Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1900
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent
advocates, teacher leaders, 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 and Twitter.
The Keystone State Education Coalition is
pleased to be listed among the friends and allies of The Network for Public
Education. Are you a
member?
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
….the 10 largest cyber school providers spent roughly $100 million
dollars the last five years on advertising—taxpayer money that came from the
same coffers that fund public schools.
Virtual School Profits Far Exceeding
Performance
“I believe some proponents of the school
choice agenda are sincere in their belief that competition will help all
schools to be better. Unfortunately, those people are not driving this debate.
To be blunt, certain interests that stand to make a lot of money are the ones
most actively promoting the privatization agenda. If they were sincerely
interested in ensuring that every child in America
NSBA Director writes about “Debunking the
‘reform’ agenda’” for ASBJ
In
the June issue of American School
Board Journal, National
School
“It now appears that early adopters of the
virtual school model were largely home-schoolers who were used to studying
alone and who generally had lots of parental guidance. As virtual schools have
expanded, it appears that their performance has slipped dramatically.”
Virtual School Profits Far Exceeding
Performance
NEAtoday
By Edward Graham May 17, 2013 by twalker
While proponents of for-profit virtual schools argue that cyber classrooms provide students with greater access to a high-quality education, a new report released by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC)—Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2013: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence—finds that virtual schools often receive little to no oversight and seem more concerned with profit margins rather than their students’ lackluster performances.
While proponents of for-profit virtual schools argue that cyber classrooms provide students with greater access to a high-quality education, a new report released by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC)—Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2013: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence—finds that virtual schools often receive little to no oversight and seem more concerned with profit margins rather than their students’ lackluster performances.
…..Only
23.6 percent of virtual schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in
2010-2011, the measurement that determines whether schools have met the minimum
academic standards under the No Child Left Behind Act. 52 percent of traditional and charter schools
made AYP in the same academic year, more than double the success rate for
virtual schools.
….The
report profiles a study done by Kantar Media that shows that the 10 largest
cyber school providers spent roughly $100 million dollars the last five years
on advertising—taxpayer money that came from the same coffers that fund public
schools.
Amid financial crisis, Pearson a winner
The
notebook by Helen Gym on May 17 2013 Posted in Commentary
Are
we in a financial crisis? For the thousands of students who organized a massive
walk-out today, yes. But not for a certain sector of contractors who are
benefiting from the School Reform Commission’s decisions lately.
The
same day that elementary school parents flooded City Council to rally for
school funding and a sizeable crowd attended a panel
on the destructive impact of high-stakes testing, the SRC on Wednesday
approved nearly $1.3 million in contracts related to
assessment and accountability, including a million-dollar contract to
Pearson for high-stakes teacher and principal evaluations.
Students raise voices for Phila. school
funding
Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Friday,May 17, 2013 ,
7:25 AM
Shayla Evermon-Muniz, a student at Nebinger School, was vocal in more ways than one at City Hall on Thursday morning. After singing Mariah Carey's "Hero" outside City Council chambers, Shayla, 10, talked about how education has accommodated her love for arts and music.
Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Friday,
Shayla Evermon-Muniz, a student at Nebinger School, was vocal in more ways than one at City Hall on Thursday morning. After singing Mariah Carey's "Hero" outside City Council chambers, Shayla, 10, talked about how education has accommodated her love for arts and music.
If
those programs were cut from the Philadelphia
Shayla
and two other students joined civic activists to push for more funding for the Philadelphia School District School District is seeking
additional money from the city and state to cover a $304 million budget
shortfall.
Pottsgrove OKs New Textbooks As Standards
Debated
The
Sanatoga Post, Posted on 16 May 2013
POTTSTOWN
PA – A series of nine new mathematics textbooks and accompanying materials that
Pottsgrove School District students will use from kindergarten through their
senior year was approved for purchase Tuesday (May 14, 2013) at a cost of
$309,453 by the Board of School Directors, primarily because it will help the
district adhere to new state guidelines on what math concepts must be taught in
schools. But apparently not all lobbying
groups at the capitol in Harrisburg
The
Common Core is touted as a national attempt to ensure that, no matter where
they live, students receive and learn the same information deemed to help them
succeed in their futures. Pottsgrove has spent more than two years studying and
preparing its teachers for the standards and some of the novel ways they will
be asked to teach them.
Video: PA Senate Education Committee May 15
hearing on Common Core standards
Video
runtime 233 minutes
EPLC Education Policy Fellowship Program –
Apply Now
Applications are
available now for the 2013-2014 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy
Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania
With more than 350
graduates in its first fourteen 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, 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 12-13, 2013 and
continues to graduation in June 2014.
“They understand that for every dollar spent
on high-quality early education, we save more than seven dollars in the long
run by boosting kindergarten readiness, graduation rates, reducing teen
pregnancy, and even reducing violent crime. They also understand that providing
our children with the best start possible in life is not only a moral
imperative, but an economic imperative that will benefit our communities and
our nation far into the future.”
Meeting with Mothers and Advocates for Our
Children
The
White House Blog by Cecilia Muñoz
May 14, 2013 10:11
AM EDT
During
his State
of the Union address in February, President
Obama called on Congress to expand access to high-quality preschool to every
four-year old in America. As the President put it that day:
“In
states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia
or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at
grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of
their own. We know this works. So let’s do what works and make sure
none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our
kids that chance.”
Yesterday,
I had the pleasure to meet with mothers, leaders, and tireless advocates that
understand that the best investment we can make as a country is in our
children’s future.
The
coalition came to the White House to deliver 30,000 letters and art work
thanking thePresident
for his proposal to make high-quality preschool available for all children –
and I used the opportunity to thank them for all their hard work, and to hear
from them about the work they continue to do advocating for children.
Network for Public Education Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue #8, May
16, 2013
Welcome
to the eighth edition of our newsletter. We bring you news from Chicago
Thanks
for all you are doing out there! The Network for Public Education is your support network,
your learning network, and your organizing network.If you haven't joined
yet, you can do so here.
GAO: 40 states have suspected cheating on
K-12 tests
By Lyndsey
Layton, Friday, May 17, 2:58 PM E-mail
the writer
In
the past two school years, 40 states detected potential cheating on
standardized exams given to public school students in grades 3 to 12, according
to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office. Of those states, 33 confirmed at least one
instance of cheating, and 32 states canceled or invalidated test results from
individual students, schools or districts as a result of either suspected or
confirmed cheating, the GAO found. The GAO collected data from the 2010-2011
and 2011-2012 academic years.
Navigating School Funding Decisions in Harrisburg
Webinar for School Boards &
Superintendents Wed, May 22, 2013 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM EDT
This spring marks the third
year that superintendents and school boards are struggling to put together
budgets with deeply reduced state funding levels. So what is Harrisburg
Join the Pennsylvania Budget andPolicy
Center on Wednesday, May 22nd at 3pm for a webinar on the latest in
the state budget debate and what it means for education funding in Pennsylvania
Join the Pennsylvania Budget and
For more info and registration:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3540292551835560192
Search underway for PSBA Executive Director
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA)
is a nonprofit statewide association of public school boards, pledged to the
highest ideals of local lay leadership for the public schools of the
commonwealth. Founded in 1895, PSBA has a rich history as the first
school boards' association established in the United States Pennsylvania
Search
by Diversified Search, 1990 M St NW, Suite 570Washington , DC
Sign Up
Today for PILCOP Special Ed CLE Trainings
Spots are filling up for the
final two trainings in our 2012-2013 Know Your Child’s Rights series with
seminars on ADAAA, Pro Se Parents and Settlement Agreements.
For seminar details and
registration: http://pilcop.org/sign-up-today-for-special-ed-cle-trainings/
Turning the Page for Change
celebration, June
11, 2013
Please join us for the Notebook’s annual Turning the Page for
Change celebration on June 11, 2013 , from 4:30 - 7 p.m. at the University of The Arts 320 S. Broad Street
PA Charter Schools: $4 billion taxpayer dollars with no real
oversight Keystone State May 2,
2013 )
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny; Proposed
statewide authorization and direct payment would further diminish
accountability and oversight for public tax dollars
