Monday, June 27, 2011

BUDGET DETAILS TODAY?/ 18 PA HIGH SCHOOLS ON NEWSWEEK’S 2011 BEST LIST

The PA House adjourned last night without taking up vouchers, charters, or any school code bill.  Please keep up your contacts with your legislators.

Senate Republicans expected to unveil budget plan today
Monday, June 27, 2011
By Laura Olson, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- Those waiting on details of the state budget agreement had to be patient Sunday, as lawmakers reshuffled their agenda for the rare weekend work day.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11178/1156484-454.stm#ixzz1QTDh9sY2

 

Pennsylvania laws pitting public schools against private

By Amy Crawford, TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, June 27, 2011

Gov. Tom Corbett has laid out a vision for public education in Pennsylvania in which schools compete to offer students the best chance at success.
But some educators complain that Pennsylvania's 500 school districts and 145 charter schools might not be playing on an even field.
Jeanne Allen, head of the Center for Education Reform, said she believes unions -- or a lack thereof -- make all the difference."

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Back in May, Governor Corbett was a keynote speaker at the DeVos' American Federation for Children conference in Washington DC.  His remarks focused on what he said was the main problem with public education: teacher's unions.

Here's Newsweek's 2011 Beauty Contest, with 18 Pennsylvania High Schools making the list.  Curiously, they all have unions…….

 

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Newsweek: America's Best High Schools 2011

June 19, 2011

These are challenging times for secondary education. Cash-strapped school districts are cutting back; No Child Left Behind mandates test results; parents and students stress unabated. NEWSWEEK, which has been ranking the top public high schools in America for more than a decade, revamped its methodology this year in hopes of highlighting solutions. We enlisted a panel of experts—Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions (formerly executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network—to develop a yardstick that fully reflects a school's success turning out college-ready (and life-ready) students. To this end, each school's score is comprised of six components: graduation rate (25%), college matriculation rate (25%), AP tests taken per graduate (25%), average SAT/ACT scores (10%), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10%), and AP courses offered (5%).

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2011/americas-best-high-schools.html

 

 

Public Education Stakeholders can use Education Voters PA website to email and call your local legislators regarding the budget and keeping vouchers out of the budget bill.

Please forward this link to any public education stakeholders

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6041/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4313

 


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