Daily postings from the Keystone State Education
Coalition now reach more than 3100 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school
directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers,
Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, 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
These daily emails are archived and searchable at
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
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?
If you value democratically governed
American public education that serves all children then advocate for it.
Look who’s advocating for public
schools
Look who’s advocating for public schools
The National School Boards
Association is launching a campaign in support of
public education — with some unexpected help.
Called “Stand Up4Public
Schools,” the campaign’s goal is to persuade association members to be more
forceful advocates for public schools and locally controlled school districts
at a time when, in the name of reform, many school boards have lost their power
to mayoral and even state takeovers and traditional public schools have come
under attack. As an example, consider this: John Huppenthal, the reform-minded
superintendent of public instruction in Arizona, is sending a message in
robocalls promoting a voucher program that lets parents use public money to
send their kids to private school, according
to the Phoenix New Times.
The National School
Boards Association, looking for some high-profile support, successfully
wooed Sal
Khan, founder of the famous online Khan Academy
Khan’s posters for the
campaign include those that say: “Great Things Happen At Public Schools,” and
“Who I am today began with public education.”
Fewer PA college students want to be teachers
By Jacqueline Palochko,
Of The Morning Call 8:35 pm ,
February 15, 2014
In an era of layoffs,
high-stakes testing and crowded classrooms, many college students in Pennsylvania
Nowhere is this more
apparent than at the state-owned universities such as Kutztown and East
Stroudsburg, which were founded in the 19th century to train teachers for Pennsylvania
In fall 2004, there were
18,685 students enrolled as education majors at the 14 schools in the
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. By last fall, that number had
dropped a third to 12,569, a rate that far exceeds the overall drop in students
attending college.
Tom Joseph, Public News
Service-PA Thursday, February
13, 2014
"Since we don't have a funding formula,” Gobreski stresses, “the big question is going to be does that drive out money to where it's needed, the school districts that are really struggling to be able to meet the needs of kids right now, and are these the right programs to focus on?"
Hite releases school action plan built on 'bold expectations'
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Monday,February 17, 2014 , 1:07 AM
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Monday,
Despite enormous, ongoing
fiscal challenges in the Philadelphia
School District
Every 8-year-old in the
city reading at grade level. Every student graduating ready for college and
careers. Every school with a great principal and teachers. Full funding for
great schools.
Centering on those four
goals, Hite's 41-page blueprint for the future of the district, to be issued
Monday, is full of "bold expectations," the superintendent said.
Plan for Philly public schools calls for bold steps
SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Monday, February 17, 2014 , 3:01 AM
Calling for stable funding streams, Hite will attach a price tag to his
new action plan
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa on Feb 17 2014 Posted in Latest news
Superintendent William
Hite, seeking to demonstrate that the District is moving forward despite
profound financial woes, has released an updated “action plan” for improving
city schools.
The 42-page
plan takes aim at four “anchor goals” that Hite calls both
“aspirational in scope and urgent in nature,” including having 100 percent of
8-year-olds reading on grade level and 100 percent of students graduating with
college or job-ready skills. To achieve
this, the plan also sets aspirational goals around human capital and fiscal
support. It calls for 100 percent great teachers and principals and 100 percent
“of the funding we need for great schools.”
Mayor Peduto puts new focus on Pittsburgh Public School
Critical report from 2003 revisited
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh February 17, 2014
1:14 AM
More than a decade ago,
the Mayor's Commission on Public Education called for the Pittsburgh Public
Schools board to be appointed by the mayor rather than elected by residents.
That hasn't happened nor
have some of the other recommendations in the 144-page report critical of the
district and written during the administration of Tom Murphy in 2003.
In the intervening years,
no other mayor or mayor's commission has tried to take control away from an
elected school board or made such sweeping recommendations.
While he hasn't suggested
appointing the school board, Mayor Bill Peduto, sworn in last month, is taking
a keen interest in the fate of the school district.
Report calls on Pittsburgh
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh February 16, 2014
11:05 PM
For Great Public
Schools-Pittsburgh, the question of how to solve the district's academic and
financial problems shouldn't be couched as how to trim the budget. "Instead we must ask, 'How can we fund
the schools our students deserve?' We must expand our way of thinking, reframe
the problem and come at public education as a community committed to finding
the resources our students need to succeed in school and in life," the
coalition stated in a report released Friday.
The report is titled "Great Public Schools for All Pittsburgh
Children" and calls for making schools "community schools" that
provide education and other services and serve as community centers.
Delco Times by Leslie
Krowchenko POSTED: 02/16/14, 9:59
PM EST
The version would require
a corresponding 3.88 percent tax increase.
Marple Newtown’s Act 1 index for next year, as set by the state, is 2.1
percent. The motion authorized the administration to apply to the Pennsylvania
Department of Education for the retirement exception to satisfy 1.1 percent of
the difference, which would allow the district to increase taxes to an
estimated maximum of 3.2 percent, said Business Administrator Joe Driscoll. The
remaining 0.68 percent will be reduced through the final revenue and expense
projections, he added.
The preliminary budget
represents a 4.6 percent increase over the current year. Driscoll noted the
major cost drivers are $878,000 in salaries, divided among increases, two new
teachers and additional special education support staff, $2.2 million in
benefits, $200,000 for textbook adoptions and no increase in the budgetary
reserve.
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review By Megan
Harris Sunday, Feb.
16, 2014 , 11:21 p.m.
If two feet of pristine, powdery snow blanketedPittsburgh
overnight, Quigley Catholic High School
students would still rise at dawn, roll out of bed to email their teachers and
start a school day from the relative comfort of their Western
Pennsylvania homes. “We
haven't called a snow day in five years,” technology coordinator Mitch Yanyanin
said. “If we know it's coming, we tell everyone to stay home the next day. If
we don't, sometimes we delay, but we love this system. Our students and staff
are home safe, and no one misses any classroom time.” Persistently frigid weather and snow showers
conspired to sap school districts nationwide of snow and calamity days built
into otherwise meticulous calendars.
If two feet of pristine, powdery snow blanketed
Editorial: Want property tax reform? It's time to speak up
Delco Times Editorial POSTED: 02/15/14,
11:57 PM EST |
We’re here to be
watchdogs for the communities we serve. And like a good watchdog, we know when
someone is creeping around the house. In
this case, they’re creeping around the state House and the Senate. We’ve made it our mission this year to keep a
close eye on property tax reform and the funding formula used by the state to
determine how much money is allocated to individual school districts. Our watchdog role will only take us so far,
though. Once we have the burglar backed up against the wall, the homeowner has
to come in and take over.
That’s your cue.
Guest Column: With the right legislation, cybers and charters could
offer good return on investment
By JOE EMRICH and MIKE
REESE, Times Guest Columnists 02/14/14 , 9:52
PM EST |
State Rep. Joe Emrick, R-Upper Nazareth
Members of the General
Assembly are charged with being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. It is our
responsibility to treat this money as an investment by doing all we can to
ensure the highest possible “return.” One of the greatest investments we make
is in education. Our students are our future and the manner in which we invest
in them will significantly impact Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
Last September, a
bipartisan vote passed House Bill 618, which addresses the investment in
charter school education as well as the double dip on pensions that currently
benefits cyber charter schools. We urge our Senate colleagues to take up this
legislation and send it to Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk for his signature.
Why Does PBS Ignore the Assault on Public Education? Can You Guess?
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianeravitch February
16, 2014 //
In the aftermath of David
Sirota’s exposé of PBS accepting $3.5 million for a series about pension
reform, funded by the Arnold Foundation (and since returned), another question
naturally arises: why has PBS shown little or no interest in the corporate
takeover of and turmoil in public education?
I appeared on Charlie Rose last year for about 15-20 minutes. But
otherwise the viewers of PBS have not had any in-depth investigation of the
corporate-funded assault on one of our nation’s most crucial democratic
institutions. Why isn’t PUBLIC television interested in PUBLIC education?
“The loudest of the complaints is based on New York’s decision not
to wait for those new Common Core exams, which are expected to make their debut
in 2015, but to begin testing students on the new standards last year. Teachers
said they had not been fully trained in the new curriculums, and had not
received new textbooks and teaching materials; many still did not have them in
the fall. As the tests changed, the scores plummeted: Less than a third of the
state’s students passed.”
Common Core Curriculum Now Has Critics on the Left
New York Times By AL BAKER FEB. 16, 2014
The Common Core has been
applauded by education leaders and promoted by the Obama administration as a
way to replace a hodgepodge of state standards with one set of
rigorous learning goals. Though 45 states and the District of Columbia have
signed on to them since 2010, resistance came quickly, mostly from
right-leaning states, where some leaders and political action groups have
protested what they see as a federal takeover of local classrooms. But the newest chorus of complaints is coming
from one of the most liberal states, and one of the earliest champions of the
standards: New York Long Island ,
calls the Common Core a “disaster.” “We
see kids,” she said, “they don’t want to go to school anymore.”
More than 500 New York
State
Wait What? Blog Feb 14
While Stefan Pryor,
Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, and the Connecticut State
Department of Education are instructing Connecticut superintendents and
principals to mislead and lie to parents in an attempt to scare parents from
opting their children out of the standardized testing frenzy, a group of more
than 500 New York State principals have signed a letter setting the record
straight about the problems associated with these new Common Core standardized
tests. Hopefully more Connecticut school
administrators will join education leaders like Madison, Connecticut
Superintendent Thomas Scarice and stand up, step forward and speak
out against the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Test (SBAC), the
overuse of standardized testing in Connecticut’s public schools and the right
of parents to opt-out their children from this unfair, unnecessarily, expensive
and destructive tests.
Join us February 19th for our Service-Learning As Dropout Prevention
Webinar! February 19th
from 3pm -4pm
Join Hillary Kane, Chair
of the Pennsylvania Service-Learning Alliance, as she discusses
service-learning as a dropout prevention strategy. Service-learning, unlike
traditional community service, is a hands-on teaching strategy that can
resonate with students who are disengaged from more traditional methods of
instruction. Join this call to learn more about service-learning and how your
school or district can take advantage of it to reach students and keep them in
school.
Senate Ed Committee Chairman Folmer Holding Town Hall Meetings on
Education
Senator Folmer’s Facebook
Page February 10,
2014
Parents, I want to hear
your thoughts on education! Join me for a parent town hall meeting Tuesday,
February, 19, at 6:30 p.m. in Room 203 of the Neidig
Garber Building ,
on the campus of Lebanon
Valley College
A similar meeting is planned for Monday, February 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the Quiet Study Room of Penn State Harrisburg’sCapitol Union
Building
Seating is limited - please RSVP to (717) 787-1347 or fbinner@pasen.gov.
A similar meeting is planned for Monday, February 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the Quiet Study Room of Penn State Harrisburg’s
Seating is limited - please RSVP to (717) 787-1347 or fbinner@pasen.gov.
Have you considered signing this petition yet?
Petition by Denise
Kurnas
To be delivered to The
Pennsylvania State House, The Pennsylvania
This petition is designed
to keep charter school oversight in local district control instead of allowing
other entities or the Pennsylvania Department of Education to spend our
property tax dollars without input from our locally elected school board
officials.
The Pennsylvania Budget
and Policy Center will host its Annual Budget Summit on Thursday, February 20th
to provide an in-depth look at the Governor's spending plan and an update on
the federal budget — and what it all means for communities and families across
Pennsylvania.
As in previous years, the
Budget Summit will be at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Harrisburg
Additional information,
agendas, and workshops will be posted in the new year.
Register Now! EPLC’s Education Policy Forums on Governor Corbett’s
2014-2015 State Budget Proposal for Education
The next EPLC education
policy forums will be held on the following days and in the following
locations. These forums will take place shortly after Governor Corbett’s
February 4th presentation of his proposed 2014-15 state budget and will focus
on his plans for education.
Monday, February 24, 2014 – Philadelphia , PA
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
– State College, PA
Thursday, February 27, 2014 – Harrisburg , PA
Space is limited for each event and an
RSVP is required. Anyone wishing to receive an invitation should inquire by
contacting The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
PSBA White Paper: The costs of charter and cyber charter schools
Updated January 2014
Research and policy implications for Pennsylvania
White Paper by PSBA’s
Education research & Policy
Center
This week PSBA’s Education Research and Policy Center
Register
Now! EPLC’s 2014 Education Issues Workshops for Legislative Candidates,
Campaign Staff, and Interested Voters
EPLC’s Education Issue
Workshops Register
Now! – Space is Limited!
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program forPennsylvania
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program for
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 in Harrisburg, PA
Wednesday,March
19, 2014 in Monroeville, PA
Thursday,March
27, 2014 in Philadelphia,PA
Wednesday,
Thursday,
Auditor
General DePasquale to Hold Public Meetings on Ways to Improve Charter Schools
Seeks
to find ways to improve accountability, effectiveness, transparency
The public meetings will be held:
- Northampton
County: 1 to 3 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, City Council Chambers, 6th Floor,
City Hall, One South Third St., Easton
- NEW:
Time is limited to two hours for each meeting.
Comments can be submitted in writing by Wednesday, Feb. 19, via email to Susan
Woods at: swoods@auditorgen.state.pa.us.
2014
PA Gubernatorial Candidate Plans for Education and Arts/Culture in PA
Education
Policy and Leadership
Center
Below is an alphabetical list of the 2014 Gubernatorial Candidates and
links to information about their plans, if elected, for education and
arts/culture in Pennsylvania
Public Interest Law
Center of Philadelphia
Dear
Parents and Advocates:
This month
we are offering TWO great special education seminars.
Learn about
special education provisions in charter schools,
including
how one's rights differ from school to school.
Tuesday, February 11, 2013 12:00 -
4:00 p.m.
Audience
members will learn about the legal needs of children with dyslexia, and other
learning disabilities, and hear from expert presenters on the latest research
and trends.
Tuesday, February 25, 2013 12:00 -
4:00 p.m. - Full Session
6:00 - 8:00
p.m. - Abbreviated Session
NPE National Conference
2014
The Network for Public Education
The Network for Public Education is pleased to announce our
first National Conference. The event will take place on March 1 & 2, 2014
(the weekend prior to the world-famous South by Southwest Festival) at The University of Texas
at Austin
Details and
registration here: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.com/conference/
The National School Boards Association 74th Annual
Conference & Exposition April 5-7, 2014 New Orleans
The National School Boards Association 74th Annual
Conference & Exposition will be held at the Ernest
N. Morial
Convention Center in New Orleans , LA. New Orleans
General
Session speakers include education advocates
Thomas L. Friedman, Sir Ken Robinson, as well as education innovators Nikhil
Goyal and Angela Maiers.
We have more than 200 sessions planned!
Colleagues from across the country will present workshops on key topics with
strategies and ideas to help your district. View our Conference
Brochure for highlights on sessions and
focus presentations.
·
Register
now! – Register for both the conference and housing using our online
system.
·
Conference
Information– Visit the NSBA conference website for up-to-date information
·
Hotel
List and Map - Official NSBA Housing Block
·
Exposition
Campus – View new products and services and interactive
trade show floor
Join the National
School Boards
Action Center
Participate in a voluntary network to urge your U.S. Representatives and Senators to support
federal legislation on Capitol Hill that is critical to providing high quality
education to America
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.