Daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 3250 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,
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These daily emails are archived and
searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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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?
Keystone State Education Coalition
Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup
for April 10, 2014:
What are community schools?
PSBA
members in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware Counties
PSBA
Buxmont Region 11 and Penns Grant Region 15 Combined Region/Legislative Meeting
-- Thursday, May 15, at William
Tennent High
School
- Buffet dinner/registration, 6 p.m. ($8 charge for
dinner) - Program, 7:30 p.m. -- Minority Senate Education Committee Chair
Hon. Andy Dinniman will introduce guest speaker Diane Ravitch, author and
education historian, and former Assistant Secretary of Education. Retiring House Education Committee Chairman
Paul Clymer will also be honored for his long time (1981) public service.
"More than 600 partners now support Cincinnati
What Works: What are community schools?
Post
Gazette Opinion by JULIE DOPPLER April 10, 2014 12:00 AM
Julie
Doppler is coordinator of community learning centers for Cincinnati Public
Schools (www.cincinnaticlc.org).
Thirty people fromPittsburgh — school, union
and civic leaders, among others — are attending a national community-schools
conference in Cincinnati this week to gather
ideas that might work in Pittsburgh Cincinnati
Thirty people from
……A
reinvention of an old idea — schools as hubs of their communities —
Cincinnati’s community learning centers got a boost in the early 2000s as
Cincinnati Public Schools embarked on a $1 billion, 10-year facilities master
plan to rebuild or fully renovate schools for all students. When voters were
asked to approve a local bond issue to support the plan, they were told it
would be about more than bricks and mortar — it also would be an opportunity to
engage communities in a way that would transform their schools and revitalize
their neighborhoods. The idea resonated, and the bond issue was approved. Today, a community-by-community engagement
and visioning process remains central to assembling partners for each school’s
community learning center. Also central is the position of school resource
coordinator, whose role it is to attract and manage partners and ensure they
are aligned to a school’s goals and improvement strategies. At this point, 36
of Cincinnati ’s
55 schools have full-time resource coordinators, funded by private donations
and some of the district’s federal Title I funding.
Interested in more info on Community Schools?
"School Reform" that does NOT involve vouchers,
charters, tax credits, closing schools and firing staff? Here are links to several articles including
an excellent series done on American Public Media's Marketplace radio program
with Kai Ryssdal.
District's Professional Careers Institute would borrow from
charter concepts.
By Adam Clark, Of The Morning Call 9:21
p.m. EDT, April 9, 2014
If you
can't stop kids from going to charter schools, you can always open up your own
version of one. Using concepts touted by
various groups that had hoped to start charter schools, Allentown School District
Debate by the Numbers
Here’s a re-cap of last
night’s Education Debate in numbers, news, and photographs. First the numbers:
·
4 - Democratic gubernatorial candidates:
Rob McCord, Katie McGinty, Allyson Schwartz, and Tom Wolf.
·
2 - Co-hosts for the evening: PA
Interfaith Impact Network and Yinzercation.
·
10 - Community organizations co-sponorsing: Action United, A+ Schools, Black Political Empowerment Project,
Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, Greater Park Place Neighborhood Association,
League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee,
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, YMCA Youth
and Government Club at Pittsburgh Obama 6-12.
·
21 - Members of the planning team. Thank
you to all the volunteers who made the debate possible.
·
500 - People in the audience!
·
17 - Questions asked by moderator (Lisa
Sylvester from WPXI) and our community panel (Rev. Richard Freeman, PIIN
President; Cassi Schaffer, Pittsburgh Public School parent and community
activist; and Joel Macklin, Pittsburgh Obama junior).
·
1,000 - Number of times the candidates pledged
to restore the budget cuts and implement a fair funding formula (OK, that was
an exaggeration, but it was certainly a main point of agreement among them).
Toomey plans push on teacher sex bill
Scranton
Times-Tribune BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK (STAFF WRITER) Published: April 8, 2014
The
U.S. Senate might soon pass a bill that forces schools to check more thoroughly
the backgrounds of teachers, bus drivers, janitors and others who work in
schools and might come in contact with students, Sen. Pat Toomey said Monday. "I am going to be pepping up my efforts
to get this over the goal line," the Republican said during a conference
call with reporters. "We've been laying the groundwork. I am hopeful that
we will get this done this month. It's just really important." Mr. Toomey, whose bill has two co-sponsors,
introduced his Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act last
Oct. 29, a week after an identical version passed the House with no opposition
and with the help of U.S. Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick and Patrick Meehan, two
congressmen from suburban Philadelphia, according to the Congressional Record.
What’s behind the
opt-out from school testing movement
WHYY Radio TImes with Marty Moss-Coane April 9, 2014 (audio
runtime 52:01)
Guests: Robin Roberts, Lisa Guisbond and Mike Petrilli
It’s testing season in public schools around the country, but
an increasing number of parents are refusing to allow their children to take
those assessment tests. They’re concerned that too much time is spent preparing
for tests and that state assessment tests are unnecessary and even unfair.
Proponents of testing point to their usefulness in measuring teacher
performance and student achievement. In this hour of Radio Times, we’ll talk
about the “opting-out of testing movement,” what’s behind the increase in
testing, and whether or not testing benefits children, teacher’s and education
systems. We’ll start off with Philadelphia school parent ROBIN ROBERTS who
opted-out of testing for her three children. Then we’ll hear from LISA GUISBOND of
the National Center for Fair & Open
Testing (FairTest) and MICHAEL
PETRILLI, executive vice-president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
- See more at: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2014/04/09/whats-behind-the-opt-out-from-school-testing-movement/#sthash.Ke6QTg9a.dpuf
Pennsylvania Dept. of Ed.
won't add new Keystone Exams
Lancaster Online By KARA NEWHOUSE | Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, April 8, 2014 4:23 pm
The state isn't planning additional Keystone Exams for high
school students, according to the Acting Secretary of Education. State law allows for up to 10 Keystones, but
Carolyn Dumaresq said in a March 14 letter to two state senators that there's not funding
for more tests. "In addition, I
believe the Commonwealth's current focus should instead be on assuring success
on the existing three Keystone Exams and the other assessments we already have
in place ..." Dumaresq wrote.
'Dump the losers': Where do
city and District leaders really stand?
the notebook by Helen
Gym on Apr 09 2014 Posted in Commentary
How shocked should we be
really?
On Friday, Philadelphia
School Partnership’s Mark Gleason embraced a stunningly blunt description of
the District’s “portfolio model” at a session of the American Educational
Research Association's annual meeting. Gleason was attempting to explain why
the portfolio model depends on school closings in a system where multiple
operators run schools.
“So that’s what
portfolio is fundamentally. ... you keep dumping the losers, and over time you
create a higher bar for what we expect of our schools,” he said.
The audience of
researchers, according to attendees I spoke with, expressed visible dissent. A
group confronted Gleason afterward about everything from the “losers” framework
to his dismissal of funding as a major source of the District's struggles. The
crude phrasing even made Superintendent William Hite recoil, and Hite quickly
distanced himself from Gleason’s remarks.
But no matter how
uncomfortable Hite and others felt about Gleason’s words, they aptly
characterize the portfolio model mentality. More important, they describe what
is actually happening in the District. If District and city leaders take issue,
they need to explain how their policies – and the impact of them – are so
much different.
Let’s take a look at the
facts.
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
After a staffer at Bartram
High School was knocked unconscious by
a student last month, the Southwest Philadelphia
school has faced increased public scrutiny, becoming
the flashpoint for the district's under-resourced schools this year. The district has responded to the outcry by
bringing in one of its veteran school climate specialists: retired district
principal Ozzie Wright.
Since retiring from the district in the mid-2000s, Wright has
been called back multiple times to help the district deal with emergencies
at Germantown , South Philly and West Philly
High schools
Final briefs are due next week in Vergara v. California , an under-the-radar
billionaire-backed lawsuit that could transform teaching conditions in the
largest state. Citing the constitutional rights of its public school student
plaintiffs, the suit seeks to overturn state laws that schedule tenure
consideration after two years of teaching, dictate the use of seniority when
budget cuts force layoffs, and impose due process rules on teachers’
terminations. It very well may succeed; the president of one of the statewide
unions fighting the suit warned L.A.
Weekly that Judge Rolf Treu’s more aggressive questioning of his side
“unfortunately … may be quite telling about where he’s going.” And it could
inspire copycat efforts across the United States .
“It’s certainly not going to improve education,” said Stanford
professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who co-directed the National Commission on
Teaching & America’s Future, directed President Obama’s 2008/2009 education
transition team, and last month testified for the Vergara defense. In a Monday
interview, Darling-Hammond disputed Students First’s claim to the mantle of
Brown v. Board; argued for “another War on Poverty” to transform “apartheid
schools”; and said Obama has offered “a continuation” of the George W. Bush
approach to “high-stakes testing without investing.” A condensed version of our
conversation follows.
STEPHANIE BANCHERO THE WALL STREET Journal April 8, 2014
The Illinois
legislature is considering 11 bills that would, among other things, limit where
charter schools can be located, ban them from marketing themselves to students,
and abolish a commission that has the power to overrule local school boards and
grant charter licenses. The skirmish follows recent charter flare-ups in Massachusetts , Tennessee
and New York ,
where Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio got into a
standoff over the schools.
Original
article (WSJ paywall)
Pennsylvania Governor's
School for the Agricultural Sciences
Deadline to Apply: April 25, 2014
When: July 13 to August 9, 2014 Penn State
University
PGSAS provides a broad
overview of the diverse fields of agriculture and natural resources. Interested
high school students and their parents should review this website to learn more
about requirements and the application process.
Pennsylvania Governor’s
School for Engineering and Technology
Application must be
postmarked by April 18, 2014.
July 20, 2014 - August
2, 2014 Lehigh University | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania
Governor’s School for Engineering and Technology (PGSE&T) is a two-week
summer residential program for talented high school students of science and
mathematics. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and hosted
by the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh
University, PGSE&T offers an enrichment experience in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) and emphasizes cooperative learning and
hands-on laboratory experiences.
Educating the Voter: A Forum on Public
Education featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidates - April 30th 6:00 pm
Phila Central Library
Presented by Committee of Seventy, Congresso and
Philadelphia Education Fund
Wednesday,
April 30, 2014 at 6:00PM
Join Democratic gubernatorial candidates Katie McGinty, Tom Wolf, Allyson Schwartz and Rob McCord for a discussion on public education.
Please
click here to
register.
PSBA Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill
May 5-6, Mechanicsburg & Harrisburg
Make an impact on the legislative process by attending PSBA’s Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill, May 5-6. Day one will provide legislative insights on pensions, training on being an effective advocate, and media relations. Dr. G. Terry Madonna, leading Pennsylvania political analyst, will discuss the legislative landscape in his usual lively and informative style.On day two, participants will start with a breakfast at the Harrisburg Hilton and then hit the ground running with visits to legislative offices in the State Capitol. Space is limited so register early. Click here for more details and to register online.
May 5-6, Mechanicsburg & Harrisburg
Make an impact on the legislative process by attending PSBA’s Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill, May 5-6. Day one will provide legislative insights on pensions, training on being an effective advocate, and media relations. Dr. G. Terry Madonna, leading Pennsylvania political analyst, will discuss the legislative landscape in his usual lively and informative style.On day two, participants will start with a breakfast at the Harrisburg Hilton and then hit the ground running with visits to legislative offices in the State Capitol. Space is limited so register early. Click here for more details and to register online.
PSBA
nominations for offices now open!
Deadline April 30th
PSBA Leadership Development Committee seeks strong leaders for the association
Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to complete an Application for Nomination no later than April 30. As a member-driven association, the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) is seeking nominees with strong skills in leadership and communication, and who have vision for PSBA. Complete details on the nomination process, links to the Application for Nomination form, and scheduled dates for nominee interviews can be found online by clicking here.
PSBA Leadership Development Committee seeks strong leaders for the association
Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to complete an Application for Nomination no later than April 30. As a member-driven association, the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) is seeking nominees with strong skills in leadership and communication, and who have vision for PSBA. Complete details on the nomination process, links to the Application for Nomination form, and scheduled dates for nominee interviews can be found online by clicking here.
How the Business Community Can Lead on
Early Education
Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia
Join
business and community leaders to learn about how you can help make sure every
child arrives in kindergarten ready to succeed. On April 29th, the Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and
Southern New Jersey will host a forum featuring business leaders from around
the country talking about why they’re focused on early childhood education and
how they have moved the needle on improving quality and access in their states.
Featured
Speakers
- Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of The
Vanguard Group
- Phil Peterson, Partner, Aon Hewitt and
Co-Chair of America’s Edge/Ready Nation
- And more to be announced!
- Date & Time Tuesday, April
29, 2014 | 5-7 PM
Registration begins at 5 PM;
program from 5:30 to 7:00 PM
- Location Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia
10 North Independence Mall West Philadelphia,
PA 19106
Registration:
http://worldclassgreaterphila.org/worldclasscouncilforum
PILCOP Special Education Seminars 2014
Schedule
Public
Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Tuesday, April 29th,
12-4 p.m.
Wednesday, May 14th,
1-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.
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. This list will be updated, as more
information becomes available.
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