal of talk
lately—including a recent op-ed in this publication by Richard Robinson—about
Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools “profiting” off the COVID-19 pandemic. Too
much talk, in my opinion. Instead, we, as caring PA educators, influencers and
citizens, should be using every platform available during these extraordinarily
challenging times to help parents make informed fact-based decisions about
their children’s current schooling needs and educational futures. As Executive
Director of Pennsylvania’s Public Cyber Charter School Association (PCCSA) and
CEO of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (PALCS), it would be easy for me
to dissect Mr. Robinson’s opinion piece, pointing out every misperception,
partial-truth and out-of-context statement and providing the financial data and
facts that definitively make the argument that PA cyber charter schools are in
no way capitalizing on the pandemic while brick-and-mortar public schools
struggle to operate. However, my goal here is to maximize this opportunity to
provide the public not with overwhelming detail, but with the facts that
matter—and context that guides them in envisioning the educational environment,
options and opportunities best suited for their children.
“Several local districts, recently reopened to in-person
classes, reported positive cases over Labor Day weekend. At least 10 schools
from five different districts saw cases over the long weekend. Red Lion
Area, Central York, Hanover Public, South Western and West York Area all
reported positive tests for COVID-19 among students, faculty or staff
between Saturday and Monday. The only school closure, however, was in
West York.“
COVID-19 shutters West York school as several more York
County districts reopen
Lindsay C VanAsdalan York
Dispatch Updated 7:36 p.m. September 8, 2020
Four school districts in York County reopened
for in-person classes Tuesday, a day after another shuttered one of its schools
because of positive COVID-19 test results. On Monday, West York Area
School District officials announced four cases reported this weekend — two
at Trimmer Elementary and two at its middle school — which resulted
in the shuttering of Trimmer Elementary for two weeks. A third case
was announced Tuesday at West York's high school, but since it's in a
self-contained classroom, there's no need to close the school, officials
said. The school closure at West York
preceded Tuesday's reopening of four districts for in-person
classes — Dallastown Area, Dover Area, Eastern York and Northern York
County — which have been shuttered since March. Logos Academy also
reopened Tuesday. Northern Superintendent Steven Kirkpatrick, when reached
Tuesday, said he feels good about the district's chances of a successful
reopening. "I kind of think it’s unavoidable to a certain extent," he
said of positive cases, noting it's hard to predict when they will crop up, but
positivity rates for Northern zip codes, as calculated on state Department of
Health maps, have been low.
Elementary student tests positive for coronavirus as
universities report cases
Delco Times by Pete Bannan Pbannan@21st-Centurymedia.com September
9, 2020
SPRINGFIELD — A student at Holy Cross
Elementary School in Springfield has tested positive for COVID-19, Archdioscese
of Philadelphia officials confirmed Tuesday. It was the first case reported at
a county elementary school this fall. The school, which reopened Sept. 1,
alerted Chester County Department of Health officials Saturday after family
members confirmed the child had tested positive. There have been no other cases
reported at the school. Officials at the school, which teaches Pre-K
through 8th grade, sent a letter to parents confirming the infection and
stating the child was in school Sept. 3 and had gone to the office complaining
of a stomach ache and fever and was sent home immediately.
We asked the Pa. Health Department for COVID-19 data by
school district. The response: 'We cannot comment'
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer September
9, 2020
Before the Labor Day weekend, LNP |
LancasterOnline asked the Pennsylvania Department of Health for COVID-19 data
per county school district. The state, after all, has tracked data by nursing
home and even prison, so why not schools, where children are expected to gather
in-person regularly, if not every weekday? The state’s response: “We cannot
comment on specific cases or clusters of cases.” State Department of Health
spokesman Nate Wardle went on to explain in his email that the health and
education departments are working closely to ensure cases identified and a
thorough case investigation will take place. “After public health staff
complete the thorough case investigation,” Wardle said, “they will start
contact tracing to ensure all those who came in contact, including the school
if applicable, and should be notified, are notified.” In other words, the state
is not releasing the number of cases by school district in Pennsylvania,
leaving each school district to decide whether the community should know about
a student or employee testing positive for COVID-19, and schools might not be notified
in some cases.
Blogger note: it is my understanding that leading cyber Commonwealth
Charter Academy’s CEO, Thomas Longenecker communicated to stakeholders yesterday
afternoon at 4:15 p.m. that their edo system had also experienced performance
issues and delays impacting students’ ability to access their education
platform.
Internet issues surface during Pittsburgh Public Schools'
first day of online learning
PETER SMITH Pittsburgh Post-Gazette petersmith@post-gazette.com SEP 8, 2020
12:29 PM
Pittsburgh Public Schools students
experienced internet connection issues on the district’s first day of virtual
school Tuesday, but school officials said the problems were fixed by mid-day. All
classes are being conducted online for at least the first nine weeks of school,
and two unrelated problems emerged as students tried to log in, said Mark
Stuckey, interim chief technology officer for the district. The first involved
the district’s two internal internet providers. When one gets overloaded with
traffic, the other is supposed to switch on automatically, he said. That didn’t
happen Tuesday morning, so the district’s technology team made the switch
manually, he said. This issue was causing a slow and unreliable
connection to district-provided web resources, including Schoology, a learning
management system, and Microsoft Teams, used for direct communications between
teachers and families. These programs were not the source of the problem, Mr.
Stuckey said, but the lack of bandwidth would have limited access to them.
From teaching in an attic to learning at daycare,
Scranton School District has 'different' first day
Times Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL STAFF WRITER Sep 8,
2020 Updated 1 hr ago
SCRANTON — With desks empty and hallways
silent, class resumed Tuesday in Lackawanna County’s largest school district. Day
care center staff assisted with virtual lessons. Teachers worked from makeshift
classrooms in their dining rooms, offices, even attics. Children picked up
supplies and met teachers from 6 feet away. “We’re all happy to be back,
wishing we were back traditionally,” Scranton Superintendent Melissa McTiernan
said. “Everyone is making the best of this situation that we possibly can.” As
of Tuesday, 9,741 students had enrolled in the district, with that number
expected to grow as more parents register their children this week. McTiernan
said she was unaware of any major issues on the first day. Students will learn
virtually through at least mid-November, with the hope of eventually moving to
a hybrid schedule if pandemic conditions allow it. Students must participate in
remote learning, and teachers will record live lessons so students can watch
them later in the day if necessary. While the district faces “dire” financial
challenges, including possible furloughs of 223 employees, learning began
across the city on an unprecedented first day of school. “I know things are
totally different, but I think people are adjusting pretty well,” McTiernan
said.
Your kids are our kids: we’ll take care of them at school
| Opinion
Penn Live Letter By Erik Barber, Liz Potter
and Desireé Weaver. Updated Sep 08, 2020; Posted Sep 08, 2020
Teachers Erik Barber, Hershey; Liz Potter,
Central Dauphin; Desireé Weaver, Susquehanna Township.
In the midst of back to school season, you
may be wondering what it is like to be teacher in a pandemic. As presidents of
three local education associations in Dauphin County, we can tell you: it is
truly a novel experience. It is finally taking a lunch break outdoors at a
picnic table with colleagues and being condemned in the papers for being
negligent about wearing masks during our week of professional development. We
now know that such collegial moments of calm in the chaos are not acceptable,
even outside. If it means we have a better chance of keeping kids safe, then we
will learn to handle the isolation. It is giving 100% to all students whether
they are in the school building 2 days, 3 days, or no days. This means learning
to equally engage students at home and students in the classroom, often
simultaneously, while exploring and finding new ways to do so in a way that is
authentic, effective and educational. Our classroom walls have expanded to
cover homes across the county; our 6 foot socially distanced teaching must now
reach kids in their kitchens just as much as students at their desks.
Multi-tasking doesn’t even begin to describe the challenge, but we are ready to
learn. It is longer hours, increased expectations, and worries that we never
believed we would have to face. But we face them, with masks on. Every single
day. We face them because of a simple fact. We are teachers. We are school
counselors. We are nurses and therapists and specialists. Pandemic or not, we
care about your kids because they are “our kids.”
Philadelphia opens centers for students to get help with
virtual school
Chalkbeat Philly By Dale Mezzacappa Sep
8, 2020, 5:17pm EDT
Elizabeth Reyes and her three children were
greeted early Tuesday morning at the Simpson Recreation Center in Frankford
with a red carpet — one marked with white Xs to maintain social distancing —
blue and gold balloons, TV cameras, and Deputy Mayor Cynthia Figueroa. Reyes’
children, Rihanna, Tiana, and Ricky, wore their maroon uniform shirts from
Northwood Academy, a nearby charter school, and carried their Chromebooks. They
lined up to get their temperature taken and, fully masked, walked into the
building, where the WiFi had been upgraded and the desks carefully spaced
apart. In Philadelphia, the school year started remotely last week for the
district and most charter schools. On Tuesday, the city’s “access centers” opened, giving children a place
to go during the day where they can be supervised and do their virtual
schoolwork. The Simpson Recreation Center was one of 31 locations to open; more
are expected to begin operations on Sept. 21. They stay open from 8 a.m. to 6
p.m. The 31 centers that opened Tuesday have a capacity of 800. Each center,
depending on size, is hosting one or more cohorts of no more than 22 children
being supervised by three adults.
Philly learning centers bring working parents both relief
and anxiety
WHYY By Emily Rizzo September 8, 2020
Kyree Robinson, 28, dropped his son off at
the Simpson Recreation Center in Frankford Tuesday morning as an act of faith. It’s
one of the city’s 31 access centers that opened today to supervise K-6 students
from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during virtual schooling. The centers are home bases
for a new program for the city’s neediest families with working parents who
apply for one of 800 slots. Robinson’s 8-year-old son, Syire, got infected with
COVID-19 after he started summer camp in July. Robinson, who was on his way to
work at his car wash business on Tuesday, said sending Syire into the virtual
learning center, feels like a similar risk. Robinson is scared, but he feels
stuck. He’s concerned about his child’s health as well as his own, but can’t
stay at home anymore to watch Syire, as he did when school began last week. It’s
a “sticky situation,” said Robinson, who is a single father.
School went virtual. The economy cratered. These six
parents are fighting to adapt
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent Miles
Bryan September 9, 2020
Are you on the front lines of the
coronavirus? Help us report on the pandemic.
The fall semester in most southeastern
Pennsylvania school districts has begun just as the spring semester ended: 100%
online. But that doesn’t mean everything looks the same. In March, school
districts rushed to create online content for their students. The result? A
hodgepodge of live lessons, recorded videos, and self-directed assignments. This
year, online school generally looks more intentional and intense. Schools
expect students to log on for hours of live Zoom lessons — creating a version
of school that feels more familiar, but also asks more of students and their
families. Parents find themselves thrust into unfamiliar, and, at times,
uncomfortable roles: teacher, tech support, guidance counselor, principal. That’s
in addition to work-related stress — which for some parents comes from juggling
the work-from-home, school-from-home life, and, for others, comes from
pandemic-related job and income loss amid the worst period of unemployment
since the Great Depression. Keystone Crossroads spoke with six families from
around the Philadelphia region to highlight how parents are processing the
start of this school year.
'Children Are Going Hungry': Why Schools Are Struggling
To Feed Students
WESA By CORY
TURNER • SEP 8, 2020
Six months into schools' pandemic-driven
experiment in distance learning, much has been said (and debated) about whether
children are learning. But the more urgent question, for the
more than 30 million kids who depend on U.S. schools for free or reduced-price
meals, is this: Are they eating? The answer, based on recent data
and interviews with school nutrition leaders and anti-hunger advocates across
the country, is alarming. Among low-income households with children who
qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, only about 15% have been
getting those meals, said Lauren Bauer, a researcher at the Brookings
Institution. She's been poring over the results of the
U.S. Census Bureau's weekly Household Pulse Survey. Anecdotally, school
nutrition directors across the country tell a similar story. "Every day I
worry about them. Every day," said Alyssia Wright, executive director of
Fulton County Schools' nutrition program in Fulton County, Ga. "We come up
with ways every week to find a new way to get meals to our kids."
Because the old ways, from just a few months
ago, aren't working anymore.
https://www.wesa.fm/post/children-are-going-hungry-why-schools-are-struggling-feed-students#stream/0
Easton charter school loses its 4th principal at the
start of its 4th year
By Rudy
Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com Updated Sep
09, 2020; Posted Sep 08, 2020
Easton’s charter school principal has
resigned, according to an email sent to the school parents. The email sent
Tuesday from Easton Arts Academy
Elementary Charter School’s CEO doesn’t say why William Wright
left just as school started this year. CEO Chadwick Antonio confirmed Wright’s
departure. “Mr. Wright has resigned as principal. Easton Arts Academy wishes
him the very best in his future endeavors. The school has begun a search for an
ideal candidate to serve as principal,” he said in an email to
lehighvalleylive.com. The school has seen considerable administrative turnover since
it opened in 2017. Wright was the school’s fourth principal. The chief academic officer, CEO and
solicitor were fired in
2019. Their ousters followed a lehighvalleylive.com
report on employee complaints of a
toxic work environment at the school. None of the school board members nor
Antonio returned emails seeking comment. A voicemail left at the school wasn’t
immediately returned. Wright could not be reached for comment. An auditor
criticized the school earlier this year for not catching a $570,000 discrepancy in its
books. Auditor Francis “Skip” Bedics suspected fraud, although
school board president Michael Lieberman said the discrepancy was a bookkeeping error.
“For Crater, the turning point came from a “life-changing”
conversation with the chief of the Lenape tribe in Delaware. “The chief
explicitly told us that indigenous people are not mascots,” he said.”
Unionville, Radnor set growing trend of eliminating
Native American mascots
Delco Times by Catherine Odom catodom24@gmail.com Sep 9, 2020 Updated 7
min ago
EAST MARLBOROUGH — This summer’s racial
reckoning sparked demonstrations, discussions, and change across the United
States, but smaller changes are occurring in communities like Unionville in
Chester County and Radnor, in Delaware County. On August 24, the
Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board voted unanimously to retire the Indian as
the mascot at UHS. For years, community members were at odds about the
controversial mascot, with some calling it a proud tribute and others calling
it an insensitive caricature. Following the killing of George Floyd, a group of
UHS alumni reignited the mascot debate by forming an anti-racism group called
Unionville Must Change. UMC outlined a list of nine demands in a letter to the
administration, including calling for the retirement of the Indian mascot,
which they call “irrefutably racist” in their online petition. Other demands
were a more inclusive curriculum and greater diversity among faculty.
Blogger commentary:
Parents considering cyber charters due to COVID might not be
aware of their 20 year consistent track record of academic underperformance. As
those parents face an expected blitz of advertising by cybers, in order for
them to make a more informed decision, you might consider providing them with
some of the info listed below:
A June 2 paper from the highly respected Brookings Institution stated,
“We find the impact of attending a virtual charter on student achievement is
uniformly and profoundly negative,” and then went on to say that “there is no
evidence that virtual charter students improve in subsequent years.”
In 2016, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers,
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the national charter lobbying
group 50CAN released a report on cyber charters that found that overall, cyber
students make no significant gains in math and less than half the gains in
reading compared with their peers in traditional public schools.
A Stanford University CREDO
Study in 2015 found that cyber students on average lost 72 days a year
in reading and 180 days a year in math compared with students in traditional
public schools.
From 2005 through 2012 under the federal No Child Left
Behind Act, most Pennsylvania cybers never made “adequate yearly progress.”
Following NCLB, for all five years (2013-2017) that Pennsylvania’s School Performance
Profile system was in place, not one cyber charter ever achieved a passing
score of 70.
Under Pennsylvania’s current accountability system, the Future Ready PA Index, all 15 cyber charters that operated
2018-2019 have been identified for some level of support and improvement.
PA SCHOOLS WORK WEBINAR : Public School Advocacy in the
New Normal of a COVID-19 World; Tue, Sep 15, 2020 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM EDT
For the foreseeable future, COVID-19 is a
part of our everyday lives. More parents and community members than ever before
have engaged at the school district level as schools wrestled with their
options for reopening this fall. This conversation will be about continuing our
advocacy for public schools, and how the challenges districts are facing in the
COVID-19 era are magnified by long-term inequities in our funding system and
years of lackluster financial support for public education from state
government. So, what can we do about it? Come find out
PSBA Fall Virtual Advocacy Day: OCT 8, 2020 • 8:00
AM - 5:00 PM
Sign up now for PSBA’s Virtual Advocacy Day
this fall!
All public school leaders are invited to join
us for our fall Virtual Advocacy Day on Thursday, October 8, 2020, via Zoom. We
need all of you to help strengthen our advocacy impact. The day will center
around contacting legislators to discuss critical issues affecting public
education. Registrants will receive the meeting invitation with a link to our
fall Virtual Advocacy Day website that contains talking points, a link to
locate contact information for your legislator and additional information to
help you have a successful day.
Cost: As a membership benefit, there is no
cost to register.
Registration: School directors can register
online now by logging in to myPSBA. If you
have questions about Virtual Advocacy Day, or need additional information,
contact Jamie.Zuvich@psba.org.
Save The Date: The PSBA 2020 Equity Summit is happening
virtually on October 13th.
Discover how to build a foundation for equity
in practice and policy.
Learn more: https://t.co/KQviB4TTOj
PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference October 14-15
Virtual
Registration is now open for the first ever
virtual School Leadership Conference! Join us for all-new educational sessions,
dynamic speakers, exhibitors, and more! Visit the website for registration
information: https://t.co/QfinpBL69u #PASLC20 https://t.co/JYeRhJLUmZ
What to expect at this year’s School Leadership
Conference
POSTED ON AUGUST 31, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
At the 2020 PASA-PSBA School Leadership
Conference on October 14-15, you'll encounter the same high-quality experience
you've come to expect, via new virtual platform. Hear world-class speakers and
relevant educational sessions, and network with exhibitors and attendees — from
the comfort of your home or office on any internet-enabled device.
The virtual conference platform is accessible
via a unique link provided to each registrant about a week before conference.
No additional app downloads are required. The intuitive 3D interface is easy to
use and immersive — you'll feel like you're on location. Registrants will be
able to explore the space a day before conference starts. Highlights
include:
- Virtual
exhibit hall
- Interactive
lobby area and information desk
- Virtual
auditorium
- Digital
swag bag
- Scavenger
hunt
This year, conference is completely free
to attend! Be among the first 125 to register, and receive a special
pre-conference swag bag, sent to your home. Click here for
more information about how to register.
Adopt the resolution against racial inequity!
School boards are asked to adopt this
resolution supporting the development of an anti-racist climate. Once adopted,
share your resolution with your local community and submit a copy to PSBA.
Learn more: http://ow.ly/yJWA50B2R72
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.
292 PA school boards have adopted charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 290 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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