USDOE Advertises Charter School “Competition” Reviewer Positions for Only One Day | deutsch29

USDOE Advertises Charter School “Competition” Reviewer Positions for Only One Day | deutsch29:

USDOE Advertises Charter School “Competition” Reviewer Positions for Only One Day

The US Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII), an office that Fordham Institute’s pro-privatization president Michael Petrilli supposedly helped to create, has decided that offering the public an opportunity to apply to review state recipients of federal charter school grant money was so important that it should be advertised for one day only– and right before Memorial Day weekend, at that.

According to the USDOE blog on May 22, 2015, the information below was posted “one day ago” (May 21, 2015). It is supposedly an advertisement for peer reviewers for yer another USDOE grant “competition,” this one for state-level charter school planning, establishing, and advertising “success.” However, given the OII’s very brief publicizing of the ad, I’m thinking it already has all of the supposedly-solicited “entrepreneurs,” “funders,” and “venture philanthropy” experts in place and that this public ad is mere formality.

Charter Schools Program Seeking Reviewers for State-Level Grant Competition

The Office of Innovation and Improvement is seeking peer reviewers for the FY 2015 Charter Schools Program (CSP) State Educational Agency (SEA) grant competition. This is a competitive grant program that enables SEAs to provide financial assistance, through subgrants to eligible applicants, for the planning, program design, and initial implementation of charter schools and for the dissemination of information about successful charter schools.

Peer reviewers from various backgrounds and professional are needed, including:

• State or district education officials
• Charter school funders
• Charter school and charter school management organization leaders
• K-12, special education and English language learner researchers and evaluators
• Experts in program evaluation
• Practitioners from the social innovation and venture philanthropy fields
• Social and education entrepreneurs
• Strategy practitioners with experience in the charter sector
• Education and public policy professionals
• Grant makers or managers with experience in the charter sector
• Professionals with knowledge of, and experience with, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, education reform, and education policy

Peer reviewers may have expertise in various geographies, including urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities.

Interested individuals can review full information on this reviewer opportunityhere. To be considered as a peer reviewer, please click here to complete the Peer Reviewer Application Form. After completing the form, you 

USDOE Advertises Charter School “Competition” Reviewer Positions for Only One Day | deutsch29:

Charter school chain faces rare legal battle as district clamps down on industry - Sun Sentinel

Charter school chain faces rare legal battle as district clamps down on industry - Sun Sentinel:

Palm Beach County takes on charter schools with planned lawsuit

The Palm Beach school district is mounting a rare legal battle against a powerhouse charter school company as it pushes to exert more control over which schools open their doors and claim public cash.

"The eyes around the state are on us and on what happens with this. It could certainly set the course for several years ahead," said school board member Karen Brill.

The planned lawsuit challenges a ruling by the state Board of Education and sets the stage for a contentious debate on how Florida's growing charter school industry should be regulated. There are more than 600 charter schools in Florida, each taxpayer-funded but independently managed. Such schools were designed to fill unmet needs in public education and foster innovation.

While the state's charter-friendly laws have prompted a rash of problem schools in recent years, the lawsuit is aimed at stopping a well-regarded chain from opening a seventh location in Palm Beach County. Fort Lauderdale-based Charter Schools USA already manages 48 schools statewide, 18 of which are A-rated.

But the district says the proposed school offers nothing new and would siphon as much as $7.3 million from district schools in five years.

"I don't think it's wise use of taxpayers' dollars for us to be offering a program and the charter to be offering the same program," said Palm Beach County schools superintendent Wayne Gent. "They were supposed to be schools of innovation and not just of duplication."

Rod Jurado, a representative of the proposed school, said the district's concern was about increased competition. In the last five years, the number of students enrolled in Palm Beach County charter schools doubled to about 19,000.

"They have resorted to trying to change the rule book and employ bullying tactics because they recognize what we have known for a very long time — when given a choice, parents send their children to the schools that best serve their needs," Jurado said. "In the case of Palm Beach, parents are choosing charters at what the school district deems an alarming rate and instead of looking inward to decide if change is needed, they are trying to take focus off what should be concerning to them — the reasons parents are leaving the district in droves."

Lynn Norman-Teck, a spokeswoman for the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, said she's never seen a public attack against charter schools like this before.

"You have a charter application that meets the criteria as outlined in the state, goes through the process that was established, followed the rules and yet they are still being punished," she said. "That's what's frustrating."

Officials with the state Department of Education said it's not the first time a district has taken a charter school to court, but said they didn't keep a record of the few which had done so — or why. And they did not know whether the lawsuits had succeeded.

Local districts have long complained about being unable to prevent bad operators from opening schools. A Sun Sentinel investigation last year found loopholes in state laws that make it easy for charter schools to open but difficult for districts to intervene when cash is mismanaged or other problems arise.

The Palm Beach school district initially denied the application for Charter Schools USA last year, a decision one board member called an "act of civil disobedience." The school successfully appealed to the state, which said the school board did not have good cause to Charter school chain faces rare legal battle as district clamps down on industry - Sun Sentinel:

Students Should Learn More About Their Perceptions of Race, But Don't Leave Out Teachers | ThinkProgress

Students Should Learn More About Their Perceptions of Race, But Don't Leave Out Teachers | ThinkProgress:

Students Should Learn More About Their Perceptions of Race, But Don’t Leave Out Teachers

How can we un-teach racism if our teachers still discriminate against students of color?

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

A recent New York Magazine story examined a new initiative at for third grade students at Fieldston Lower School that separated students by race and asked each group to talk about their own perceptions about other races and how certain races perceived them. It became very controversial among parents for different reasons – some parents said they didn’t want to segregate their kids while others said their children didn’t belong in certain groups. A Jewish parent said their child didn’t belong in the white group and some biracial children identified more as white and didn’t want to be put in the multiracial group.

The idea is that children form ideas about race very early in their lives, so why not discuss race before those perceptions become entrenched and children stop forming cross-racial friendships?

However, there is an entirely different debate going on in K-12 education that instead focuses on the teachers and their role in perpetuating institutional racism in schools.

A report by The Center for American Progress, “America’s Leaky Pipeline for Teachers of Color” shows teacher diversity in the U.S. is very low, despite the fact that student diversity is increasing. Teachers of color make up 18 percent of public school teachers, but only a little over half of students were white, according to the report. Part of the reason for this is because students of color don’t transfer from community colleges to four-year schools as often as white students, where they would be able to get a degree in teaching.

“Because communities of color disproportionately enroll in community college and are less likely than whites to transfer to four-year institutions, students of color have reduced chances of earning a bachelor’s degree in teaching,” CAP’s experts,” Ulrich Boser and Farah Z. Ahmad write in the report.

That means that even schools with populations that are majority students of color often have a very white faculty. Faculty members are punishing children of color more severely, and according to a recent Stanford University study, they’re doing so because a student’s race affects how they judge misbehavior.

A report by the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative found that female students of color, LGBT students and Latino students were disproportionatelymore likely to be suspended. Black students were 1.78 times as likely to face suspension and Latino students were 2.23 times more likely to be suspended. Students with disabilities were also punished more, especially if they were black students with disabilities.

“Society generally has an aversion to seeing children of color as actual children,” said Jose Vilson, a middle school math educator in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood and author of “This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and the Future of Education.”

Vilson said it’s important to make cultural competence for teachers a mandatory part of teacher development.

“There isn’t a current rubric for cultural competence, and that’s a struggle for a lot of parents of color … But there are people who should not be teaching people of color because they can’t serve students well because of their biases, and that’s something that needs to be dealt with,” Vilson said. “We need to speak up and say that cultural Students Should Learn More About Their Perceptions of Race, But Don't Leave Out Teachers | ThinkProgress:

With A Brooklyn Accent: What High School Students Want

With A Brooklyn Accent: What High School Students Want:

What High School Students Want

If you actually talk to high school students they want

Teachers who care about them

An opportunity to express themselves
Teams they can play on
Arts and music programs which allow their talents to blossom
School counselors they can talk to
Less tests and more alternative paths to graduation.
Opportunities to learn skills which lead directly to employment
Respectful treatment from instructional staff and security personnel
After school programs where they can study, play ball, do art work,
learn skills.
Lunch hours at a reasonable time which actually give them time to eat
Regularly scheduled physical education classes which have activities for students at all levels of physical fitness.

Classes which incorporate cultural traditions they are familiar with

How many of those things are they getting now?
You tell meWith A Brooklyn Accent: What High School Students Want:

Newark NJ students call for local control of schools run by state - Business Insider

Newark NJ students call for local control of schools run by state - Business Insider:

Newark NJ students call for local control of schools run by state

By Sebastien Malo

NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - Hundreds of Newark, New Jersey, students walked out of classes on Friday to protest policies of the city's top schools official, who was appointed by the state to overhaul the struggling education system.

The protests are an effort to wrest control of Newark's schools from Superintendent Cami Anderson, whose appointment has met with bitter opposition from students, parents and teachers unions in New Jersey's largest city.

Anderson's "One Newark" plan calls for some schools to be consolidated or shut, charter schools expanded and some students shifted to schools far from home.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who has accused Anderson of mismanagement and called for her resignation, threw his support behind the protesting students.

"Today's protests signify an important fact: our Newark Public School students understand that they are not receiving the education they deserve from the Newark Public School system," he said in a statement.

Baraka and other Newark officials say Anderson's "Renew Schools" initiative, intended to improve performance at elementary schools by giving principals added hiring powers, has resulted in lower student achievement.

Among the protesters' concerns as well was the so-called turnaround program, designed to curb poor performance. Being designated a turnaround school means longer classes and added training for teachers.

Chanting "Cami Anderson has got to go," students blocked traffic in downtown Newark.

"We're protesting today to demand full local control," said Thais Marques, a protest organizer.

"If you don't have full local control, Cami Anderson and Governor (Chris) Christie will continue to shut down our schools in the name of programs like 'turnaround,' 'renew,' 'co-locate,' whatever you want to call it," he said.

Once a thriving manufacturing center, Newark struggles with urban blight and high crime. Nearly one in three residents lives in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.

Eighth-grader Papie Roberts marched with his father, who said that under the renew program, several teachers had been replaced at the boy's school.

"You destroy the whole fabric," said his father, Thomas Ibiang.

The state, which has controlled Newark schools for 20 years, renewed Anderson's contract in

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-newark-nj-students-call-for-local-control-of-schools-run-by-state-2015-5#ixzz3auQzhrfg

Crisis in the Classroom | Chicago Tonight | WTTW

Crisis in the Classroom | Chicago Tonight | WTTW:

Crisis in the Classroom

Kids are almost out of school for the summer, but some long days are ahead for Chicago Public Schools as it tries to close a more than $1 billion budget deficit, most of which is tied to a $700 million pension payment that is due. On top of that, district officials are negotiating with the Chicago Teachers Union over a new teacher contract. We talk with CTU President Karen Lewis about how negotiations are going in light of the district’s financial challenges, the possibility of another teachers strike, and who she would like to see lead the school district.

---

CPS Federal Investigation

Shortly after the runoff election last month, Chicago Public Schools confirmed it’s under federal investigation, which focuses on a $20 million no-bid contract awarded to a training academy that previously employed CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.   

In 2013, SUPES Academy was awarded a three-year contract to provide leadership training to school principals. Catalyst Chicago first reported the approval of the district’s largest no-bid contract in the last five years and Byrd-Bennett’s connection to SUPES Academy in July 2013.

In April 2012, Byrd-Bennett was brought to CPS as the chief education adviser to then-CEO Jean-Claude Brizard. That October, Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed Byrd-Bennett to replace Brizard as CEO. 

Days after news broke about Byrd-Bennett’s connection to SUPES Acamdey, she wrote a letter to Chicago Board of Education President David Vitale saying that she’d be taking a leave of absence, beginning April 20. Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruiz was tapped to serve as interim CEO.

Contract Negotiations

In March, the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS had the first formal meeting to negotiate a new contract, following months of informal meetings. The CTU issued a list of proposed demands, which included lower class sizes, return diverted revenues from the tax increment financing (TIF) program to the schools, and freeze charter school expansion, school closings and turnarounds. During the last negotiation, CTU President Karen Lewis led members on an eight-day strike. 

At the beginning of May, CPS slashed its proposed capital budget for fiscal year 2016, citing the district’s $1.1 billion deficit. CPS Interim CEO Jesse Ruiz said the $160 million capital budget is a “bare minimum” plan.

"This capital budget reflects difficult choices amid a dire fiscal reality," Ruiz said May 1. "Our financial limitations have forced us to shift the focus of our five-year capital plan from the balanced plans of previous years to more urgent structural and safety concerns for buildings that are, on average, more than 75 years old."

Later that month, the CTU said the school district asked teachers to take a 7 percent cut in-take home pay by asking them to pay more into their pension fund. Lewis called the proposals “reactionary and retaliatory,” and the union vowed to fight back. The current contrace expires June 30.

PARCC Opt-out Bill

Earlier this week, the House approved a bill that allows parents to opt their children out of the standardized test, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College Careers. The exam has been criticized by teachers, parents, and students.Crisis in the Classroom | Chicago Tonight | WTTW:

Thousands of Newark students leave school in protest, block major intersection | NJ.com

Thousands of Newark students leave school in protest, block major intersection | NJ.com:

Thousands of Newark students leave school in protest, block major intersection

NEWARK — Around noon on Friday, 18-year-old Quinnetta Owens-Culver normally would have attended her Spanish class at Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark.

But at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, Owens-Culver and thousands of other Newark students walked out of their schools at that time, marched on city streets and shut down a major intersection in protest of the school district's policies.

"Most people walk around this world, thinking that they can't get nowhere...but us, as a young people, we have a voice. We need to speak for ourselves," Owens-Culver said.

"The message is for saving our schools in Newark," she added.

In what organizers claimed would be the largest student protest in the city's history, students from various high schools marched down Broad Street and assembled outside City Hall. The walkout was organized by the Newark Students Union and NJ Communities United, an advocacy group.

Waving signs with messages like "Save Our Schools" and "We Have Rights," the students cheered from the steps of City Hall as 17-year-old Jose Leonardo called on them to "make some noise."

"Our future should not be played with," Leonardo, a junior at Arts High School, shouted to the crowd.

The students then marched down Broad Street and protested in the plaza outside the Peter W. Rodino Federal Office Building. Soon after, they continued down Broad Street, made a left on South Street and then a right on McCarter Highway.

The protesters then blocked the intersection at McCarter Highway and Miller Street.

"We did not come here...to play a game," 18-year-old Kristin Towkaniuk, a senior at Science Park High School and president of the Newark Students Union, told the crowd at the intersection. "We're done playing games with our education."

As the students locked arms, Towkaniuk led the crowd in a chant of "We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win. We must love and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Grace Tyler, a junior at Malcolm X Shabazz High School, addresses the crowd off Newark high students who converge on City Hall after walking out of their schools in protest of the designation of nine public schools as "turnaround" schools. They then marched to the Federal building before ending their protest march with a sit-in on McCarter Highway. Newark, NJ 5/22/15 (Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 

Motorists waited in their cars at the intersection for about 20 minutes before the students dispersed shortly before 2 p.m., but a couple of them said they were not upset about the traffic delay.

"I think they're a voice for the community," said Asbury Park resident Francisco Duprey as he sat in his car. "They've got a duty so they're doing it...I just caught in the middle of it."

Another motorist, Newark resident Cassandra Gold, also said she didn't mind waiting in her car because of the protest.

"I'm not mad. I think it's great," said Gold, whose daughter graduated from University High School. "Democracy is great."

Besides the traffic delays, the protest did not appear to cause many other disruptions in Thousands of Newark students leave school in protest, block major intersection | NJ.com:

Scrutiny of school vouchers remains off limits - Sun Sentinel

Scrutiny of school vouchers remains off limits - Sun Sentinel:

Scrutiny of school vouchers remains off limits

Because of a court ruling, Florida could be on the way to spending nearly $1 billion on an education program without knowing if the program works.

Last week, Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds dismissed a lawsuit by the Florida Education Association — the teachers union — and other plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the state's corporate tax school voucher program. It began with $50 million in 2001, and could grow to $447 million next year and to $904 million by 2019.

Ostensibly, the program aims to provide a private-school option for low-income children who are struggling in traditional public schools. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court struck down a similar program that used money from the state treasury. The current voucher program allows companies to donate state tax liabilities. The money goes through a non-profit organization — Tampa-based Step Up For Students — and to parents, thus bypassing the Department of Revenue.

That dodge has enabled programs in other states to survive legal challenges, and in this lawsuit it worked for Florida's. Because the plaintiffs "do not challenge a program funded by legislative appropriations," Reynolds wrote, they lack "taxpayer standing to bring this action." The plaintiffs also alleged that the diversion of money harms public school districts, causing "special injury." Reynolds called that claim "speculative."

Note that Reynolds didn't rule on the merits of the program. The plaintiffs "didn't get past the front porch" on that point, said Ron Meyer, their attorney. Absent a successful, long-shot appeal or legislative action — highly unlikely — Florida never will know objectively if what the union correctly calls this "parallel system" of education is succeeding.

In public schools, students must take so many state-ordered tests that parents and school boards have rebelled. Not until this year did the Legislature begin to give some relief. In the parallel system of voucher schools, students must take only one of three national tests. They are compared to their peers in other states, not to their peers in Florida.

Florida's parallel system also allows the diversion of what would be state money to religious schools, skirting another constitutional issue. Roughly 80 percent of the 70,000 students who accept vouchers attend religious schools. According to news reports, many might fold if not for the vouchers.

The other argument for the voucher program is that it saves the public money. Step Up For Students notes that each voucher was worth $5,272 this year, about three-fourths of per-pupil spending in public schools. According to the Florida Department of Education, if just half of the voucher students were attending public schools, the construction cost would be $1.1 billion.

Step Up For Students Vice President Jon East acknowledged in an interview that estimates of some cost savings are "speculative." Financial estimates rely on self-reporting from small schools. But because many of the students are clustered in urban areas — about one-fourth are from Miami-Dade County — East sees "some level of confidence" that the program saves money.

East directed us to a news release from a group called Save Our Scholarships. The release praised Reynolds' decision, and East said the comments represented "a wide range of political persuasions." A closer review, though, shows that the range may not be that wide.

John Kirtley is the unpaid chairman of Step Up For Students. He started the voucher program after giving $100,000 to the Republican Party of Florida. One member of Save Our Scholarships is the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options. Its website lists Step Up For Students as a partner. Another member of Save Our Scholarships is the Scrutiny of school vouchers remains off limits - Sun Sentinel:

Jersey Jazzman: PARCC Comes Off the Rails

Jersey Jazzman: PARCC Comes Off the Rails:

PARCC Comes Off the Rails

The PARCC cheerleaders' arguments for their beloved test are crumbling to dust:

Washington, DC (May 21, 2015) — The PARCC Governing Board, made up of the state education commissioners and superintendents, voted Wednesday to consolidate the two testing windows into one and to reduce total test time by about 90 minutes beginning in the 2015-16 school year.  The vote came in response to school district and teacher feedback during the first year of testing and a careful review of the test design.

The changes will improve and simplify test administration for schools, teachers and students, without diminishing the goal of the assessment—to ensure every student in every school is being taught what they need to know order to be successful in the next school year and, ultimately, in college or career. 

[Skipping Hanna Skandera's useless propaganda... -- JJ]

This year’s PARCC testing was done in two parts—the performance based testing conducted in early spring and the end-of-year testing conducted in late spring, closer to end of the school year. Five million students in 11 states and the District of Columbia completed the PARCC assessments this year.  

On May 20, 2015 the PARCC governing board voted to:

• Reduce the testing time for students by about 90 minutes overall (60 minutes in mathematics; 30 minutes in English language arts) and create more uniformity of test unit times.
   
• Consolidate the two testing windows in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (which includes reading and writing) into one.
  • ​The single testing window will simplify administration of the test for states and schools that experienced challenges with scheduling two testing windows.
  • The testing window will be up to 30 days and will extend from roughly the 75% mark to the 90% mark of the school year. Most schools will complete testing in one to two weeks during that window.
• ​Reduce the number of test units by two or three for all students.

Yes, the PARCC is so much better than those awful, old, state-level standardized tests -- so much better that the PARCC Board is changing it after only one year!

It seems like only yesterday -- no wait, it really was only yesterday! -- that the PARCC folks were telling us that "PARCC assessments are designed to provide parents and teachers with a far greater level of informative and useful data to help improve student instruction."

NJDOE's head PARCC cheerleader, Assistant Education Commissioner Bari Erlichson, told us this last year:

Along with the more detailed reports for parents, teachers for the first time will have access to a database showing the specific skill students were tested on in each question and how many of their students

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/05/parcc-comes-off-rails.html

Now this is OPTING OUT: APS board votes not to pay state for PARCC testing | Albuquerque Journal News

APS board votes not to pay state for PARCC testing | Albuquerque Journal News:

APS board votes not to pay state for PARCC testing

The Albuquerque Public Schools board has narrowly rejected a plan to reimburse the state Public Education Department for costs associated with this spring’s PARCC testing.

By a voice vote, without a roll call, the board voted 4-3 Wednesday night against repaying the state $1.4 million in administrative costs.

The vote followed a brief presentation by Rose-Ann McKernan, APS’ executive director of instructional accountability, who explained what had been expected to be a fairly routine reimbursement approval.

Superintendent Brad Winter and several board members did not return calls Thursday for comments on the vote.

Ellen Hur, chief of staff for state Education Secretary Hanna Skandera, issued a two-sentence statement late Thursday blasting the board’s move.

“It is absolutely reckless and inexplicable that a school board would refuse to pay for a service that is not only required by law, but is also critical in bringing $400 million in federal funding into our classrooms,” she said. “By refusing to pay its bills, the school board is only hurting our students, and that is disappointing.”

The vote also followed a number of comments from audience members opposed to the PED’s recently released teacher evaluations, which this year were based in large part on the controversial Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests.

The PARCC tests, introduced in New Mexico and several other states this year, continue to face widespread opposition from teacher unions, as well as from individual instructors.

Just before Wednesday’s board meeting, dozens of teachers rallied in front of APS headquarters to protest the evaluations and the PARCC tests. Fifty percent of teacher evaluations are based on student scores in the PARCC and other statewide tests.

Also on Wednesday, the national PARCC Governing Board decided to consolidate two testing windows into one and reduce total test time by about 90 minutes beginning in the 2015-16 school year.

“We’ve listened to the voices of all stakeholders – educators, parents and students – and are using the lessons learned and feedback to produce a better assessment for New Mexico’s kids and administer a single testing window that reduces unnecessary work for educators,” Skandera said in a news release issued by PARCC.

Because this was the first year that the PARCC tests were conducted in New Mexico, it was also the first time the issue of reimbursing the state has come up. Previous assessment tests were negotiated directly between the school district and the testing agencies.APS board votes not to pay state for PARCC testing | Albuquerque Journal News:

Charter Schools: Tracking Right-to-Know Request | PSBA

Charter Schools: Tracking Right-to-Know Request | PSBA:

Charter Schools: Tracking Right-to-Know Request

	Advertising contracts, invoices, plans	Real property purchase, sale, lease	Foundation contracts, donations	Mgmt. salary, compensation, benefits	Academics: AP, IB, College Prep

PSBA filed a Right-to-Know request with Pennsylvania charter and cyber charter schools on May 15, 2015. PSBA is tracking the response from each charter in the table below and updating it on a weekly basis. According to Right-to-Know Law, public entities have five days from receipt of an open records request by the agency’s open records officer to either 1) provide the requested records (indicated by a green check); 2) deny the request and give reasons for the denial (indicated by a red X); or 3) invoke a 30-day extension for specific legal reasons (indicated by an (E)).

PARSS Voices Support for School Board Association’s Right to Know Requests of Charter Schools

On May 15th Pennsylvania School Boards Association filed Right to Know requests for financial information with all 180 of Pennsylvania’s charter schools. PARSS (the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools) strongly supports these requests.

Charter schools were created by the General Assembly and Governor Tom Ridge as an alternative to traditional public schools. A major objective was stated as the desire to improve traditional schools by giving them competition. What the proponents of charters didn’t specify was that it should be fair competition.

The financial burden of paying for charters falls entirely on local taxpayers. What they get in return for this obligation is almost no information on how the money is being spent. The lack of transparency and accountability is at cross purposes with the goal of traditional public vs. charter school competition.

Rural children who attend charters almost exclusively go to cyber charter schools. Apart from any other problems caused local districts by the cyber charters and their bad academic performance, the lack of financial information and accountability has led to scores of confrontations across the Commonwealth.

Given the many millions that have been, and are being, spent on these schools, more information may help lead to a better way to fund them, more in keeping with their actual expense of schooling.

PARSS member districts applaud PSBA’s action and hope that it results in a fairer shake for rural schools and taxpayers.

Contact: Joe Bard,  717-503-9252,  jfbard@parss.org

Charter Schools: Tracking Right-to-Know Request | PSBA:

Why are teachers pension plans in trouble? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Why are teachers pension plans in trouble? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Why are teachers pension plans in trouble?

Photo: Emma Lee | WHYY

George Bezanis teaches world history at Central High School. 

 In the Multiple Choices podcast, Keystone Crossroads senior education writer Kevin McCorry joins with Paul Socolar, publisher and editor of the Public School Notebook, and Notebook contributing editor Dale Mezzacappa to explain and explore the history, complexities and controversies of public education funding in Pennsylvania.

The state runs two public employee pension plans that share a parallel narrative. One plan is for teachers and school employees, called PSERS. The other is for other state workers, called SERS — which, in addition to rank-and-file state employees, covers state troopers, lawmakers, judges, top executive branch officials and state university staff members.

Collectively these pension plans currently have a $53 billion dollar unfunded liability that's causing major headaches at both the state and local school district level.

How did the state get into this mess?

You have to go back to the late 1990s. The economy was booming. The state was running a surplus, and the public employee pension funds were flush with cash.

By the summer of 2001, state lawmakers voted to boost pension benefits, bumping up the pay-out rate and cutting in half the amount of time it took to become eligible for a pension.

But, then, the bottom fell out.

The attacks of 9/11 came, the economy took a downturn, and surpluses were quickly drained.

In 2003, Ed Rendell came into the Governor's mansion with big plans to boost classroom education spending. And through his two terms in office, neither he nor the legislature made funding state pensions a priority.

They made their "required payments," but only by fiddling with numbers.

In reality, based on actuarial need, the state continually hasn't kicked in enough money to cover its growing debt, the single biggest reason for the dire straits the state currently faces.

Compounding the issue, many school districts used the state's influx in classroom spending to boost employee salaries — which, because pension payouts are based on a percentage of an employee's final pay, drove up the state's debt.

Rendell and state lawmakers believed that the market would rebound, and a surge in the stock market would forgive their underfunding.

Through it all, to this day, state workers made their required contributions, which for teachers is 7.5 percent of salary.

By 2007, with Wall Street booming, Rendell's bet seemed like it just might pay off. But the Why are teachers pension plans in trouble? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Thompson: What Do We Mean When We Talk of Graduation Rates? This Week In Education

This Week In Education: Thompson: What Do We Mean When We Talk of Graduation Rates?:

Thompson: What Do We Mean When We Talk of Graduation Rates?

Graduation rates used to be incredibly easy to fabricate (almost as easy as attendance rates and even easier than jacking up proficiency rates) but I don't doubt they have become more reliable. I used to assume that the annual increase in graduation rates, and the equally ubiquitous decline in dropout rates, were half real and half bogus. Although graduation rates may be somewhat more reliable today, it is hard to see how they could ever function as a valid "output" accountability measure. (It also feels like "deja vu all over again" when reading Jay Mathews series on "passing kids on" in Washington D.C.) 

That being said, when John Hopkins' Robert Balfanz proclaims a big improvement in any metric, I reign in much of my skepticism.

We must acknowledge that increases in graduation rates may not mean that students are learning more about classroom subject matter. But, there is something more important at stake. More high school graduates mean that larger numbers of teens are learning something more important than the standards of instruction. They are learning to succeed. Conversely, they avoid the real world penalties attached to dropping out.

The Civic Enterprise and the Everyone Graduates Center, along with America's Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education released Building a Grad Nation 2014-2015 Update. It presents news that is probably somewhat too good to be true, and it certainly reads like a document that is a compromise highlighting the priorities of numerous advocates. But, the annual report makes a lot of sense and it points the way towards fruitful collaborations.

First, Building a Grad Nation is a reminder of the importance of perhaps the most overlooked issue in school improvement. When schools' Promoting Power (or the ability of students to advance into higher grades) goes up, students benefit. Of course, we must ask what we mean by promoting power. Real Promoting Power must be more than social promotion. It must be more than "credit recovery" tricks to make accountability stats look better.

Really improving Promoting Power means that schools are doing a better job of mentoring children. It means that more kids are getting the help that is needed during the toughest transition years, such as 9th grade. More importantly, it means that students are learning how to work with others to overcome challenges. When Promoting Power increases and more students graduate, it means more kids are learning stick-to-it-ness.

Second, when graduation numbers increase dramatically, it probably means that more systems are using Early Warning Systems. As a large body of Johns Hopkins research documents, we need This Week In Education: Thompson: What Do We Mean When We Talk of Graduation Rates?: