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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup October 4, 2016
When
.@PACyber CEO can make enough money to buy himself a personal jet…
“When the CEO of PA Cyber can make
enough money operating a school to buy himself a personal jet, there is a
problem with how these schools are being funded.”
'Free' charter schools really aren't free
at all: Susan Spicka
PennLive Op-Ed
By Susan Spicka on September
30, 2016 at 10:00 AM, updated September 30, 2016 at 3:23 PM
Susan Spicka, of Shippensburg, is the executive director for
Education Voters of PA.
Charter schools are a part of
Pennsylvania's educational landscape, and high-quality charter schools have a
place in the commonwealth. However, charter schools are not
"tuition free," as ubiquitous advertisements may claim. In fact, school districts send more than $1.5
billion in tuition payments to charter schools each year, significantly
reducing the resources available to students who remain in traditional public
schools and creating considerable increased costs for taxpayers. In an
environment where resources for schools are extremely limited and where home
and business owners are facing increased pressure from property taxes, it is critical
that state lawmakers ensure that taxpayer dollars being sent to charter schools
are being used to educate children, not to boost the profits of charter school
management companies and CEOs. In addition, lawmakers must
ensure that charter schools, which are public schools, are equitably serving
all students and not denying access to the most vulnerable children in our
communities. While many charter school
operators are good stewards of taxpayer dollars, a recent audit of PA Cyber
Charter School by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale highlights how current
charter school law fails to protect taxpayers — and hurts students — by
allowing charter operators to legally siphon millions of dollars out of classrooms
and into their pockets.
Blogger note: Jet planes may be small
potatoes…The owners of the management company operating the state’s largest
brick and mortar charter school have never responded to court orders for right
to know requests.
Owners get more time to finish North End
beachfront mansion
Businessman and attorney Vahan
Gureghian and his attorney wife, Danielle, have until Aug. 19 to complete the
36,000-square-foot mansion at 1071 N. Ocean Blvd. Their 42-month permit was set
to expire April 25.
By Aleese Kopf
Palm Beach Daily News Staff Writer Posted: 10:45 a.m. Thursday, April 14, 2016
Owners of a North End
oceanfront lot received extra time Wednesday to finish construction of their
massive French-style estate. Businessman
and attorney Vahan Gureghian and his attorney wife, Danielle, have until Aug.
19 to complete the 36,000-square-foot mansion at 1071 N. Ocean Blvd. Their
42-month permit was set to expire April 25.
Hugh Davis of Davis General Contracting said his firm began work in
late March 2013 after taking over for a previous contractor who let the site
sit vacant for five months. The Town
Council agreed to the extension because there were no objections from neighbors
and the operation has run smoothly since the new contractor was hired. “It’s
probably one of the best-maintained construction sites in the history of the
North End, possibly the entire island,” said Mayor Gail Coniglio. “The movement
of traffic has been well-maintained. I drive by it all the time. It is
perfectly well-run.” Attorney Martin
Klein, who lives across the street from the construction site, agreed with the
mayor but asked the contractor to make sure damaged landscaping is replaced
once the project is complete. Davis said “absolutely.” The property leads the local multiple listing
service as the most expensive property for sale in Palm Beach, priced
at $74.5 million.
Cyber charters in Pa. struggle on state
tests
Inquirer by Martha Woodall, Staff Writer Updated: SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 —
1:08 AM EDT
Standardized tests continue to
pose challenges for students at Pennsylvania's cyber charter schools. The state Department of Education released
test results Thursday that show students at many of the 13 cyber charters
operating in 2015-16 were performing far below grade level in both language
arts and math. At 12 of the online
charter schools, fewer than 50 percent of students scored advanced or
proficient - the benchmark for grade-level performance. PSSAs are given each year to students in all
taxpayer-funded schools in grades three to eight. High school students take
Keystone Exams. At schools where
students receive online instruction in their homes, 21st Century Cyber Charter
School in Downingtown had the highest scores.
Fifty-seven percent of students scored advanced or proficient in
language arts on the PSSA tests; 24 percent did in math.
Total cyber charter tuition paid by PA taxpayers from 500 school districts for 2013, 2014 and 2015 was over $1.2 billion; $393.5 million, $398.8 million and $436.1 million respectively. Not one of Pennsylvania’s cyber charters has achieved a passing SPP score of 70 in any of the three years that the SPP has been in effect.
WHYY Newsworks BY LAURA BENSHOFF OCTOBER 3, 2016
Sunny census data released last
month hides some dark numbers about child poverty in the Philadelphia suburbs. Thousand more kids in Montgomery, Bucks,
Delaware and Chester counties are living in poverty than at the beginning of
the Great Recession, according to a new
reportfrom an area child welfare non-profit. Median household income in Pennsylvania grew
more by almost 5 percent in 2015, but that figure doesn't tell the whole story,
according to Donna Cooper, executive director of Public Citizens for Children
and Youth. "Child poverty has
continued to be a problem in the suburbs, rising during the recession, dipping
a little bit now in 2015, but still there are 7,000 more children in poverty
today than in the worst years of the recession," she said. The advocacy group crunched the most recent
numbers from the annual American Community Survey, and it will rolling
out reports on the four suburban counties over the next few weeks. The first focuses on Delaware County, which
the Philadelphia
Inquirer reported had banner year for income growth in 2015, climbing
7.2 percent.
Children Stuck in Recession in Suburban
Counties Despite Recovery
Child poverty, lower test scores casts long shadow in Delco,
Bucks, Montco and Chester
PCCY Philadelphia
(Oct 3, 2016) –
While recent headlines tout a national recovery from the Great Recession, more
children in four suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia are worse off now
than during the depths of the recession, according Public Citizens for Children
and Youth. PCCY released the first of four reports on the status of children in
Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties, titled, “Left Out: The Status
of Children in Delaware County.”
Huffington Post by Mercedes Schneider Public school teacher, education activist, PhD 10/02/2016 05:22 pm ET | Updated 1 day ago
A major problem with the charter
school slogan, “charter schools are public schools,” is that charter schools
are operated by management organizations that are either private businesses or
nonprofits. What this means is that charter schools can call themselves
“public” because they take public money even as their management orgs can call
themselves “private” when they wish to hide information about their
administrative practices (and their administrators) from public view. Moreover, unless the state law
specifically details the charter management organization as an entity held
responsible, the charter management organization will enjoy almost-guaranteed
free rein. Such is the case of
Pennsylvania’s ASPIRA charter management org (see ASPIRA’s 2013 tax form here) and its CEO, Alfredo B. Calderon, who apparently
paid another, now-former, ASPIRA exec $350,000 to make a sexual harassment
charge go away.
Capitol Digest by Crisci Associates October 3, 2016
Pennsylvania collected $2.6 billion in General Fund revenue in September, which was $144.9 million, or 5.2 percent, less than anticipated, Secretary of Revenue Eileen McNulty reported Monday. Fiscal year-to-date General Fund collections total $6.6 billion, which is $218.5 million, or 3.2 percent, below estimate. Sales tax receipts totaled $811.5 million for September, $20.5 million below estimate. Year-to-date sales tax collections total $2.5 billion, which is $72.4 million, or 2.8 percent, less than anticipated. Personal income tax revenue in September was $1.1 billion, $36.6 million below estimate. This brings year-to-date PIT collections to $2.7 billion, which is $54.8 million, or 2 percent, below estimate.
Trib Live BY ELIZABETH
BEHRMAN | Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, 9:27 p.m.
When Terry Bradford collected her
grandchildren from Osborne Elementary School one day, she couldn't help but
notice that none of the teachers looked like them. The only black employee of the school, as far
as she could tell, was a cook who worked in the lunch room. “That just sent a chill for me,” said
Bradford, wondering what sort of message that sent to the school's black
children. “That is so 1960s.” As
president of the Daniel B. Matthews Historical Society, a group that works to
preserve local black history, Bradford has been having discussions recently
with administrators at the Quaker Valley School District about what can be done
to recruit more minority teachers. So far, she said, the district has been
receptive. “We just need to make sure
we're going to show them a copy of what the world looks like,” Bradford said
about the students.
“Ridley School District Superintendent
Lee Ann Wetzel testified against the bill for the Pennsylvania Association of
School Administrators. The test's backers, she said, are ignoring evidence that
the state that birthed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is
already doing a better-than-average job teaching civics. Wetzel noted that Pennsylvania students
scored 16 points higher than the national average on the U.S. history portion
of the SAT. They also perform better than the nation as a whole on Advanced
Placement exams for American government and history.”
Want your high school diploma? Pa.
lawmakers propose civics test
Inquirer by Kathy Boccella, Staff Writer Updated: OCTOBER 4, 2016 — 1:07
AM EDT
Can you name the current speaker
of the U.S. House? Do you know when the Declaration of Independence was
adopted? Can you identify our nation's economic system?
If you can answer such elementary
civics questions, education experts say, you have the makings of an engaged
citizen - equipped to grasp the nuances of the current contentious race for the
White House. But if you draw a blank on
these, and 97 more like them, you might be denied a high school diploma in
Pennsylvania, starting in 2021. Under a
bill making its way through the state House, high school seniors would have to
pass a test on the basics of American government before they could graduate -
the same examination given to newly minted citizens by the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
“With all the negative public backlash
that we are testing too much, why is the answer always to add another test?”
Gerald Huesken, superintendent at Conestoga Valley, asked Wednesday.
Local educators balk at bill requiring students to pass a civics
exam before graduating
Lancaster Online by TOM KNAPP | Staff Writer
October 3, 2016
Citing reports that many American
citizens are “alarmingly ignorant” of history and government, the state
Legislature may require students to pass a civics test before they can
graduate. The test would be like those
taken by immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship.
House Bill 1858, which was discussed Monday at a joint hearing of two
House committes, would require high school students beginning in the 2020-21
academic year to score at least 60 percent on the 100-question test. “I think far too many of our citizens,
students included, lack basic knowledge regarding our nation's history and its
governing fundamentals,” Chris Bentz, a social studies teacher at Lancaster
Catholic High School, said Thursday. “In
light of the fact naturalized citizens must display some degree of knowledge
through the citizenship test I think natural-born citizens should be required
to do the same.” Fourteen states have
similar laws, and two national organizations — the Joe Foss Institute and the
Civics Education Initiative — hope to see the requirement in place in all
states soon.
Philly School District ordered to offer
special-ed fix
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer Updated: OCTOBER 3, 2016 — 1:08
AM EDT
For all of last school year,
special-education teacher vacancies at Mastbaum High School meant freshman
Justine Cappetti struggled. Because some
special-ed positions remained open all year, there weren't enough supports to
fulfill the terms of her individualized education plan, a legal document
crafted for all special-ed students. As
a result, Justine barely passed math. The situation was a weight on the family. "She was stressed a lot," said
Justine's mother, Millie Cappetti. She
wasn't alone. Lingering teacher
vacancies were a real problem in the Philadelphia School District last year,
with thousands of students lacking a classroom teacher for a significant part
of the term. In response, the state
Department of Education recently ordered the district to provide
"compensatory education to remedy the educational loss" suffered by
special-education students at Mastbaum and eight other schools citywide. The
total cost to the district is yet unknown.
“Can Penn Alexander serve as an example
in the Philadelphia School District that can be repeated in other schools? The
short answer is no. Penn Alexander has a
special relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, which uses it in part
as an on-site laboratory for its graduate students in education. Penn also
chips in an additional $1,330 a year for each of the school's 550 students.”
Philly School District should follow Penn
Alexander method
Philly Daily News Editorial Updated: OCTOBER 3, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
SINCE IT opened in 2001, the Penn
Alexander Elementary School in West Philadelphia has gained a reputation as a
diverse, high-performing school so popular with parents in the neighborhood
that demand for spaces exceeds the supply.
Now, that reputation has been confirmed by the U.S. government. Last
week, U.S. Secretary of Education John King awarded Penn Alexander with a 2016
National Blue Ribbon for excellence. The
prestigious award was given to nine other schools in the region as well,
including two in Philadelphia: the FACTS Charter School at 10th and Callowhill
streets, and St. Mary's Interparochial, a Catholic grade school in Society
Hill. All of the winners-there were 329
nationwide-were cited by King as "shining examples" of how education
can and should work.
A public school principal argues that consistent student growth—not just achievement—must be counted when judging low-performing schools. Otherwise, there can be no success
Philadelphia Citizen BY HILDERBRAND PELZER III OCT. 04, 2016
Throughout my career, I have managed diverse urban schools with difficult learning environments—including a high school inside a prison. So I was up for the challenge in June, 2012, when the School District approached me to be the principal of Laura H. Carnell School in Oxford Circle. And it was quite a challenge: Carnell was the largest elementary school in Philadelphia, and one of the largest K-8 schools in the state. When I took over the school’s leadership, enrollment within its three different buildings was nearly 1,800 students. The ethnic makeup was largely African American. The school had an English language learner population of 16 percent, and the special education population was around 10 percent. It also was one of the lowest-performing schools, with a history of poor academic and organizational performance, and no significant student achievement for decades.
Phoenixville School District eyes ways to
close achievement gap
Daily
Local By Eric Devlin, edevlin@21st-centurymedia.com, @Eric_Devlin on Twitter POSTED: 10/02/16, 6:13 PM
EDT | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO
PHOENIXVILLE >> It’s an
issue school district officials everywhere have been trying to tackle. What is
the best way to close the achievement gap among historically underperforming
and disadvantaged students? In
Phoenixville, administrators spent the summer focusing their efforts on this
very question. They admit more needs to be done to help this group of students
and have implemented a strategy they said will do just that. From constantly checking to make sure
students are understanding material at the elementary school level, to
challenging students to rise above their potential at the middle and upper
level, the hope is to begin seeing positive signs of change. After all, the
district’s goal is to prepare and inspire all students, said Phoenixville
School District Assistant Superintendent LeRoy Whitehead. “All means all.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette October 3, 2016 1:22 PM
The Brentwood school board and
the teachers union have reached agreement on a new contract that includes a pay
freeze while allowing for salary step increases two years in a row. The 90-member Brentwood Education
Association, which includes teachers, nurses and guidance counselors, had been
working under the terms of the last five-year pact, which expired June 30,
2015. The new three-year contract is
retroactive to July 1, 2015 and ends nearly 17 months of contract negotiations. In May, teachers staged a large rally outside
the school district’s administrative offices to express their frustration with
the slow pace of negotiations. The union also had authorized its bargaining
committee to set a strike date if the district and faculty failed to reach a
new contract.
Citizens Voice BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER / PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
KINGSTON — The Wyoming Valley
West School District has indefinitely closed the middle school to examine and
remove mold growing inside and plans to send roughly 1,100 middle school
students to the high school to share the Plymouth facility by implementing a
split schedule, officials decided Tuesday.
The middle school dismissed students around 3 p.m. Tuesday. Middle
school students will not have school today, Thursday and Friday. They will
start going to the high school Monday, officials said.
September 28 - October 2, 2016 Franklin & Marshall College Poll
The September 2016 Franklin & Marshall College Poll of Pennsylvania shows that Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump 47% to 38% among likely voters. More voters continue to believe Secretary Clinton rather than Mr. Trump has the experience to be president, is better prepared to handle foreign policy issues, and has the character and judgment to be president. Voters are evenly divided on which candidate has the ability to fix the country’s economic problems and which candidate will change government policies to make voters’ lives better. Secretary Clinton’s favorable ratings have rebounded to about where they were after the Democratic Party convention, 47% favorable, while Mr. Trump’s favorable ratings have also returned to their late July level of 32%. Survey indicators from this poll show the candidates’ standing in the post-debate race is similar to where they stood after the political party conventions in late July.
http://www.fandm.edu/fandmpoll
Trump Inspires School Bullying, NEA Says
in Home Stretch Campaign Against Him
Education Week By Evie Blad on October 3, 2016 4:49 PM
With a little more than a month
to go in the presidential campaigns, the nation's largest teachers' union
launched a push Monday to tie Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump's "inflammatory rhetoric" to an increase in bullying in
America's schools. The National
Education Association's campaign against "The Trump Effect" will
include internet and direct mail components targeted at votes in key states. It
follows similar statements by the American Federation of Teachers, which joined
with the NEA in endorsing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the
presidential race. But can Trump's
statements on the trail—as harsh and unconventional as they may be—be blamed
for an increase in bullying? Has there even been an overall increase in
bullying? One researcher says it's way too early to tell. More on that in a
second.
The Unintended
Consequences of Taking a Hard Line on School Discipline
New York Times Retro
Report By CLYDE HABERMAN OCT. 2, 2016Unraveling Zero Tolerance - Over the last 30 years, schools across the country have enacted tough disciplinary policies. Did they go too far?
It did not take long for school
safety agents in New York to find their first gun of the new school year. Day 1
had barely begun at a Brooklyn high school last month when the officers stopped a
15-year-old student who had stowed a loaded .22-caliber pistol in his
backpack and thought he could pass it through a metal scanner. In short order, the boy was led away by the
police. Also in short order, the city’s Department of Education issued a
statement invoking a two-word phrase that has virtually been holy writ in
classrooms around the country for the past quarter of a century: “There is zero
tolerance for weapons of any kind in schools.”
It is hard to imagine many law-abiding citizens disagreeing that the
acceptance level for students carrying guns, knives, drugs or other harmful
items should be nonexistent. But the concept of zero tolerance has come to
encompass such a broad range of disruptive actions that roughly three million
schoolchildren are suspended each year, and several hundred thousand are
arrested or given criminal citations. Many students are hauled off to police
station houses for antisocial behavior that, a generation or two ago, would
have sent them no farther than the principal’s office.
Basic Education Funding workshops coming
to your area
PA now has a permanent Basic Education Funding formula. Learn more about how it works, what it measures and why it's important. Workshops sponsored by PASA, PSBA, PAIU, PARSS, PA Principals Association and PASBO are coming to an area near you.
PA now has a permanent Basic Education Funding formula. Learn more about how it works, what it measures and why it's important. Workshops sponsored by PASA, PSBA, PAIU, PARSS, PA Principals Association and PASBO are coming to an area near you.
Register and see more details and dates here.
Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 5:30 PM
The Crystal Tea Room, The Wanamaker Building
100 Penn Square East, Philadelphia, PA
Honoring: Pepper Hamilton LLP, Signe Wilkinson, Dr. Monique W. Morris
And presenting the ELC PRO BONO AWARD to Paul Saint-Antoine & Chanda Miller
of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
The Public Interest Law Center invites you
to its 2016 Annual Event: “Of the People, By the People, For the People.” Thursday,
Oct 6, 2016 at 6:00 PM
FringeArts 140 N. Columbus Blvd.,
Philadelphia, PA
Honoring: Soil
Generation, Nicholas Chimicles, and Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
http://www.pubintlaw.org/2016event/Coffee and Networking - 9:30 a.m. Program - 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Technical College High School
(Brandywine Campus) - 443 Boot Rd., Downingtown, PA 19335
RSVP by clicking here. There is no fee, but a RSVP is
required. Please feel free to share this invitation with your staff and
network. SPEAKERS:
An Overview of the EPLC Report on High School CTE will be presented by:
Ron Cowell, President, The
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Statewide and
Regional Perspectives Will Be Provided By: Dr. Lee Burket, Director, Bureau of Career & Technical Education, PA Department of Education
Jackie Cullen, Executive Director, PA Association of Career & Technical Administrators
Dan Fogarty, Director of Workforce Development & COO, Berks County Workforce Development Board
Kirk Williard, Ed.D., Director of Career, Technical & Customized Education, Chester County Intermediate Unit
Registration
for the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 13-15 is now open
The conference
is your opportunity to learn, network and be inspired by peers and
experts.
TO REGISTER: See https://www.psba.org/members-area/store-registration/ (you must be logged in to
the Members Area to register). You can read more on How to Register for
a PSBA Event here. CONFERENCE WEBSITE: For
all other program details, schedules, exhibits, etc., see the conference
website:www.paschoolleaders.org.
The 2016 Arts and Education Symposium will be held on October 27 at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Arts Education network and EPLC, the Symposium is a Unique Networking and Learning Opportunity for:
·
Arts Educators
·
School Leaders
·
Artists
·
Arts and Culture Community Leaders
·
Arts-related Business Leaders
·
Arts Education Faculty and Administrators in Higher Education
·
Advocates
·
State and Local Policy Leaders
Act 48 Credit is
available.Program and registration information are available here.
PA Principals Association website Tuesday, August 2, 2016 10:43 AM
To receive the Early Bird Discount, you must be registered by August 31, 2016:
Members: $300 Non-Members: $400
Featuring Three National Keynote Speakers: Eric Sheninger, Jill Jackson & Salome Thomas-EL
SAVE THE DATE LWVPA Convention 2017 June
1-4, 2017
Join the
League of Women Voters of PA for our 2017 Biennial Convention at the beautiful
Inn at Pocono Manor!
