Keystone State Education Coalition: The purpose of public ...

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The purpose of public education is to create informed American citizens who are life-long learners. The purpose of a business is to create profit.

How do we, as a nation, create scalable, sustainable models for effective public schools in high poverty communities?Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1650 Pennsylvania education policymakers ? school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, members of the press and a broad array of education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinbergDelco superintendents decry amount of time spent on testingPublished: Tuesday, September 18, 2012Delco Times By LAURA WISELEY Times CorrespondentStudents who recently headed back to DelawareCounty?s public schools will spend nearly 60 percent of their classroom time this year taking, retaking and practicing for standardized tests, according to the county?s superintendents association.?This begins an era where more testing, more than one could ever have imagined, will be taking place,? said William Keilbaugh, chair of the Delaware County Chief Schools Officer Association and superintendent of HaverfordTownshipSchool District, in a letter to state Secretary of Education Ron Tomalis. ?As we constantly test, retest and yes, practice test because of its importance to graduation, there will be no time for other subjects.?In the Aug. 28 letter, which is signed by Keilbaugh and lists the names of the county?s other 14 public school superintendents, as well as Intermediate Unit Director Lawrence O?Shea, the superintendents group said this year?s implementation of the Keystone Exam Initiative will hike the amount of time spent preparing for and administering standardized tests by more than 100 percent.New CEP Report on High School Exit ExamsCenter on Education PolicyThis week, CEP at GWU released its 11th annual report on state high school exit exams.? The report,?State High School Exit Exams: A Policy in Transition, finds that states are embracing higher standards on their exit exams, which means schools and students will feel the impact.?Based on data collected from state education department personnel in 45 states, the report discusses the present status of state exit exam policies, the future of these policies as states implement the Common Core State Standards and common assessments, and lessons that can be learned from states? past experiences with implementing new exit exam policies.?State profiles?for exit exam states are also available on the CEP Web site (www.cep-dc.org).If you are a resident of Pennsylvania it is very likely that your tax dollars contributed to the 2011 $5 million compensation of Ron Packard, K12 Inc.?s CEO and their ubiquitous ?TuitionFreeOnlinePublic School? advertisements.Charles Zogby, PA's Budget Secretary and Former Secretary of Education under Governor Ridge, served as K12's?Senior Vice President of Education and Policy prior to being recruited to serve in the Corbett Administration.The purpose of public education is to create informed American citizens who are life-long learners.? The purpose of a business is to create profit.? The allegations cited in this post highlight ?that difference.

State Impact BY?JOHN O'CONNOR SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 | 12:00 PM

A federal lawsuit could shed more light on how the nation?s largest online education company earns its?money.? Florida is?investigating K12, the nation?s online educator,?but we could learn more from a federal lawsuit filed in the company?s home state of Virginia.? The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System filed the lawsuit, which alleges the company misled investors in what K12 did and did not report about how it makes?money.Among the allegations, which must be heard in?court:

• The company did not tell investors how much their business depends on ?churn,? signing up new students when others drop out. The company also did not reveal that more than half of students at some K12 school did not return the following?year.
• The company listed students as inactive rather than sending them back to their home district. That allowed K12 virtual schools to continue collecting that student?s funding.
• Some teachers reported having as many as 400 students.

By?Patriot-News Op-Ed? Published: Friday, September 21, 2012, 12:31 AM

Joseph Rogan, Ed.D., is professor of teacher education at MisericordiaUniversity in Dallas, Pa.As the presidential campaign moves into high gear, the quality of our public schools will be a topic of debate. Some will point to international comparisons to argue that we need to eliminate teachers unions and tenure while privatizing our educational system with vouchers, charter schools, cyber schools and for-profit colleges.?Comparisons of scores on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment do suggest that U.S. students are in the middle of the pack in reading and science, and below average in math. However, because many countries? scores are so close, the rankings are misleading. When analysis technics are applied, the U.S. was tied for fifth place worldwide. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that U.S. students? scores have been increasing steadily.If we compare apples to apples, our schools are doing well. For example, in schools with little poverty, America?s students are No. 2 in the world. In schools where the majority of children qualify for free or reduced lunches ? such as many school districts in Pennsylvania ? scores decline.? What have other countries done to improve student outcomes? How did Finland?s students, for example, get to the top of the PISA rankings?Diane Ravitch?s Blog September 21, 2012?//The Washington Post has a?good article?about the aggressive way that the Obama administration has imposed its education agenda in the past three+ years.? The article notes, almost in passing, that there is no evidence for the success of any part of this agenda. No one will know for many years whether the Obama program of testing, accountability, and choice will improve education.??..But it is impossible to predict whether his policies, which are years from full implementation, will work. There is little or no research showing that these measures lead to better-educated children or higher graduation rates.?Washington Post By Lyndsey Layton, Published: September 20In 31 / 2 years in office, President Obama has set in motion a broad overhaul of public education from kindergarten through high school, largely bypassing Congress and inducing states to adopt landmark changes that none of his predecessors attempted.He awarded billions of dollars in stimulus funding to states that agreed to promote charter schools, use student test scores to evaluate teachers and embrace other administration-backed policies. And he has effectively rewritten No Child Left Behind, the federal law passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, by excusing states from its requirements if they adopt his measures.New Berlin charter school officials on the hot seatThey get grilled for more than three hoursThe Sunbury Daily Item By Evamarie Socha September 19, 2012MIFFLINBURG ? MIFFLINBURG - Area school board members questioned the application for the proposed New Berlin Regional Charter School for more than three hours during public hearing Tuesday night.? Lewisburg, Mifflinburg and Selinsgrove school districts were all represented at the meeting held at MifflinburgAreaSenior High School before an audience of about 40, including teachers.The K-4 public charter school must win approval from all three districts in order to form.By Mary Niederberger?/?Pittsburgh Post-Gazette? September 21, 201212:05 amFor the second time, the Sto-Rox school board has voted unanimously to reject a charter application from Propel schools to open a K-12 school within the district, an action that ends a two-month discussion between the two sides about possible cooperation.The vote, taken Thursday, means that Propel founder and executive director Jeremy Resnick will head to the state charter appeals board as he has done several times since opening his first school in Homestead in September 2003. Propel currently operates nine schools in AlleghenyCounty.

By?Patriot-News Op-Ed? Published: Thursday, September 20, 2012, 12:44 AM

By Jill Bartoli; Jill Bartoli of Carlisle is an emeritus faculty member at ElizabethtownCollege.It is vital that we hear and support the Chicago teachers? call for less reliance on standardized testing ? for student evaluation and for teacher evaluation. They were not fighting for more money, although all city schools are in desperate need of support. They were fighting for the soul of public education, which is under attack by for-profit corporations.?The testing-industrial complex, which includes test-prep and textbooks geared to the tests, is sucking the lifeblood of creative and critical teaching and learning out of classrooms.Education Voters PA Blog THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012Who "owns" the schools? Thinking about fiction with a non-fiction eye...The soon to be released movie ?Won?t Back Down? is raising some controversy [in no small part because it is a fictional story and as such, the plot doesn?t require the characters to negotiate the realities of the actual non-fictional world].? If you haven?t heard about it, it is the made up story of a parent and teacher who work together to turn their school over to a charter operator.?? I?d be happy to talk about the positives and negatives of charter policy any day, but let?s just leave that aside for the moment.Here is one of the (many) important questions that the movie seems to miss.? Who ?owns? the schools?? Is it the parents who have children enrolled that year?? All the parents in the district?? Only the parents of children who participate in the public school system?? Building One Pennsylvania 2012 Statewide Public MeetingPromoting sustainable, inclusive and economically prosperous communitiesSaturday, October 13, 201210 am to 11:30 a.m.? (doors open at 9:30 for registration)Declining local tax bases, aging infrastructure, unfair state and federal policies are undermining our communities. It's time to stand together to support our diverse, middle class communities.Join local elected, faith and civic leaders from across Pennsylvania for a public meeting to call on state and national policy-makers to act on bi-partisan solutions to the pressing problems impacting our communities. ?????????????????????? Reduce our local property tax burdens ?????????????????????? Invest in our schools ?????????????????????? Redevelop our infrastructure while creating local jobs?????????????????????? Promote more balanced housing markets??The event is free but you must register in advance to reserve your seat. Register at?www.buildingonepa.org?or by emailing name, title, organizational affiliation, address, phone and email to??info@buildingonepa.org.? ?To defray the cost of the event, we are accepting donations. Suggested donation: $5-$10.?Public Forum in DelawareCounty: What State and Federal Budget Changes Mean for DelCo Service ProvidersThursday, Sept. 27^th?at 1pmMedia BoroughHallCommunity Center; 3^rd?& Jackson, Media, PAThe SEPA Budget Coalition will join with Family and Community Service of Delaware County and PathWays PA to host a forum on the state and federal budgets.?? Experts from the Pennsylvania Budget and PolicyCenter will offer a look ahead.??Congress faces dramatic budget choices that will have a deep impact on our ability to provide services DelCo families depend on.? Governor Corbett is also at a choice point, and there are some signs of a course correction in PA this coming year.? Please RSVP for the forum:National EducationPolicyCenter Reference Publication:?BOULDER, CO (September 20, 2012) ?The first in a new series of two-page briefs summarizing the state of play in education policy research offers suggestions for policymakers designing teacher evaluation systems.? The paper is written by Dr. William Mathis, managing director of the NationalEducationPolicyCenter, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.Mathis summarizes research findings on the effects of teacher evaluation systems, including unintended as well as intended consequences. At a time when teacher evaluation controversies in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and other school districts have erupted?particularly over the issue of evaluations based in part on the growth of students? test scores?understanding the evidence about these issues has taken on new urgency.Mathis counsels that lawmakers should be wary of approaches based in large part on test scores, because of three problems:

• The measurement error is large?which results in many teachers being incorrectly labeled as effective or ineffective;?
• Given that only certain grade levels and subject areas are tested, relevant test scores are not available for most teachers; and
• The incentives created by the high-stakes use of test scores drive undesirable teaching practices such as curriculum narrowing and teaching to the test.

Media Matters BLOG SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 ROB SAVILLO

In 89 segments between September 10 and 16, Fox News reported on the Chicago Teachers Union's?strike?without disclosing its?financial ties?to the educational technology company administering the standardized tests with which the union takes issue. ?Fox News parent company News Corp.?acquired?a 90-percent stake in Wireless Generation in 2010. Last May, the company?agreed?to provide?Early Mathematics Assessment Services and Early Literacy Assessment Services to Chicago Public Schools.?These contracts total $4.7 million. A central reason the?Chicago?Teachers?Union?decided to?strike?is their?objection?to?the school district's call for heavily weighing?such standardized testing to ultimately determine teacher pay and layoffs.Groups defend 'pornographic' books in East PennLetter to school directors defends two titles that parents call 'pornographic.'By Patrick Lester, Of The Morning Cal 9:58 p.m. EDT, September 20, 2012The EastPennSchool District's debate over sexual content in books on a student reading list is drawing national interest from book publishing and anti-censorship organizations.The National Coalition Against Censorship and other groups have written to Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger and school directors in support of keeping Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep" and Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," on a list of books students can read over the summer after complaints about "pornographic" passages in the books.Education Voters PA Statewide Advocate Leadership Session Sept. 22ndEducation Voters of Pennsylvania will be holding a day-long summit for public education advocates across the state on Saturday September 22 in Harrisburg, PA.?With public education coming under attack on multiple levels, the goal of this event is to bring together community members who are standing up for public schools in their own communities for training, planning and coordinating statewide efforts to maximize the impact that we all have.? We'll have a chance to brush up on and learn more about key policy issues, get training on effective advocacy tools and techniques and share stories and idea about local effort and how we bring this work together in a unified way.??Breakfast and lunch will be provided.Click?HERE?for more details on parking, directions, etc.

Source: http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-purpose-of-public-education-is-to.html

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