Editorial from the BCCT
PSSAs and graduation: Empty diplomas?
School districts argue that state assessment tests are of little value and so students who flunk them get diplomas anyway.
When folks are embarrassed about something, they tend not to want to talk about it. Pressed on the issue, they’ll change the subject, talk their way around it or rationalize — sometimes all three.
Public school officials did a lot of each when our reporter tried to talk to them about state assessment tests and whether they ought to factor into the graduation formula. The response of Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education, was typical: “The PSSAs [Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests) are broad brush strokes of understanding.” Essentially, Desko says the assessments don’t paint an accurate picture of students’ abilities.
Really? Seems to us that kids who don’t pass the assessment tests haven’t learned the least they need to know to function effectively in the real world. Yet Desko disputes the tests’ value, arguing that students know more than the tests say they know.
Desko’s tortured logic is typical of the justifications school district officials offer for giving diplomas to kids who, according the PSSAs, don’t meet minimal requirements for core subjects.
How many?
We mostly don’t know — not district by district — because district officials wouldn’t tell us. We asked and they refused. Palisades in Upper Bucks was the lone exception.
We wanted the information because the state Department of Education raised the issue a few months ago, when it reported that 56,000 Pennsylvania high school students flunked state math and reading tests — but graduated anyway.
State officials characterized this as giving students “empty diplomas.” At Gov. Rendell’s urgings, the department pushed the idea of making students pass a battery of graduation tests before giving them a diploma.
We thought it was a pretty good idea — better than passing kids onto college or sending them into the work place without having competency in math and reading.
We’re not talking mastery; just minimum ability.
Yet school officials lined up pretty solidly against the proposal.
New Hope-Solebury High School Principal Steve Young is one of them. He said some students “simply do not test well.”
Be that as it may, Palisades gave us the information we requested. Here it is: 14 percent of students graduated with a less-than-proficient score in reading; 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSAA; and 4.6 percent didn’t meet the writing requirement.
If you want to know how many students in your district received diplomas without scoring passing grades on the PSSAs, call your district and ask. Folks in Neshaminy might be told, as we were, that the district doesn’t actually track how many graduates passed the PSSAs.
That might not come as a surprise considering Neshaminy is the only district in our area that failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
We know it’s convenient not to track PSSA results as they correlate to the graduation rate, especially when nosey reporters start asking questions. But how is Neshaminy benefiting from its head-in-the-sand strategy?
More to the point: How are students benefiting?
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Two committee meetings tomorrow night
Committee Meeting Reminder tomorrow night:
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville,
Morrisville, PA, will hold a Facilities Committee meeting followed by a Finance Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/ Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:30 pm.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville,
Morrisville, PA, will hold a Facilities Committee meeting followed by a Finance Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/ Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:30 pm.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
Monday, August 18, 2008
Test score melt down in high school
From the Allentown Morning Call
Test score melt down in high school
By Genevieve Marshall, Steve Esack and William J. Ford Of The Morning Call, August 17, 2008
Between the last year of middle school and the junior year in high school, something happens to Pennsylvania students -- and it's not just puberty.
After years of building on math and reading skills and showing consistent gains on state tests, those improvements come to a screeching halt in high school. Not only do students stop improving in reading, they actually seem to lose math skills.
''It's almost like falling off a cliff,'' said state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak.
Two out of every five Pennsylvania high school students tested below grade level in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading and math tests, which were released last week.
At the current pace of improvement, it would take 40 years for all high school juniors to meet standards, Zahorchak said -- even though they're expected to do so within six years.
''Clearly we need to do more to improve the high school experience and ensure those students stay engaged and challenged through graduation,'' Zahorchak said. ''We simply cannot afford to be content with the status quo.''
With the federal No Child Left Behind law pushing states to make all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, Pennsylvania school districts, including those in the Lehigh Valley area, have a long way to go.
The 35 school districts in the eight-county area averaged a double-digit drop in the percentage of students that scored proficiently between eighth grade and 11th grade. The drop was significant regardless of race and income, though it was worse for minority, low-income and special education students.
This generation of students wants to understand the reason behind a classroom lesson or standardized test in order to put in the effort, said Kevin Bush, a social studies teacher and track coach at Bethlehem's Liberty High School. There is no consequence for poor performers, he said. The test is not factored into students' grades or directly tied to graduation.
''On the second day of school students will be taking a state test,'' Bush said. ''Students are so over-tested right now without seeing what the relevance is.''
It's a matter of priorities, said Cedar Beach lifeguard Nick Carbonetto, an incoming William Allen High School senior who said he did not study for the state tests because he was busy with soccer, baseball and organizing the prom.
''Colleges don't focus on PSSAs, but the SATs,'' he said.
Matt Trexler, also a senior at Allen, said he studied for the spring PSSA during class and at night when he got home from his part-time job at a restaurant.
With the help of a $9.6 million federal grant, Lee Kern, a Lehigh University professor, is leading a team of researchers to find ways educators can help high-schoolers succeed and not drop out.
Kern said data do not explain why scores fall in high school. But they do show that the problem is worse for low-income students.
''Poor attendance and homework completion become more problematic with secondary-age students,'' Kern said. ''Also, families who are more affluent are probably more concerned about test scores, given that they anticipate their children will go to college.''
'We don't teach reading'
Searching for new ideas, state education officials are pushing a controversial plan for more and different exams. They also propose a standardized curriculum for high schools.
An undetermined amount of this year's education budget will go toward creating a standardized curriculum for math, English, science and social studies, said Leah Harris, spokeswoman for the state Education Department.
Districts would not be required to adopt the new curriculum but it would give struggling schools better guidelines, Harris said.
The controversy is centered on a plan to require students to pass six of 10 state-created final exams in order to receive for a diploma. The plan has stalled as the Legislature reviews it.
In the past three years, the Education Department has launched several programs targeting high school student performance.
Classrooms for the Future provides students with laptops and gives teachers intensive training in how to use them in class. Dual Enrollment pitches in $10 million to cover tuition for high-schoolers who want to earn college credits.
But neither of those programs has racked up results in the short term.
Among the more creative ideas was Project 720 -- for the total amount of days teenagers spend in high school. It breaks large schools into small academies of up to 600 students. Class sizes shrink and class periods grow longer.
But like the other programs that have sparked hope among educators, Project 720 has not proved to be a silver bullet.
Last year, the Norristown Area School District was one of the first in the state to reorganize its high school under Project 720. Lisa Andrejko, then district superintendent. led the effort to break the 2,000-student school into six academies.
Norristown Area did not make adequate yearly progress this year, PSSA results show.
One year is not enough time to judge the project a failure, said Andrejko, who now heads Quakertown Area School District. It takes at least five years to get hard data, she said.
The solution isn't merely in teaching with computers or in smaller groups, Andrejko said. It will require a greater emphasis on basic reading instruction, she said, the kind students receive in elementary school.
''We don't teach reading in high school,'' Andrejko noted.
Employers and colleges have told state education officials that Pennsylvania high school graduates, on the whole, are not up to speed in writing, reading and math, Harris said.
''They're graduating without basic skills,'' she said. ''That's a problem for the student, and for the entire state.''
Getting back to the basics
Easton Area High School administrators created a program to reinforce basic math and reading skills in the classroom and during after-school tutoring.
Bangor Area High School received a warning from the state because its 11th-graders didn't score high enough on the math or reading test.
Pat Mulroy, assistant superintendent of the Bangor Area School District, partly blames the same factors affecting high schools across the state: a lack of funding and slow-moving reform.
For decades, education policy and funding have focused on teaching preschool and elementary school students how to read. Only in the last decade have policy experts realized high schools need that help, too.
Bangor High needs, but cannot afford, four reading specialists, Mulroy said. And those specialists are usually trained at the elementary level.
So Bangor is retraining its high school teachers to teach reading and math in all content areas, she said. Now, ''every teacher is a teacher of math or reading.''
Allentown's middle-schoolers have made the transition almost seamlessly to high school in terms of reading retention. Nearly 46 percent of eighth-graders were proficient compared with 43 percent of high school juniors.
In math, though, their decline is clear. Just over half of Allentown's eighth-graders scored proficient or better on the math PSSA this year, compared with 39 percent of 11th-graders.
Allentown Superintendent Karen S. Angello said that when those juniors were in middle school, not enough was done to rescue students who were close to failing. That's why three years ago, the district began placing at-risk students in back-to-back math periods, offering intensive tutoring and additional math courses, she said.
This year, the district plans to hire more math coaches and begin tracking student progress on a daily basis. With early intervention, Angello said, they will spot problems sooner.
In the Bethlehem Area School District, Superintendent Joseph Lewis is planning major changes at his two high schools this fall, with the focus on reading and math. Because Liberty High School has failed to significantly improve its scores over a number of years, it is technically eligible for state takeover, although Zahorchak, the state education secretary, said that possibility was ''remote.''
Every student will take Algebra I in ninth grade -- no exceptions, Lewis said.
''It's time to stop complaining about the test,'' he said. ''It's not necessarily about meeting the targets, but showing our kids can grow.''
Test score melt down in high school
By Genevieve Marshall, Steve Esack and William J. Ford Of The Morning Call, August 17, 2008
Between the last year of middle school and the junior year in high school, something happens to Pennsylvania students -- and it's not just puberty.
After years of building on math and reading skills and showing consistent gains on state tests, those improvements come to a screeching halt in high school. Not only do students stop improving in reading, they actually seem to lose math skills.
''It's almost like falling off a cliff,'' said state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak.
Two out of every five Pennsylvania high school students tested below grade level in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading and math tests, which were released last week.
At the current pace of improvement, it would take 40 years for all high school juniors to meet standards, Zahorchak said -- even though they're expected to do so within six years.
''Clearly we need to do more to improve the high school experience and ensure those students stay engaged and challenged through graduation,'' Zahorchak said. ''We simply cannot afford to be content with the status quo.''
With the federal No Child Left Behind law pushing states to make all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, Pennsylvania school districts, including those in the Lehigh Valley area, have a long way to go.
The 35 school districts in the eight-county area averaged a double-digit drop in the percentage of students that scored proficiently between eighth grade and 11th grade. The drop was significant regardless of race and income, though it was worse for minority, low-income and special education students.
This generation of students wants to understand the reason behind a classroom lesson or standardized test in order to put in the effort, said Kevin Bush, a social studies teacher and track coach at Bethlehem's Liberty High School. There is no consequence for poor performers, he said. The test is not factored into students' grades or directly tied to graduation.
''On the second day of school students will be taking a state test,'' Bush said. ''Students are so over-tested right now without seeing what the relevance is.''
It's a matter of priorities, said Cedar Beach lifeguard Nick Carbonetto, an incoming William Allen High School senior who said he did not study for the state tests because he was busy with soccer, baseball and organizing the prom.
''Colleges don't focus on PSSAs, but the SATs,'' he said.
Matt Trexler, also a senior at Allen, said he studied for the spring PSSA during class and at night when he got home from his part-time job at a restaurant.
With the help of a $9.6 million federal grant, Lee Kern, a Lehigh University professor, is leading a team of researchers to find ways educators can help high-schoolers succeed and not drop out.
Kern said data do not explain why scores fall in high school. But they do show that the problem is worse for low-income students.
''Poor attendance and homework completion become more problematic with secondary-age students,'' Kern said. ''Also, families who are more affluent are probably more concerned about test scores, given that they anticipate their children will go to college.''
'We don't teach reading'
Searching for new ideas, state education officials are pushing a controversial plan for more and different exams. They also propose a standardized curriculum for high schools.
An undetermined amount of this year's education budget will go toward creating a standardized curriculum for math, English, science and social studies, said Leah Harris, spokeswoman for the state Education Department.
Districts would not be required to adopt the new curriculum but it would give struggling schools better guidelines, Harris said.
The controversy is centered on a plan to require students to pass six of 10 state-created final exams in order to receive for a diploma. The plan has stalled as the Legislature reviews it.
In the past three years, the Education Department has launched several programs targeting high school student performance.
Classrooms for the Future provides students with laptops and gives teachers intensive training in how to use them in class. Dual Enrollment pitches in $10 million to cover tuition for high-schoolers who want to earn college credits.
But neither of those programs has racked up results in the short term.
Among the more creative ideas was Project 720 -- for the total amount of days teenagers spend in high school. It breaks large schools into small academies of up to 600 students. Class sizes shrink and class periods grow longer.
But like the other programs that have sparked hope among educators, Project 720 has not proved to be a silver bullet.
Last year, the Norristown Area School District was one of the first in the state to reorganize its high school under Project 720. Lisa Andrejko, then district superintendent. led the effort to break the 2,000-student school into six academies.
Norristown Area did not make adequate yearly progress this year, PSSA results show.
One year is not enough time to judge the project a failure, said Andrejko, who now heads Quakertown Area School District. It takes at least five years to get hard data, she said.
The solution isn't merely in teaching with computers or in smaller groups, Andrejko said. It will require a greater emphasis on basic reading instruction, she said, the kind students receive in elementary school.
''We don't teach reading in high school,'' Andrejko noted.
Employers and colleges have told state education officials that Pennsylvania high school graduates, on the whole, are not up to speed in writing, reading and math, Harris said.
''They're graduating without basic skills,'' she said. ''That's a problem for the student, and for the entire state.''
Getting back to the basics
Easton Area High School administrators created a program to reinforce basic math and reading skills in the classroom and during after-school tutoring.
Bangor Area High School received a warning from the state because its 11th-graders didn't score high enough on the math or reading test.
Pat Mulroy, assistant superintendent of the Bangor Area School District, partly blames the same factors affecting high schools across the state: a lack of funding and slow-moving reform.
For decades, education policy and funding have focused on teaching preschool and elementary school students how to read. Only in the last decade have policy experts realized high schools need that help, too.
Bangor High needs, but cannot afford, four reading specialists, Mulroy said. And those specialists are usually trained at the elementary level.
So Bangor is retraining its high school teachers to teach reading and math in all content areas, she said. Now, ''every teacher is a teacher of math or reading.''
Allentown's middle-schoolers have made the transition almost seamlessly to high school in terms of reading retention. Nearly 46 percent of eighth-graders were proficient compared with 43 percent of high school juniors.
In math, though, their decline is clear. Just over half of Allentown's eighth-graders scored proficient or better on the math PSSA this year, compared with 39 percent of 11th-graders.
Allentown Superintendent Karen S. Angello said that when those juniors were in middle school, not enough was done to rescue students who were close to failing. That's why three years ago, the district began placing at-risk students in back-to-back math periods, offering intensive tutoring and additional math courses, she said.
This year, the district plans to hire more math coaches and begin tracking student progress on a daily basis. With early intervention, Angello said, they will spot problems sooner.
In the Bethlehem Area School District, Superintendent Joseph Lewis is planning major changes at his two high schools this fall, with the focus on reading and math. Because Liberty High School has failed to significantly improve its scores over a number of years, it is technically eligible for state takeover, although Zahorchak, the state education secretary, said that possibility was ''remote.''
Every student will take Algebra I in ninth grade -- no exceptions, Lewis said.
''It's time to stop complaining about the test,'' he said. ''It's not necessarily about meeting the targets, but showing our kids can grow.''
Bensalem School District
BCCT Back to School/PSSA Profiles continue:
BENSALEM SCHOOL DISTRICT
Smaller first-grade, kindergarten classes
New district initiatives target young and special education students.
By JOAN HELLYER
As part of its improvement plan for 2008-09, Bensalem is reducing its class size for kindergarten and first grade to a maximum of 20 students.
The reduced class size will help improve the district’s youngest students’ academic development because teachers will have more time to focus on the individual needs of the students in the class, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
Bensalem also is expanding its full day kindergarten offers from two classes in the district to six.
Each of Bensalem’s six elementary schools will house a full-day kindergarten class, administrators said.
Plus, the district will begin offering 90 minutes worth of Spanish language instruction to all Bensalem third graders this year.
And, the district is making every effort to increase the time special needs students participate in regular education settings, he said. The goal is to provide the special education kids with more access to the district’s standards-based curriculum mandated by the state.
The Bensalem Township School District serves approximately 6,000 students in nine schools in a township of more than 60,000 people. The district employs more than 900 people and runs on an approximately $111 million budget. WHO’S WHO IN THE
SCHOOLS:
Superintendent:
James Lombardo, 215-750-2800, ext. 4100
Assistant Superintendent:
William Gretzula, 215-750-2800, ext. 4103
Principals:
Bensalem High School: Francis Perry, 215-750-2800, ext. 3000
Robert K. Shafer Middle School: William Incollingo Jr., 215-750-2800, ext. 2200
Cecelia Snyder Middle School: Deborah B. McKay, 215-750-2800, ext. 2300
Belmont Hills Elementary School: Marla Zeisler, 215-750-2800, ext. 1100
Cornwells Elementary School: Shawn Mark, 215-750-2800, ext. 1200
Samuel K. Faust Elementary School: Maribel Camps, 215-750-2800, ext. 1300
Benjamin Rush Elementary School: Mary Gentile, 215-750-2800, ext. 1400
Russell C. Struble Elementary School: Lana Judy, 215-750-2800, ext. 1500
Valley Elementary School: Mary Glaesser 215-750-2800, ext. 1600
School board:
President Harry Kramer, Vice President Lewis Brandt, James Bodnar, Rose Jacobs, Carol Jones, Carol McGuire, Heather Nicholas, Stephen Nowmos, and Eugene Rothenberg.
Meeting schedule: Generally the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. except in July in the boardroom of the Dorothy D. Call Administrative Center off Donallen Drive.
Note: The board’s first meeting in October will be Oct. 7 in observance Yom Kippur, which begins the following day at sundown on the second Wednesday of the month. Its second meeting of November will be Nov. 25 because the following day, the fourth Wednesday of the month, begins the district’s Thanksgiving holiday observance. And the board’s second meeting of December will be Dec. 17 because the district’s Winter Recess begins on Dec. 24, the fourth Wednesday of the month.
For more information, visit the district’s Web site, www.bensalemsd.org
2008-09 SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept. 2, First day of school
Sept. 29, Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Sept. 30, Oct. 1, Rosh Hashanah holiday
Oct. 9, Yom Kippur holiday
Nov. 4, Election Day
Nov. 11, Veterans Day
Nov. 25, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
Nov. 26, Parent conferences and Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Nov. 27, Nov. 28, Thanksgiving holiday
Dec. 24, Winter recess begins
Jan. 1, New Year’s Day
Jan. 5, Schools reopen
Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Day
Jan. 20, No school for elementary and middle school students and full day of class for high school students
Jan. 26, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 27, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 28, No school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Feb. 16, Presidents Day
April 8, Spring break begins
April 14, Students return to school
April 17, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
April 20, Parent conferences, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
May 19, Election Day, professional development day
May 25, Memorial Day
June 10, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
June 11, Tentative last day of school for students, half day for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
2007 AVERAGE SAT SCORES:
Verbal – 471
Math – 476
Writing – 467
FAST FACTS ABOUT BENSALEM
2007-08 Average teacher salary:
$76,322
AP courses: 10 – American history, chemistry, calculus, English language, English literature, European history, government, physics, psychology and statistics
Student/teacher ratio:
Elementary schools, 15.6 to 1; Middle and high schools, 14.9 to 1
Cost per student: Elementary schools, $12,070 and secondary, $11,375.
Partnerships with businesses:
Commerce Bank, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Ninety Nine, Texas Roadhouse, Smokin’ Dudes BBQ, Brown’s Family Shop Rite, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Rita’s Water Ice.
2008 Adequate Yearly Progress status: Met AYP goal
BENSALEM SCHOOL DISTRICT
Smaller first-grade, kindergarten classes
New district initiatives target young and special education students.
By JOAN HELLYER
As part of its improvement plan for 2008-09, Bensalem is reducing its class size for kindergarten and first grade to a maximum of 20 students.
The reduced class size will help improve the district’s youngest students’ academic development because teachers will have more time to focus on the individual needs of the students in the class, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
Bensalem also is expanding its full day kindergarten offers from two classes in the district to six.
Each of Bensalem’s six elementary schools will house a full-day kindergarten class, administrators said.
Plus, the district will begin offering 90 minutes worth of Spanish language instruction to all Bensalem third graders this year.
And, the district is making every effort to increase the time special needs students participate in regular education settings, he said. The goal is to provide the special education kids with more access to the district’s standards-based curriculum mandated by the state.
The Bensalem Township School District serves approximately 6,000 students in nine schools in a township of more than 60,000 people. The district employs more than 900 people and runs on an approximately $111 million budget. WHO’S WHO IN THE
SCHOOLS:
Superintendent:
James Lombardo, 215-750-2800, ext. 4100
Assistant Superintendent:
William Gretzula, 215-750-2800, ext. 4103
Principals:
Bensalem High School: Francis Perry, 215-750-2800, ext. 3000
Robert K. Shafer Middle School: William Incollingo Jr., 215-750-2800, ext. 2200
Cecelia Snyder Middle School: Deborah B. McKay, 215-750-2800, ext. 2300
Belmont Hills Elementary School: Marla Zeisler, 215-750-2800, ext. 1100
Cornwells Elementary School: Shawn Mark, 215-750-2800, ext. 1200
Samuel K. Faust Elementary School: Maribel Camps, 215-750-2800, ext. 1300
Benjamin Rush Elementary School: Mary Gentile, 215-750-2800, ext. 1400
Russell C. Struble Elementary School: Lana Judy, 215-750-2800, ext. 1500
Valley Elementary School: Mary Glaesser 215-750-2800, ext. 1600
School board:
President Harry Kramer, Vice President Lewis Brandt, James Bodnar, Rose Jacobs, Carol Jones, Carol McGuire, Heather Nicholas, Stephen Nowmos, and Eugene Rothenberg.
Meeting schedule: Generally the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. except in July in the boardroom of the Dorothy D. Call Administrative Center off Donallen Drive.
Note: The board’s first meeting in October will be Oct. 7 in observance Yom Kippur, which begins the following day at sundown on the second Wednesday of the month. Its second meeting of November will be Nov. 25 because the following day, the fourth Wednesday of the month, begins the district’s Thanksgiving holiday observance. And the board’s second meeting of December will be Dec. 17 because the district’s Winter Recess begins on Dec. 24, the fourth Wednesday of the month.
For more information, visit the district’s Web site, www.bensalemsd.org
2008-09 SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept. 2, First day of school
Sept. 29, Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Sept. 30, Oct. 1, Rosh Hashanah holiday
Oct. 9, Yom Kippur holiday
Nov. 4, Election Day
Nov. 11, Veterans Day
Nov. 25, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
Nov. 26, Parent conferences and Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Nov. 27, Nov. 28, Thanksgiving holiday
Dec. 24, Winter recess begins
Jan. 1, New Year’s Day
Jan. 5, Schools reopen
Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Day
Jan. 20, No school for elementary and middle school students and full day of class for high school students
Jan. 26, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 27, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 28, No school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Feb. 16, Presidents Day
April 8, Spring break begins
April 14, Students return to school
April 17, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
April 20, Parent conferences, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
May 19, Election Day, professional development day
May 25, Memorial Day
June 10, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
June 11, Tentative last day of school for students, half day for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
2007 AVERAGE SAT SCORES:
Verbal – 471
Math – 476
Writing – 467
FAST FACTS ABOUT BENSALEM
2007-08 Average teacher salary:
$76,322
AP courses: 10 – American history, chemistry, calculus, English language, English literature, European history, government, physics, psychology and statistics
Student/teacher ratio:
Elementary schools, 15.6 to 1; Middle and high schools, 14.9 to 1
Cost per student: Elementary schools, $12,070 and secondary, $11,375.
Partnerships with businesses:
Commerce Bank, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Ninety Nine, Texas Roadhouse, Smokin’ Dudes BBQ, Brown’s Family Shop Rite, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Rita’s Water Ice.
2008 Adequate Yearly Progress status: Met AYP goal
Borough Council Meeting tonight
GOVERNMENT
Morrisville Council: 7:30 p.m., borough hall, 35 Union St.
Agenda: Regular reports and business; consider directing the borough manager and engineer to send a list and application to the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission regarding additional projects that will be requested with the surplus money from the Compact Authorization Investment Program; consider paying $64,165.68 to J.L. Gruber Contractor, Inc., for curb and sidewalk replacement on South Pennsylvania Avenue; consider approving the projects to be funded by the remaining DRJTBC grant money; consider adopting sewer extension resolution for the Falkowski/Kulpinski subdivision at 130 Delaware Ave.; consider approving 2008 Labor Day Run; consider motion to acknowledge Randy Kenner’s resignation from the zoning hearing board; consider two 3-year appointments to the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.; consider amending resolution regarding the UCC Board of Appeals reducing membership from five members to three members. 215-295-8181
Morrisville Council: 7:30 p.m., borough hall, 35 Union St.
Agenda: Regular reports and business; consider directing the borough manager and engineer to send a list and application to the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission regarding additional projects that will be requested with the surplus money from the Compact Authorization Investment Program; consider paying $64,165.68 to J.L. Gruber Contractor, Inc., for curb and sidewalk replacement on South Pennsylvania Avenue; consider approving the projects to be funded by the remaining DRJTBC grant money; consider adopting sewer extension resolution for the Falkowski/Kulpinski subdivision at 130 Delaware Ave.; consider approving 2008 Labor Day Run; consider motion to acknowledge Randy Kenner’s resignation from the zoning hearing board; consider two 3-year appointments to the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.; consider amending resolution regarding the UCC Board of Appeals reducing membership from five members to three members. 215-295-8181
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Reaction to the PSSA scores from district officials
Another in the BCCT series on the 2008 PSSA scores
Reaction to the PSSA scores from district officials
BENSALEM: “CONSISTENT PROGRESS”
The district earned Adequate Yearly Progress for a second year in a row, but improvement still needs to be made, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
“What’s most important to me is not achieving an arbitrary point, but instead consistent, significant progress,” Lombardo said.
Bensalem High School is in Corrective Action for a second year because of its special education students’ performance on the PSSA math and reading tests, according to state results. In addition, Samuel K. Faust, Benjamin Rush and Valley elementary schools received a Warning either because not enough of its minority, special education or economically disadvantaged students performed at grade level.
The district has methods in place or will implement various strategies this school year to address the performance discrepancies, Lombardo said.
BRISTOL BOROUGH: “SUPER JOB”
As a whole, Bristol is moving in the right direction, Superintendent Broadus Davis said.
He pointed to the third grade’s strong performance on the test.
“This is a credit to the grade level teachers and support staff and, most importantly, to the hard work and dedication of the students for doing a super job,” Davis said.
However, improvements are still needed at the district’s high school level, he said.
Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School received a Warning this year because its overall student population and its economically disadvantaged subgroup did not have a high enough proficiency rate on the 2008 PSSA reading test. In order to improve the high school students’ performance, “the district administrative team will provide on-going staff development and training in data analysis as well as support in reading and math,” Davis said.
BRISTOL TOWNSHIP: “GREAT IMPROVEMENTS”
The district “is being watched very closely” because of its recent student performance gains, Superintendent Ellen Budman said. For the first time in several years, Harry S Truman High School made Adequate Yearly Progress, according to state 2008 PSSA results.
“We’ve made great improvements. We’re closing the gap between minority and white students. This is what we do here,” Budman said.
But some improvements are still needed, specifically at Clara Barton, Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools, she said. Not enough black students at Barton achieved proficiency in reading. Lafayette’s overall population as well as the economically disadvantaged subgroup did not achieve proficiency on the reading PSSA tests. And not enough of Lincoln’s black and special education students performed at grade level in reading.
The district is implementing various strategies to correct the shortfalls in performance, Budman said.
“I expect all schools to make AYP next year,” she said.
BUCKS COUNTY MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL: “REAPS BENEFITS”
“As far as what we do, we really don’t teach to the test. We have a really rigorous curriculum. Our scores tend to be very strong in third grade and increase each year,” said Principal Brian Long.
By the time they get to the highest grade in the school, sixth grade, scores tend to be at 100 percent proficient, he said.
That was the case with this year’s sixth graders for their math and reading scores.
“It’s something we really pride ourselves in. We have kids work with materials early on. It reaps benefits later on,” said Long.
Students learn advanced concepts in the Montessori curriculum and end up with a strong understanding of math and reading, he said.
BUCKS COUNTY TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: “NOT SHOCKED”
The performance of Bucks County Technical High School students on the 2008 PSSA tests left school Administrative Director Scott R. Parks “disappointed but not shocked.”
The comprehensive technical high school that serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts achieved Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time in 2007
But it received a Warning from the state this year because not enough of its overall population and special education subgroup achieved proficiency in reading. In addition, not enough of its white students and special education students were proficient in math.
Parks blames it on a combina tion of complacency and a learning curve the teachers are trying to overcome as they figure out how to use new technology in the classroom to deliver their lessons. In order to regain AYP status, teachers will work to master the technology and the school will require students clearly in need of additional learning support to attend mandatory tutoring sessions. Parks said.
CENTENNIAL: “IMPRESSIVE GAINS”
“Last year, our high school, despite being classified as Corrective Action 2 [first year], saw impressive gains in mathematics,” said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, director of teaching and learning.
The district has made AYP for the third year in a row.
While William Tennent High school will remain in Corrective Action status for one more year, its “Making Progress” status means that students made great strides in both mathematics and reading in all populations, including the special education population, said Foight-Cressman.
The district attributes the successes in part to periodic benchmark assessments of skills to make sure they are up to state standards, the continual refinement of the high school reading program and the use of tools like Study Island. Because two schools have slipped into “warning” status, their principals will be working closely with teachers, special education supervisors and Foight-Cressman to identify the root causes of low scores and create a plan to raise the performance levels in the coming year.
CENTER FOR STUDENT LEARNING: READING SCORES DECREASE
The center’s AYP status is School Improvement II, which means it has been trying to make Adequate Yearly Progress for the third consecutive year. Grade 8 math scores increased from last year but reading scores decreased. Grade 11 math and reading scores decreased.
Typically, schools with CSL’s status have to engage students in tutoring and further assessments. The school also has to work on an overall improvement plan.
A school official was unavailable for comment.
COUNCIL ROCK: “QUALITY INSTRUCTION”
All schools in the traditionally high-performing district earned Adequate Yearly Progress status, according to state results.
“We continue to emphasize quality instruction in the classrooms,” Superintendent Mark Klein said. “While we are pleased with the scores on the state assessment, we measure progress for our students across many measures over the course of the school year.”
MORRISVILLE: “SIGNIFICANT CHANGE”
The district and all schools made Adequate Yearly Progress this year. The 11th grade math scores went up significantly, with 28 percent higher scores than last year.
There is still an increase in 11th grade math scores after adding the data of students who are in alternative placements.
“I attribute this to the hard work of our administrators Ferrara as well as our teachers. Through analysis and focused instruction we were able to affect significant change,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson.
NESHAMINY: FOCUS ON SUBGROUPS
The district did not meet AYP because of special education reading.
Although Poquessing and Maple Point Middle Schools did make it, Sandburg and Neshaminy Middle School did not because of special education scores in math and reading.
The high school’s math and reading scores increased double digits over last year’s figures and that school improved in special education, too. But since that Middletown school’s economically disadvantaged students didn’t meet the reading targets, Neshaminy High School is in Corrective Action II.
Neshaminy Superintendent Paul Kadri compared increasing student performance to long distance running.
“As a district, we wish we made AYP,” he said. “We’re sad about the high school, too, but they had a wonderful year. We’re pretty excited about the double digit increase. We need to look and see what’s going on [with the economtion, formative reading assessments and other measures, said district spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
Pennsbury High School made the necessary improvements to be placed in the category of “making progress,” though it’s still in corrective action status.
The high school is in its second year of improvement with the special education subgroup.
Charles Boehm and Pennwood middle schools, which were in warning status last year, are both now making AYP.
SCHOOL LANE CHARTER SCHOOL: YEARLONG FOCUS HELPED
The charter school off Bristol Pike in Bensalem made Adequate Yearly Progress with over 70 percent of its students demonstrating proficiency in math and nearly 70 percent scoring proficient or better in reading.
Karen Schade, the school’s principal, attributes student performance growth to a yearlong focus on reading and vocabulary instruction.
The school serves about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade who live in Bensalem, Philadelphia and other surrounding communities.
Comments compiled by education reporters Joan Hellyer, Manasee Wagh and Rachel Canelli.
Reaction to the PSSA scores from district officials
BENSALEM: “CONSISTENT PROGRESS”
The district earned Adequate Yearly Progress for a second year in a row, but improvement still needs to be made, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
“What’s most important to me is not achieving an arbitrary point, but instead consistent, significant progress,” Lombardo said.
Bensalem High School is in Corrective Action for a second year because of its special education students’ performance on the PSSA math and reading tests, according to state results. In addition, Samuel K. Faust, Benjamin Rush and Valley elementary schools received a Warning either because not enough of its minority, special education or economically disadvantaged students performed at grade level.
The district has methods in place or will implement various strategies this school year to address the performance discrepancies, Lombardo said.
BRISTOL BOROUGH: “SUPER JOB”
As a whole, Bristol is moving in the right direction, Superintendent Broadus Davis said.
He pointed to the third grade’s strong performance on the test.
“This is a credit to the grade level teachers and support staff and, most importantly, to the hard work and dedication of the students for doing a super job,” Davis said.
However, improvements are still needed at the district’s high school level, he said.
Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School received a Warning this year because its overall student population and its economically disadvantaged subgroup did not have a high enough proficiency rate on the 2008 PSSA reading test. In order to improve the high school students’ performance, “the district administrative team will provide on-going staff development and training in data analysis as well as support in reading and math,” Davis said.
BRISTOL TOWNSHIP: “GREAT IMPROVEMENTS”
The district “is being watched very closely” because of its recent student performance gains, Superintendent Ellen Budman said. For the first time in several years, Harry S Truman High School made Adequate Yearly Progress, according to state 2008 PSSA results.
“We’ve made great improvements. We’re closing the gap between minority and white students. This is what we do here,” Budman said.
But some improvements are still needed, specifically at Clara Barton, Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools, she said. Not enough black students at Barton achieved proficiency in reading. Lafayette’s overall population as well as the economically disadvantaged subgroup did not achieve proficiency on the reading PSSA tests. And not enough of Lincoln’s black and special education students performed at grade level in reading.
The district is implementing various strategies to correct the shortfalls in performance, Budman said.
“I expect all schools to make AYP next year,” she said.
BUCKS COUNTY MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL: “REAPS BENEFITS”
“As far as what we do, we really don’t teach to the test. We have a really rigorous curriculum. Our scores tend to be very strong in third grade and increase each year,” said Principal Brian Long.
By the time they get to the highest grade in the school, sixth grade, scores tend to be at 100 percent proficient, he said.
That was the case with this year’s sixth graders for their math and reading scores.
“It’s something we really pride ourselves in. We have kids work with materials early on. It reaps benefits later on,” said Long.
Students learn advanced concepts in the Montessori curriculum and end up with a strong understanding of math and reading, he said.
BUCKS COUNTY TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: “NOT SHOCKED”
The performance of Bucks County Technical High School students on the 2008 PSSA tests left school Administrative Director Scott R. Parks “disappointed but not shocked.”
The comprehensive technical high school that serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts achieved Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time in 2007
But it received a Warning from the state this year because not enough of its overall population and special education subgroup achieved proficiency in reading. In addition, not enough of its white students and special education students were proficient in math.
Parks blames it on a combina tion of complacency and a learning curve the teachers are trying to overcome as they figure out how to use new technology in the classroom to deliver their lessons. In order to regain AYP status, teachers will work to master the technology and the school will require students clearly in need of additional learning support to attend mandatory tutoring sessions. Parks said.
CENTENNIAL: “IMPRESSIVE GAINS”
“Last year, our high school, despite being classified as Corrective Action 2 [first year], saw impressive gains in mathematics,” said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, director of teaching and learning.
The district has made AYP for the third year in a row.
While William Tennent High school will remain in Corrective Action status for one more year, its “Making Progress” status means that students made great strides in both mathematics and reading in all populations, including the special education population, said Foight-Cressman.
The district attributes the successes in part to periodic benchmark assessments of skills to make sure they are up to state standards, the continual refinement of the high school reading program and the use of tools like Study Island. Because two schools have slipped into “warning” status, their principals will be working closely with teachers, special education supervisors and Foight-Cressman to identify the root causes of low scores and create a plan to raise the performance levels in the coming year.
CENTER FOR STUDENT LEARNING: READING SCORES DECREASE
The center’s AYP status is School Improvement II, which means it has been trying to make Adequate Yearly Progress for the third consecutive year. Grade 8 math scores increased from last year but reading scores decreased. Grade 11 math and reading scores decreased.
Typically, schools with CSL’s status have to engage students in tutoring and further assessments. The school also has to work on an overall improvement plan.
A school official was unavailable for comment.
COUNCIL ROCK: “QUALITY INSTRUCTION”
All schools in the traditionally high-performing district earned Adequate Yearly Progress status, according to state results.
“We continue to emphasize quality instruction in the classrooms,” Superintendent Mark Klein said. “While we are pleased with the scores on the state assessment, we measure progress for our students across many measures over the course of the school year.”
MORRISVILLE: “SIGNIFICANT CHANGE”
The district and all schools made Adequate Yearly Progress this year. The 11th grade math scores went up significantly, with 28 percent higher scores than last year.
There is still an increase in 11th grade math scores after adding the data of students who are in alternative placements.
“I attribute this to the hard work of our administrators Ferrara as well as our teachers. Through analysis and focused instruction we were able to affect significant change,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson.
NESHAMINY: FOCUS ON SUBGROUPS
The district did not meet AYP because of special education reading.
Although Poquessing and Maple Point Middle Schools did make it, Sandburg and Neshaminy Middle School did not because of special education scores in math and reading.
The high school’s math and reading scores increased double digits over last year’s figures and that school improved in special education, too. But since that Middletown school’s economically disadvantaged students didn’t meet the reading targets, Neshaminy High School is in Corrective Action II.
Neshaminy Superintendent Paul Kadri compared increasing student performance to long distance running.
“As a district, we wish we made AYP,” he said. “We’re sad about the high school, too, but they had a wonderful year. We’re pretty excited about the double digit increase. We need to look and see what’s going on [with the economtion, formative reading assessments and other measures, said district spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
Pennsbury High School made the necessary improvements to be placed in the category of “making progress,” though it’s still in corrective action status.
The high school is in its second year of improvement with the special education subgroup.
Charles Boehm and Pennwood middle schools, which were in warning status last year, are both now making AYP.
SCHOOL LANE CHARTER SCHOOL: YEARLONG FOCUS HELPED
The charter school off Bristol Pike in Bensalem made Adequate Yearly Progress with over 70 percent of its students demonstrating proficiency in math and nearly 70 percent scoring proficient or better in reading.
Karen Schade, the school’s principal, attributes student performance growth to a yearlong focus on reading and vocabulary instruction.
The school serves about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade who live in Bensalem, Philadelphia and other surrounding communities.
Comments compiled by education reporters Joan Hellyer, Manasee Wagh and Rachel Canelli.
Should PSSAs be factor in graduation?
Another in the BCCT series on the 2008 PSSA scores
Should PSSAs be factor in graduation?
By MANASEE WAGH
Though they place great value on increasing state assessment scores, most Bucks County school districts say they don’t consider those results the best indicator of academic performance.
As such, proficiency on the PSSAs shouldn’t be a determining factor for graduation, say many district officials. Most declined to provide percentages of how many students graduated with a less-than-proficient score.
“They have access to that data and whether they choose to provide it is up to them,” said Michael Race, deputy press secretary at the state Department of Education. To get a close estimation of how many graduates did poorly on the PSSAs, look at the number of graduates and the number of below-proficient scores during their junior year, he said, though that doesn’t provide the most accurate picture.
Comments across the county vary as to why PSSA proficiency shouldn’t be a graduation factor, but all respondents agree on one point: The state’s PSSA assessments don’t necessarily paint an accurate picture of a student’s abilities in the core areas of math and reading.
“The PSSAs are broad brush strokes of understanding,” said Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education. The tests don’t measure how well a student may be performing in class, he said. Like other districts, Council Rock relies on other means of assessment besides the state exams.
Competency is based on how an individual performs in each curricular area through class work and course exams, Desko said.
“Kids in high school are taking so many tests. How many assessments do we need to give evidence of student achievement?” he said.
Desko’s sentiments were echoed in a number of other districts.
In Morrisville, which showed marked improvement in the PSSAs this year, students take quarterly assessments that are closely modeled after the state assessments. If an 11th -grade student fails to attain PSSA proficiency, he or she can graduate only after taking further steps.
Graduation requires a 2.0 grade point average as well as a good score on the quarterly district assessments in English and math. Students also must retake the state test in the fall of their senior year.
Those who fail to pass quarterly assessments must join small focus-instruction groups to strengthen the concepts they haven’t grasped.
“The problem is that the PSSA is one test,” said Elizabeth Yonson, Morrisville’s superintendent. During each quarter, the district is already teaching the state standards, she said. In fact, district quarterly assessments are more rigorous than the PSSAs, and the state wants to see Morrisville’s quarterly exams, she added.
The district has improved state assessment scores over three years because of curricular changes, demonstrating that the current system is working, said Yonson.
Centennial, Morrisville, New Hope-Solebury, Council Rock, Central Bucks, Palisades, Neshaminy, Pennridge and Pennsbury all said students usually do better on the PSSAs after retesting their senior year. Otherwise they have to complete other district assessments.
Palisades was one of the only districts to provide information about how many graduates did not pass the PSSAs.
About 14 percent of students in Palisades graduated this year with a less-than-proficient score in reading, while 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSSAs. In the writing assessment, 4.6 percent of graduates did not pass, said Rich Heffernan, principal of Palisades High School.
“Every district is different and every district has different challenges,” he said.
At Pennridge, 131 out of 587 graduates, or about 22 percent, failed one or more of the math, reading and writing tests after the second opportunity to take them, said Arlene Zielinski, the district’s assistant superintendent for programs. However, “a good portion” of those are special education students whose individual education plans were used for assessment instead, she added.
A disconnect exists between 11th -grade PSSA scores and graduation rates, said Sheila Ballen, director of communications at the state education department. At the same time, it’s a valuable means to evaluate a student, she said.
“The PSSA is a very good tool in assessing reading and math at certain grade levels,” Ballen said. “It gives us a good snapshot in time.”
From Steven Young’s point of view, the PSSAs are a gauge for whether students need more help in certain areas. Therefore, the goal is to attain a proficient or better score.
“However, this is an unlikely result given the variation in aptitude, disposition and life circumstance among students. It is also the case that some students simply do not test well,” said the New Hope-Solebury High School principal.
The way his district gets around a low score is by recognizing the individuality of each student, he said. Teachers use a variety of assessment tools to meet curricular objectives, including tests, project work, papers, oral assessments and formal presentations.
Young called this mixture of tools a “far superior” way to relying on the PSSA, “a single measure of progress.”
Before this year’s results were released, Superintendent Paul Kadri of Neshaminy, which failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards, said the district doesn’t track how many graduates pass the PSSAs. Instead, it looks at a student’s individual education plan.
The district has implemented a kindergarten through 12-grade writing program as one way to improve scores next year.
In the meantime, state proficiency rate targets are increasing, from 54 percent in reading in 2007 to 63 percent this year, and 45 percent to 56 percent in math. By 2014, all students have to score proficient or better to keep up with federal No Child Left Behind standards.
Should PSSAs be factor in graduation?
By MANASEE WAGH
Though they place great value on increasing state assessment scores, most Bucks County school districts say they don’t consider those results the best indicator of academic performance.
As such, proficiency on the PSSAs shouldn’t be a determining factor for graduation, say many district officials. Most declined to provide percentages of how many students graduated with a less-than-proficient score.
“They have access to that data and whether they choose to provide it is up to them,” said Michael Race, deputy press secretary at the state Department of Education. To get a close estimation of how many graduates did poorly on the PSSAs, look at the number of graduates and the number of below-proficient scores during their junior year, he said, though that doesn’t provide the most accurate picture.
Comments across the county vary as to why PSSA proficiency shouldn’t be a graduation factor, but all respondents agree on one point: The state’s PSSA assessments don’t necessarily paint an accurate picture of a student’s abilities in the core areas of math and reading.
“The PSSAs are broad brush strokes of understanding,” said Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education. The tests don’t measure how well a student may be performing in class, he said. Like other districts, Council Rock relies on other means of assessment besides the state exams.
Competency is based on how an individual performs in each curricular area through class work and course exams, Desko said.
“Kids in high school are taking so many tests. How many assessments do we need to give evidence of student achievement?” he said.
Desko’s sentiments were echoed in a number of other districts.
In Morrisville, which showed marked improvement in the PSSAs this year, students take quarterly assessments that are closely modeled after the state assessments. If an 11th -grade student fails to attain PSSA proficiency, he or she can graduate only after taking further steps.
Graduation requires a 2.0 grade point average as well as a good score on the quarterly district assessments in English and math. Students also must retake the state test in the fall of their senior year.
Those who fail to pass quarterly assessments must join small focus-instruction groups to strengthen the concepts they haven’t grasped.
“The problem is that the PSSA is one test,” said Elizabeth Yonson, Morrisville’s superintendent. During each quarter, the district is already teaching the state standards, she said. In fact, district quarterly assessments are more rigorous than the PSSAs, and the state wants to see Morrisville’s quarterly exams, she added.
The district has improved state assessment scores over three years because of curricular changes, demonstrating that the current system is working, said Yonson.
Centennial, Morrisville, New Hope-Solebury, Council Rock, Central Bucks, Palisades, Neshaminy, Pennridge and Pennsbury all said students usually do better on the PSSAs after retesting their senior year. Otherwise they have to complete other district assessments.
Palisades was one of the only districts to provide information about how many graduates did not pass the PSSAs.
About 14 percent of students in Palisades graduated this year with a less-than-proficient score in reading, while 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSSAs. In the writing assessment, 4.6 percent of graduates did not pass, said Rich Heffernan, principal of Palisades High School.
“Every district is different and every district has different challenges,” he said.
At Pennridge, 131 out of 587 graduates, or about 22 percent, failed one or more of the math, reading and writing tests after the second opportunity to take them, said Arlene Zielinski, the district’s assistant superintendent for programs. However, “a good portion” of those are special education students whose individual education plans were used for assessment instead, she added.
A disconnect exists between 11th -grade PSSA scores and graduation rates, said Sheila Ballen, director of communications at the state education department. At the same time, it’s a valuable means to evaluate a student, she said.
“The PSSA is a very good tool in assessing reading and math at certain grade levels,” Ballen said. “It gives us a good snapshot in time.”
From Steven Young’s point of view, the PSSAs are a gauge for whether students need more help in certain areas. Therefore, the goal is to attain a proficient or better score.
“However, this is an unlikely result given the variation in aptitude, disposition and life circumstance among students. It is also the case that some students simply do not test well,” said the New Hope-Solebury High School principal.
The way his district gets around a low score is by recognizing the individuality of each student, he said. Teachers use a variety of assessment tools to meet curricular objectives, including tests, project work, papers, oral assessments and formal presentations.
Young called this mixture of tools a “far superior” way to relying on the PSSA, “a single measure of progress.”
Before this year’s results were released, Superintendent Paul Kadri of Neshaminy, which failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards, said the district doesn’t track how many graduates pass the PSSAs. Instead, it looks at a student’s individual education plan.
The district has implemented a kindergarten through 12-grade writing program as one way to improve scores next year.
In the meantime, state proficiency rate targets are increasing, from 54 percent in reading in 2007 to 63 percent this year, and 45 percent to 56 percent in math. By 2014, all students have to score proficient or better to keep up with federal No Child Left Behind standards.
All PSSA, All Day
The BCCT is devoting a large portion of today's edition, and this week, to examining the PSSA scores for the area.
ABCs The of your schools
PSSA: Changes coming to student evaluations
Revisions in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-10 school year, a state education department official said.
By JOAN HELLYER
The clock is ticking down to 2014.
But some area school districts could be in trouble if revisions are not made to the way special education scores are handled.
By 2014 the federal government wants all students to be learning on their respective grade level or higher.
Such performance is necessary to help students develop the academic skills they’ll need in adulthood, according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The federal government looks for proof of student performance levels, in part, in the results of standardized tests. The state administers the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests each spring to provide that information.
In response to the federal mandate, most local school systems have used a variety of methods in recent years to develop student ability. Some tactics have worked. Others have not.
Oftentimes, that’s because all students learn on grade level, educators say. Special education students, in particular, learn on grade levels three or four years lower than do their peers, educa tors said.
“It’s illogical to expect [the special education] population to perform at grade level,” said Bensalem Superintendent James Lombardo.
But yet they are expected to demonstrate grade-level proficiency on the PSSA mathematics and reading tests. The proficiency rate is a combination of students who scored in either the proficient or advanced range on the tests.
The special education students’ scores count as a subgroup against a school’s overall performance grade if at least 40 spe cial needs kids in a respective building take the test.
Larger numbers of schools are likely to fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress status, as required by NCLB, if special education scores continue to be included in the results the way they are now, Lombardo said.
“That’s because the [proficiency] threshold keeps rising. That makes it very, very difficult for the subgroups to make it,” Lombardo said.
Changes in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-2010 school year, said Shula Nedley, director of the state education department’s Bureau of Assessment and Accountability.
In the meantime, the state added 13 percentage points to PSSA performance rates involving special education scores this year to see if that would bring the results into the proficient range.
But even with that extra 13 points, about a dozen local schools either received a Warning or face some sort of School Improvement or Corrective Action measures because not enough of its special needs students performed at grade level this year, according to state results released last week.
That despite the fact that the overall student population in some of the schools achieved healthy or near perfect proficiency rates.
In fact, only two local high schools, Neshaminy and Bensalem, will get a thorough going over by the state because both schools are in Corrective Action II status for more than one year.
NESHAMINY’S CHALLENGE
In Neshaminy’s case, not enough economically disadvantaged students earned a proficient score on the PSSA reading test. In Bensalem, not enough special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA math and reading tests.
The state is looking at each situation individually to see what’s being done to correct the situation internally before it takes action, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania’s education department secretary.
“Oftentimes it’s an inadequacy of funding in those districts. In terms of resources and quality, we’re building on that capacity,” the secretary said in a Thursday conference call from Harrisburg.
Those resources will be in addition to the variety of methods area schools and districts already use to develop and monitor student progress, local administrators said.
The methods include periodic student testing with programs like 4Sight and Study Island. The testing materials are paid for through a variety of resources, including general funds and state and federal grants, administrators said.
School systems have realized a benefit in using these monitoring tools they said.
It helps identify students who need extra help and provides students the chance to become aware of test content and techniques, said Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
In Centennial, the intervention efforts have proved most beneficial to William Tennent High School’s special education population, said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, the district’s director of teaching and learning.
Over the last two years, Tennent special education students demonstrated a combined 28 percent leap in performance at proficient and advanced levels, she said.
Given the special education students success, Tennent was able, for the first time in six years to make AYP by reaching “Making Progress” status, Foight-Cressman said.
ABCs The of your schools
PSSA: Changes coming to student evaluations
Revisions in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-10 school year, a state education department official said.
By JOAN HELLYER
The clock is ticking down to 2014.
But some area school districts could be in trouble if revisions are not made to the way special education scores are handled.
By 2014 the federal government wants all students to be learning on their respective grade level or higher.
Such performance is necessary to help students develop the academic skills they’ll need in adulthood, according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The federal government looks for proof of student performance levels, in part, in the results of standardized tests. The state administers the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests each spring to provide that information.
In response to the federal mandate, most local school systems have used a variety of methods in recent years to develop student ability. Some tactics have worked. Others have not.
Oftentimes, that’s because all students learn on grade level, educators say. Special education students, in particular, learn on grade levels three or four years lower than do their peers, educa tors said.
“It’s illogical to expect [the special education] population to perform at grade level,” said Bensalem Superintendent James Lombardo.
But yet they are expected to demonstrate grade-level proficiency on the PSSA mathematics and reading tests. The proficiency rate is a combination of students who scored in either the proficient or advanced range on the tests.
The special education students’ scores count as a subgroup against a school’s overall performance grade if at least 40 spe cial needs kids in a respective building take the test.
Larger numbers of schools are likely to fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress status, as required by NCLB, if special education scores continue to be included in the results the way they are now, Lombardo said.
“That’s because the [proficiency] threshold keeps rising. That makes it very, very difficult for the subgroups to make it,” Lombardo said.
Changes in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-2010 school year, said Shula Nedley, director of the state education department’s Bureau of Assessment and Accountability.
In the meantime, the state added 13 percentage points to PSSA performance rates involving special education scores this year to see if that would bring the results into the proficient range.
But even with that extra 13 points, about a dozen local schools either received a Warning or face some sort of School Improvement or Corrective Action measures because not enough of its special needs students performed at grade level this year, according to state results released last week.
That despite the fact that the overall student population in some of the schools achieved healthy or near perfect proficiency rates.
In fact, only two local high schools, Neshaminy and Bensalem, will get a thorough going over by the state because both schools are in Corrective Action II status for more than one year.
NESHAMINY’S CHALLENGE
In Neshaminy’s case, not enough economically disadvantaged students earned a proficient score on the PSSA reading test. In Bensalem, not enough special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA math and reading tests.
The state is looking at each situation individually to see what’s being done to correct the situation internally before it takes action, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania’s education department secretary.
“Oftentimes it’s an inadequacy of funding in those districts. In terms of resources and quality, we’re building on that capacity,” the secretary said in a Thursday conference call from Harrisburg.
Those resources will be in addition to the variety of methods area schools and districts already use to develop and monitor student progress, local administrators said.
The methods include periodic student testing with programs like 4Sight and Study Island. The testing materials are paid for through a variety of resources, including general funds and state and federal grants, administrators said.
School systems have realized a benefit in using these monitoring tools they said.
It helps identify students who need extra help and provides students the chance to become aware of test content and techniques, said Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
In Centennial, the intervention efforts have proved most beneficial to William Tennent High School’s special education population, said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, the district’s director of teaching and learning.
Over the last two years, Tennent special education students demonstrated a combined 28 percent leap in performance at proficient and advanced levels, she said.
Given the special education students success, Tennent was able, for the first time in six years to make AYP by reaching “Making Progress” status, Foight-Cressman said.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Once a teacher, always a teacher
From the BCCT this morning. Another big "thank you" to the retired teachers who participated. You gave once in the classroom, and now you're doing it again!
Project outifts kids for school season
School retirees donate backpacks, clothes and school supplies to needy families at the Family Service Association in Middletown.
By CHRISTIAN MENNO
Eleven-year-old Brielle Nusser loves the color purple.
Her twin sister Brianna has a strong affection towards anything pink.
On Friday, as they sat, sprawled out on the floor of the Family Service Association community room in Middletown, the girls eagerly examined their new backpacks — one purple, one pink — each bursting with school supplies and clothes, most of which matched their favorite hues.
As each item was removed from the bags, a quick “Mom, look!” squeaked through the twins’ relentless smiles.
Their mother, Jeannie Lutz of Bristol, gazed back approvingly, as tears welled in her eyes.
Dozens of others, mostly members of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees and staffers of the FSA, looked on as well.
Brielle and Brianna were the first children to receive their donated clothes and supplies as part of this year’s Bucks County Back-to-School Klothes 4 Kids Project.
This is the fourth year that FSA has joined with the PASR and the Bucks First Federal Credit Union to help needy children and families throughout the county, as they prepare for the always anxious and usually expensive back-to-school season.
“Families are struggling with the way the economy is right now,” FSA communications coordinator Stephanie Sides said, as she waded through the room packed with dozens of volunteers and more than 130 backpacks.
“They are not able to buy new things and kids are wearing handme-downs. It’s so important that these kids have a new outfit and some new things. It really gets them excited for the school year and it just gives them some encouragement.”
The project starts with the FSA, which puts together a list of names, along with clothes sizes and color preferences. Willing members of PASR then “adopt” a child, receive the information and start shopping. Meanwhile the Bucks First Federal prints brochures and sends them out to each of its 14,000 members to encourage any additional donations.
The result, Sides said, is a child with the confidence and enthusiasm to jump into the school year.
On Friday, it was clear that the two biggest smiles in the room belonged to Brielle and Brianna, but if anyone’s grin could compare it was Meg Kramer’s.
Kramer, a former president of PASR and a retired Pennsbury elementary school teacher, shopped for the twins this year. She had also “adopted” them two years ago, but had never met the soon-to-be sixth-graders until now.
“They were in my imagination and I just had fun shopping for them,” she said. “But this … I just can’t describe it. It’s wonderful.”
Kramer was then wrapped up with hugs as the girls showed their appreciation.
Their mother was just as grateful.
“This has been a lot of help over these last couple of years,” Lutz said, still holding back tears. “It’s very touching.”
Eventually all the backpacks will be emptied from the room, as FSA counselors deliver them to their families, giving dozens of other children a jumpstart for the school year.
Deborah Gable, who taught at Makefield Elementary for 32 years, donated supplies and outfits set to go to a kindergartner.
“This is my second year participating,” she said. “It was so invigorating last year that I just had to follow through again.”
Sides explained that these former teachers and school employees make the perfect match for this kind of project.
“Once a teacher, always a teacher,” she said. “The fact that they’re still helping these kids is very important to them.
“The kids see these complete strangers do something so nice for them, and they learn from that. They learn about giving back.”
Project outifts kids for school season
School retirees donate backpacks, clothes and school supplies to needy families at the Family Service Association in Middletown.
By CHRISTIAN MENNO
Eleven-year-old Brielle Nusser loves the color purple.
Her twin sister Brianna has a strong affection towards anything pink.
On Friday, as they sat, sprawled out on the floor of the Family Service Association community room in Middletown, the girls eagerly examined their new backpacks — one purple, one pink — each bursting with school supplies and clothes, most of which matched their favorite hues.
As each item was removed from the bags, a quick “Mom, look!” squeaked through the twins’ relentless smiles.
Their mother, Jeannie Lutz of Bristol, gazed back approvingly, as tears welled in her eyes.
Dozens of others, mostly members of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees and staffers of the FSA, looked on as well.
Brielle and Brianna were the first children to receive their donated clothes and supplies as part of this year’s Bucks County Back-to-School Klothes 4 Kids Project.
This is the fourth year that FSA has joined with the PASR and the Bucks First Federal Credit Union to help needy children and families throughout the county, as they prepare for the always anxious and usually expensive back-to-school season.
“Families are struggling with the way the economy is right now,” FSA communications coordinator Stephanie Sides said, as she waded through the room packed with dozens of volunteers and more than 130 backpacks.
“They are not able to buy new things and kids are wearing handme-downs. It’s so important that these kids have a new outfit and some new things. It really gets them excited for the school year and it just gives them some encouragement.”
The project starts with the FSA, which puts together a list of names, along with clothes sizes and color preferences. Willing members of PASR then “adopt” a child, receive the information and start shopping. Meanwhile the Bucks First Federal prints brochures and sends them out to each of its 14,000 members to encourage any additional donations.
The result, Sides said, is a child with the confidence and enthusiasm to jump into the school year.
On Friday, it was clear that the two biggest smiles in the room belonged to Brielle and Brianna, but if anyone’s grin could compare it was Meg Kramer’s.
Kramer, a former president of PASR and a retired Pennsbury elementary school teacher, shopped for the twins this year. She had also “adopted” them two years ago, but had never met the soon-to-be sixth-graders until now.
“They were in my imagination and I just had fun shopping for them,” she said. “But this … I just can’t describe it. It’s wonderful.”
Kramer was then wrapped up with hugs as the girls showed their appreciation.
Their mother was just as grateful.
“This has been a lot of help over these last couple of years,” Lutz said, still holding back tears. “It’s very touching.”
Eventually all the backpacks will be emptied from the room, as FSA counselors deliver them to their families, giving dozens of other children a jumpstart for the school year.
Deborah Gable, who taught at Makefield Elementary for 32 years, donated supplies and outfits set to go to a kindergartner.
“This is my second year participating,” she said. “It was so invigorating last year that I just had to follow through again.”
Sides explained that these former teachers and school employees make the perfect match for this kind of project.
“Once a teacher, always a teacher,” she said. “The fact that they’re still helping these kids is very important to them.
“The kids see these complete strangers do something so nice for them, and they learn from that. They learn about giving back.”
Can a School Dress Code Lead to Murder?
From the Inquirer by way of the Ventura County Star. This story was also the cover story in Newsweek several weeks ago. There's no winners in this heartbreaking story.
The school district itself can be rightfully blamed for a number of lapses, but blaming the presence, or lack of enforcement of, a dress code in this tragedy completely abandons the idea of parental responsibility.
Is there anyone on the planet who thinks that a fifteen year old boy in glitter and stilettos would NOT become the object of ridicule during the slow times in algebra class? The time to make this claim about dress code enforcement was at the breakfast table on the very first day it happened. The parent who (hopefully) spewed out their coffee over the morning newspaper should have addressed the situation right there and then.
I was once fifteen, and I suspect many of you can remember that time as well. I knew "everything" back then. It's only today that I know how woefully unprepared and naive I was. That's why we're provided parents, guardians, and/or mentors: to supply that perspective.
Larger than the issue of dress code enforcement is the question of where King should have been going to school. Seen in the context of Morrisville, should he have been attending MHS, or an alternative school like DVHS? I would rather fault the school district in that context. Think about this analogy: Was King rightfully kept in the mainstream for educational reasons or wrongfully because the school board president thought special ed costs were excessive?
If my children were students in that English class, were witnesses to this tragedy, and I found out that the local Emperor of Education had insisted on keeping a potentially disruptive student in the mainstream to keep costs down, well, let's say I would break my neck to find the lawyer that I would make rich.
This opens up the concepts of special education, IEPs, and the tuitioning out of MHS students to alternative schools. Let's not hype this unnecessarily, but these are all tough and real questions that would need to be answered.
A school provides services "in loco parentis", in place of the parents in some certain situations and occurrences, most notably in the matter of locker searches and basic adult rights being applied to minors. As the Wikipedia article explicitly notes, dress code issues in schools have never made it to Washington and the Supreme Court.
I hope Larry King's family can find some measure of peace, but the responsibility for their son's unconventional closet starts, and ends, at home.
Family of gay boy slain in Calif. blames school
Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
VENTURA, Calif. - The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school , factors the family claims led to the death.
The parents and brother of 15-year-old Larry King of Oxnard filed a personal injury claim against the Hueneme school district seeking unspecified damages for not enforcing the dress code.
King, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School, was shot in February. Classmate Brandon McInerney pleaded not guilty to the shooting last week. He was charged as an adult and also faces a charge of a committing a hate crime.
The family's claim, filed last week in Ventura County Superior Court, said administrators and teachers failed to enforce the school's dress code when King wore feminine clothing and makeup to school.
His parents, Dawn and Gregory King, said faculty members knew their son had "unique vulnerabilities" and was subject to abuse because of his sexual orientation.
King was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children at the time of the shooting.
A call for comment to district Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg was not immediately returned.
State law requires individuals to file a claim before proceeding with a lawsuit against a public agency.
The school district itself can be rightfully blamed for a number of lapses, but blaming the presence, or lack of enforcement of, a dress code in this tragedy completely abandons the idea of parental responsibility.
Is there anyone on the planet who thinks that a fifteen year old boy in glitter and stilettos would NOT become the object of ridicule during the slow times in algebra class? The time to make this claim about dress code enforcement was at the breakfast table on the very first day it happened. The parent who (hopefully) spewed out their coffee over the morning newspaper should have addressed the situation right there and then.
I was once fifteen, and I suspect many of you can remember that time as well. I knew "everything" back then. It's only today that I know how woefully unprepared and naive I was. That's why we're provided parents, guardians, and/or mentors: to supply that perspective.
Larger than the issue of dress code enforcement is the question of where King should have been going to school. Seen in the context of Morrisville, should he have been attending MHS, or an alternative school like DVHS? I would rather fault the school district in that context. Think about this analogy: Was King rightfully kept in the mainstream for educational reasons or wrongfully because the school board president thought special ed costs were excessive?
If my children were students in that English class, were witnesses to this tragedy, and I found out that the local Emperor of Education had insisted on keeping a potentially disruptive student in the mainstream to keep costs down, well, let's say I would break my neck to find the lawyer that I would make rich.
This opens up the concepts of special education, IEPs, and the tuitioning out of MHS students to alternative schools. Let's not hype this unnecessarily, but these are all tough and real questions that would need to be answered.
A school provides services "in loco parentis", in place of the parents in some certain situations and occurrences, most notably in the matter of locker searches and basic adult rights being applied to minors. As the Wikipedia article explicitly notes, dress code issues in schools have never made it to Washington and the Supreme Court.
I hope Larry King's family can find some measure of peace, but the responsibility for their son's unconventional closet starts, and ends, at home.
Family of gay boy slain in Calif. blames school
Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
VENTURA, Calif. - The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school , factors the family claims led to the death.
The parents and brother of 15-year-old Larry King of Oxnard filed a personal injury claim against the Hueneme school district seeking unspecified damages for not enforcing the dress code.
King, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School, was shot in February. Classmate Brandon McInerney pleaded not guilty to the shooting last week. He was charged as an adult and also faces a charge of a committing a hate crime.
The family's claim, filed last week in Ventura County Superior Court, said administrators and teachers failed to enforce the school's dress code when King wore feminine clothing and makeup to school.
His parents, Dawn and Gregory King, said faculty members knew their son had "unique vulnerabilities" and was subject to abuse because of his sexual orientation.
King was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children at the time of the shooting.
A call for comment to district Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg was not immediately returned.
State law requires individuals to file a claim before proceeding with a lawsuit against a public agency.
The New Math Teacher Looks a LOT Like Dirty Harry
From the Houston Chronicle. This was too off the wall to post in a collection of school stories.
Be careful. Your next teacher could be packing heat. "Does that homework portfolio have five assignments or six? Well, I don't rightly know, but it better have six. Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?"
North Texas school district will let teachers carry guns
Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2008, 4:27PM
HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff's office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district's lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.
"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in Friday's online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Thweatt said officials researched the policy and considered other options for about a year before approving the policy change. He said the district also has various other security measures in place to prevent a school shooting.
"The naysayers think (a shooting) won't happen here. If something were to happen here, I'd much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them," Thweatt said.
Texas law outlaws firearms on school campuses "unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution."
It was unclear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers. Wilbarger County Sheriff Larry Lee was out of the office Thursday and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, the newspaper said.
Barbara Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said her organization did not know of another district with such a policy. Ken Trump, a Cleveland-based school security expert who advises districts nationwide, including in Texas, said Harrold is the first district with such a policy.
The 110-student district is 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth on the eastern end of Wilbarger County, near the Oklahoma border.
On the Web:
Harrold Independent School District, http://harroldisd.net/
Be careful. Your next teacher could be packing heat. "Does that homework portfolio have five assignments or six? Well, I don't rightly know, but it better have six. Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?"
North Texas school district will let teachers carry guns
Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2008, 4:27PM
HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff's office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district's lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.
"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in Friday's online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Thweatt said officials researched the policy and considered other options for about a year before approving the policy change. He said the district also has various other security measures in place to prevent a school shooting.
"The naysayers think (a shooting) won't happen here. If something were to happen here, I'd much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them," Thweatt said.
Texas law outlaws firearms on school campuses "unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution."
It was unclear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers. Wilbarger County Sheriff Larry Lee was out of the office Thursday and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, the newspaper said.
Barbara Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said her organization did not know of another district with such a policy. Ken Trump, a Cleveland-based school security expert who advises districts nationwide, including in Texas, said Harrold is the first district with such a policy.
The 110-student district is 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth on the eastern end of Wilbarger County, near the Oklahoma border.
On the Web:
Harrold Independent School District, http://harroldisd.net/
Moving up one rank
Remember our friend from the Nevada State BOE?
Aug. 12, 2008 Las Vegas Review-Journal
BOARD OF EDUCATION: Member of panel resigns
Conduct at public meetings called 'distracting,' 'shocking'
Greg Nance quit the Nevada Board of Education on Monday following a weekend of public meeting make-out sessions with his new wife.
Sharon Frederick, a fellow board member, said Nance's behavior was "like watching a reality TV show. It was so distracting!"
Vice President Anthony Ruggiero called Nance's conduct "shocking and deplorable."
Board member Jan Biggerstaff said she met with Nance on Monday morning and told him that the bad publicity was going to hurt his political career and ability to serve.
But Nance, 49, cited his health issues and the need to take care of his 20-year-old wife, Sharona Dagani, who has cerebral palsy, as reasons for resigning.
"I have to put her first," he said.
Dagani sat beside Nance at Friday and Saturday's Board of Education meeting while strapped into a motorized wheelchair.
A year ago, television news reports said Dagani had about $2 million in a trust fund from a medical malpractice lawsuit. Dagani's mother went to the media in 2007 after the young woman left her Jewish family to join the International Church of Las Vegas, an evangelical church where her part-time caregiver was a member.
Nance acknowledged he is now "well-off" but said he signed a prenuptial agreement to protect his wife's assets. He also told the board that he wants to change his last name to hers.
In January, Nance wrote in a Nevada financial disclosure statement for public officials that he "owned nothing" and that everything belonged to his ministry, Ambassadors for Christ, which he operated out of his home with his now-deceased wife, Rita Nyberg.
"We have taken a vow of poverty," wrote Nance, who said he is a Pentecostal preacher.
Nyberg died in October, when Nance allowed doctors to take her off life support.
"I didn't want to do it," Nance said, explaining that Nyberg had cancer and was unconscious from a seizure. She might have lived another month, Nance said, but there was no chance for recovery.
Within 24 hours of Nyberg's death, Nance said he suffered a heart attack, the first of three since October.
Nance met his current wife at the Mission Pines nursing home, where they were both patients.
The couple wed on July 28, according to a wedding certificate.
Nance was elected to the state Board of Education in 2006, representing District 5, which is in Las Vegas. During board meetings, Nance has spoken about being a special-education student while in school. He told the Review-Journal that he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has worked as a taxi driver.
Friday was Nance's first meeting after a long absence because of health problems.
The meeting was a video conference between board members in Las Vegas and Carson City, but Nance was the only official in Las Vegas on Friday.
Nance said he was weary from a long honeymoon. "Too much partying and rock 'n' roll" were his reasons for sleeping through much of the meeting. Ruggiero often had to prompt Nance for his vote at the Friday meeting.
On Saturday morning when the board reconvened, Nance came dressed in the same clothes he wore Friday: white slacks, a sleeveless blue T-shirt and sneakers but no socks. Sometimes he donned Elvis-style sunglasses.
This time, board member Cindy Reid was in the room and objected when Nance began dangling jewelry in the face of his giggling wife. Ruggiero halted the meeting.
When Deputy Attorney Ed Irvin asked Nance to show decorum, he responded that there was no law saying his wife could not sit with him. "Therefore, bite me!" Nance told the attorney.
He had two years left in his term. Ruggiero and State Superintendent of Schools Keith Rheault hope the governor acts quickly to appoint Nance's successor.
Board President Marcia Washington has missed recent meetings because she has been taking care of her ailing mother, which means the board could have difficulty assembling a quorum.
"We don't want to let (Nance's vacancy) fall through the cracks," Ruggiero said.
Aug. 12, 2008 Las Vegas Review-Journal
BOARD OF EDUCATION: Member of panel resigns
Conduct at public meetings called 'distracting,' 'shocking'
Greg Nance quit the Nevada Board of Education on Monday following a weekend of public meeting make-out sessions with his new wife.
Sharon Frederick, a fellow board member, said Nance's behavior was "like watching a reality TV show. It was so distracting!"
Vice President Anthony Ruggiero called Nance's conduct "shocking and deplorable."
Board member Jan Biggerstaff said she met with Nance on Monday morning and told him that the bad publicity was going to hurt his political career and ability to serve.
But Nance, 49, cited his health issues and the need to take care of his 20-year-old wife, Sharona Dagani, who has cerebral palsy, as reasons for resigning.
"I have to put her first," he said.
Dagani sat beside Nance at Friday and Saturday's Board of Education meeting while strapped into a motorized wheelchair.
A year ago, television news reports said Dagani had about $2 million in a trust fund from a medical malpractice lawsuit. Dagani's mother went to the media in 2007 after the young woman left her Jewish family to join the International Church of Las Vegas, an evangelical church where her part-time caregiver was a member.
Nance acknowledged he is now "well-off" but said he signed a prenuptial agreement to protect his wife's assets. He also told the board that he wants to change his last name to hers.
In January, Nance wrote in a Nevada financial disclosure statement for public officials that he "owned nothing" and that everything belonged to his ministry, Ambassadors for Christ, which he operated out of his home with his now-deceased wife, Rita Nyberg.
"We have taken a vow of poverty," wrote Nance, who said he is a Pentecostal preacher.
Nyberg died in October, when Nance allowed doctors to take her off life support.
"I didn't want to do it," Nance said, explaining that Nyberg had cancer and was unconscious from a seizure. She might have lived another month, Nance said, but there was no chance for recovery.
Within 24 hours of Nyberg's death, Nance said he suffered a heart attack, the first of three since October.
Nance met his current wife at the Mission Pines nursing home, where they were both patients.
The couple wed on July 28, according to a wedding certificate.
Nance was elected to the state Board of Education in 2006, representing District 5, which is in Las Vegas. During board meetings, Nance has spoken about being a special-education student while in school. He told the Review-Journal that he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has worked as a taxi driver.
Friday was Nance's first meeting after a long absence because of health problems.
The meeting was a video conference between board members in Las Vegas and Carson City, but Nance was the only official in Las Vegas on Friday.
Nance said he was weary from a long honeymoon. "Too much partying and rock 'n' roll" were his reasons for sleeping through much of the meeting. Ruggiero often had to prompt Nance for his vote at the Friday meeting.
On Saturday morning when the board reconvened, Nance came dressed in the same clothes he wore Friday: white slacks, a sleeveless blue T-shirt and sneakers but no socks. Sometimes he donned Elvis-style sunglasses.
This time, board member Cindy Reid was in the room and objected when Nance began dangling jewelry in the face of his giggling wife. Ruggiero halted the meeting.
When Deputy Attorney Ed Irvin asked Nance to show decorum, he responded that there was no law saying his wife could not sit with him. "Therefore, bite me!" Nance told the attorney.
He had two years left in his term. Ruggiero and State Superintendent of Schools Keith Rheault hope the governor acts quickly to appoint Nance's successor.
Board President Marcia Washington has missed recent meetings because she has been taking care of her ailing mother, which means the board could have difficulty assembling a quorum.
"We don't want to let (Nance's vacancy) fall through the cracks," Ruggiero said.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Borough Arts and Events Calendar
I've been pretty negligent in checking out the borough website at http://morrisville-boro-gov.com.
Please bookmark this site and make sure you check it out for all the things going on that make Morrisville a community.
This weekend on the calendar:
Saturday, August 16th
Come and strut with the "Uptown String Band"
Williamson Park Stage Pavilion 6-8pm
Bring a blanket or chair Rain date August 17th
No charge for this event
On deck:
Friday, August 22nd, and Saturday, August 23rd
The "Heritage Theater" presents "1776"
Raindate is August 24th
Williamson Park Stage Pavilion
Info call Joe or Cheryl Doyle @ 215-295-8181
No charge for this event
More info: visit www.actorsnetbucks.org
Please bookmark this site and make sure you check it out for all the things going on that make Morrisville a community.
This weekend on the calendar:
Saturday, August 16th
Come and strut with the "Uptown String Band"
Williamson Park Stage Pavilion 6-8pm
Bring a blanket or chair Rain date August 17th
No charge for this event
On deck:
Friday, August 22nd, and Saturday, August 23rd
The "Heritage Theater" presents "1776"
Raindate is August 24th
Williamson Park Stage Pavilion
Info call Joe or Cheryl Doyle @ 215-295-8181
No charge for this event
More info: visit www.actorsnetbucks.org
Neshaminy flunks scholastic goals
The 2008 PSSA scores are starting to emerge. The horrible, terrible, stupendously bad education that Morrisville provides? Well, not so bad after all.
2008 PSSA RESULTS
Neshaminy flunks scholastic goals
All other public school districts in Lower Bucks achieved No Child Left Behind benchmarks in this year’s state PSSA tests
By JOAN HELLYER
Seven out of eight school districts in Lower Bucks County earned Adequate Yearly Progress status on the 2008 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, according to information released Thursday by the state education department.
The Neshaminy School District is the lone public school system in the area that did not achieve AYP on the standardized mathematics and reading tests as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The tests are administered each spring to students in third through eighth grade and 11th grade.
In order to achieve AYP, at least one of the three grade spans identified by the state needs to meet specified performance and participation targets, state education officials said. The three grade spans are third through fifth grade, sixth through eighth grade and ninth through 12th grade. None of Neshaminy’s grade spans were able to meet every target, according to state information.
In addition, several Neshaminy schools are either in Corrective Action or School Improvement status or received a warning because not enough economically disadvantaged or special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA tests.
Those schools are: Neshaminy High School, Carl Sandburg and Neshaminy middle schools and Albert Schweitzer, Oliver Heckman, Samuel Everitt, and Walter Miller elementary schools.
The state warning comes as Neshaminy is trying to reach a new contract agreement with its teachers union.
School board President Richard Eccles declined Thursday to comment about how the PSSA results will affect contract talks until the board has a chance to review the data. The Courier Times was unsuccessful Thursday in reaching Louise Boyd, the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers leader, for comment after leaving a message at the union office.
Neshaminy Superintendent Paul Kadri said he doesn’t think the PSSA results will have an impact one way or another on the negotiations. “Student achievement is a focus onto its own,” Kadri said.
Most of the warnings have to do with special education students, he said. The district has already implemented a reading intervention program to address the issue.
Other area schools also received a warning or were put into School Improvement or Corrective Action status because either not enough of the overall student population achieved proficiency or because not enough minority, special education or economically disadvantaged students performed at grade level on the tests.
Those schools include: Bucks County Technical High School, Samuel K. Faust, Benjamin Rush, and Valley elementary schools in Bensalem; Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School; Clara Barton, Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools in Bristol Township; Centennial’s Log College Middle School and Willow Dale Elementary School; the Center for Student Learning at Pennsbury and Fallsington and Penn Valley elementary schools in the Pennsbury School District.
Fewer schools across Pennsylvania earned AYP status this year than in 2007, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, the state secretary of education, during a conference call with reporters Thursday morning. That’s because the proficiency rate targets were increased from 54 percent to 63 percent in reading and 45 percent to 56 percent in math, he said.
In 2007, 77 percent of schools across the state achieved proficiency. That dropped to 72 percent in 2008, Zahorchak said.
The state is slowly increasing the proficiency rate targets to ensure that all students achieve proficient or better on the PSSA tests by 2014, as required by No Child Left Behind. The current thresholds will be in place until 2011, and the education secretary said he expects a greater number of schools will achieve proficiency by then.
The focus needs to be on high school students, he said, because two out of every five Pennsylvania juniors are performing below grade level on the tests.
“Clearly, we need to do more to improve the high school experience and ensure those students stay engaged and challenged through graduation,” Zahorchak said. “We simply cannot afford to be content with the status quo.”
2008 PSSA RESULTS
Neshaminy flunks scholastic goals
All other public school districts in Lower Bucks achieved No Child Left Behind benchmarks in this year’s state PSSA tests
By JOAN HELLYER
Seven out of eight school districts in Lower Bucks County earned Adequate Yearly Progress status on the 2008 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, according to information released Thursday by the state education department.
The Neshaminy School District is the lone public school system in the area that did not achieve AYP on the standardized mathematics and reading tests as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The tests are administered each spring to students in third through eighth grade and 11th grade.
In order to achieve AYP, at least one of the three grade spans identified by the state needs to meet specified performance and participation targets, state education officials said. The three grade spans are third through fifth grade, sixth through eighth grade and ninth through 12th grade. None of Neshaminy’s grade spans were able to meet every target, according to state information.
In addition, several Neshaminy schools are either in Corrective Action or School Improvement status or received a warning because not enough economically disadvantaged or special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA tests.
Those schools are: Neshaminy High School, Carl Sandburg and Neshaminy middle schools and Albert Schweitzer, Oliver Heckman, Samuel Everitt, and Walter Miller elementary schools.
The state warning comes as Neshaminy is trying to reach a new contract agreement with its teachers union.
School board President Richard Eccles declined Thursday to comment about how the PSSA results will affect contract talks until the board has a chance to review the data. The Courier Times was unsuccessful Thursday in reaching Louise Boyd, the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers leader, for comment after leaving a message at the union office.
Neshaminy Superintendent Paul Kadri said he doesn’t think the PSSA results will have an impact one way or another on the negotiations. “Student achievement is a focus onto its own,” Kadri said.
Most of the warnings have to do with special education students, he said. The district has already implemented a reading intervention program to address the issue.
Other area schools also received a warning or were put into School Improvement or Corrective Action status because either not enough of the overall student population achieved proficiency or because not enough minority, special education or economically disadvantaged students performed at grade level on the tests.
Those schools include: Bucks County Technical High School, Samuel K. Faust, Benjamin Rush, and Valley elementary schools in Bensalem; Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School; Clara Barton, Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools in Bristol Township; Centennial’s Log College Middle School and Willow Dale Elementary School; the Center for Student Learning at Pennsbury and Fallsington and Penn Valley elementary schools in the Pennsbury School District.
Fewer schools across Pennsylvania earned AYP status this year than in 2007, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, the state secretary of education, during a conference call with reporters Thursday morning. That’s because the proficiency rate targets were increased from 54 percent to 63 percent in reading and 45 percent to 56 percent in math, he said.
In 2007, 77 percent of schools across the state achieved proficiency. That dropped to 72 percent in 2008, Zahorchak said.
The state is slowly increasing the proficiency rate targets to ensure that all students achieve proficient or better on the PSSA tests by 2014, as required by No Child Left Behind. The current thresholds will be in place until 2011, and the education secretary said he expects a greater number of schools will achieve proficiency by then.
The focus needs to be on high school students, he said, because two out of every five Pennsylvania juniors are performing below grade level on the tests.
“Clearly, we need to do more to improve the high school experience and ensure those students stay engaged and challenged through graduation,” Zahorchak said. “We simply cannot afford to be content with the status quo.”
WOW!! The PSSAs Are In!!!
From the Inquirer. Congratulations to Dr. Yonson, the staff, and the Morrisville class of 2009. Great work in spite of the distinct lack of support from your board of education!
"In Bucks County's 900-student Morrisville School District, this year's 11th-grade scores were a cause for celebration. They were among the top 10 most improved in the Philadelphia suburbs. In math, the students improved by 26 percentage points in one year.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said that the focus was on quarterly reviews of student performance, with "focused instruction on what they had not learned.""
Here's the link to the scores.
Phila. region improving its report card
By Dan Hardy, Kristen A. Graham and Dylan Purcell Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
Inquirer Staff Writers
Even as standards rise, more schools in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs are making the grade in reading and math.
Still, weak spots remain. Across the state and around the region, high school scores and scores in underfunded districts continue to lag.
The region's gains buck a statewide trend. Overall, fewer Pennsylvania schools are reaching state goals - 72 percent of public schools passed, down from 78 percent last year, according to state data released yesterday.
In Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties, 79 percent of all schools made the mark, up from 78 percent last year.
City scores also improved. Of the Philadelphia School District's 265 schools, 113 - 43 percent - made the grade, up from 40 percent last year.
When charter schools are added to the mix, the overall city number rises to a 45 percent passing rate.
Still, the majority of Philadelphia schools - 57 percent in the school district, 55 percent overall - failed.
"We are pleased overall, but there is much more work to do," said Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman. Beginning next month, the district is dedicating $12 million to its 23 lowest-performing schools.
Students in third through eighth grade, plus 11th graders, take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment in reading and math annually.
To make "adequate yearly progress" under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools must have 56 percent of students scoring at proficiency in math, up from 45 percent; 63 percent for reading, up from 54 percent.
To pass, all students must score at grade level, including those in special-education classes, poor and minority children, and those who speak limited English.
Gerald Zahorchak, state education secretary, noted that the number of students who passed the tests statewide was up 29 percent since 2002, the first year of the law.
But, he said, efforts must be made "to bring students to grade level, as many low-income and minority students still lag behind academically."
There is good news, though. The region - city schools included - dominates the top-10 statewide list.
Masterman and Central Highs topped 11th-grade reading and math lists.
Sharon Parker, superintendent of the Unionville-Chadds Ford District, which also made both math and reading top-10 lists, said there is no complacency in the wealthy, high-achieving district.
The high school failed to meet state standards last year because of the performance of special-education students, and "it was a startling moment for us," Parker said. "We did a good bit of revision in instruction, looking at reinforcement of basic skills."
This year, all groups at the high school met the standards.
Schools with significant funding gaps fared poorly overall, Zahorchak said.
The districts with the largest funding gap, for instance, average 78 percent more students performing below grade level, compared with districts with adequate resources.
The solution is for the state to follow through on a six-year plan proposed by Gov. Rendell that would send more dollars to underfunded districts, Zahorchak said.
High schools remain the state's "greatest challenge," Zahorchak said, with 42 percent not making the grade.
In the region, 46 percent, or 72 of the region's 158 high schools, did not pass the state exams. In the suburbs, 35 percent of 82 high schools failed.
In the suburbs, Pottstown and Bristol saw the biggest declines in 11th-grade reading and math scores - Pottstown's math scores dipped 13 percent, and Bristol's reading dropped 16 percent.
Simon Gratz High in Philadelphia saw sharp declines, 24 points in math and 17 percent in reading.
"At the current pace, without significant intervention, it would take 40 years for all of our 11th graders to meet state standards," Zahorchak said.
To address the problem, the education secretary called for schools to "provide a rigorous curriculum . . . regardless of where the student lives."
That's in keeping with Rendell's stalled plan to require all students to pass tests to graduate.
Gallard, the Philadelphia spokesman, said that the district would attempt to address high school scores by adding an office devoted specifically to the city's large, comprehensive high schools, many of which did not pass the state exam.
And though some laud the progress made by Pennsylvania students, Ted Hershberg, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia and Operation Public Education, said the gains are "not good enough, not fast enough. Far, far too many kids are not getting the quality of education they need."
The state is not providing the kind of education needed to compete in a global economy, he said.
"There is no place for complacency here, yet that is what we find everywhere," Hershberg said.
Some schools that had not met the standards last year made the grade in 2008.
William Tennent High School, in Bucks County's Centennial School District, hit its goals for the first time in six years.
Jenny Foight-Cressman, Centennial's director of teaching and learning, said that the key was the work with special-education students, who raised their reading score at the high school by 18 percentage points. Data were monitored every two weeks, she said, and shared with students.
"That helps them set goals for themselves," she said. "They have responded very well; they have taken greater ownership over their own education. That's really exciting."
In Bucks County's 900-student Morrisville School District, this year's 11th-grade scores were a cause for celebration. They were among the top 10 most improved in the Philadelphia suburbs. In math, the students improved by 26 percentage points in one year.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said that the focus was on quarterly reviews of student performance, with "focused instruction on what they had not learned."
Even with the gains, the district still barely met proficiency standards on reading and was just below the benchmark in math. But Yonson said that for a district with high poverty and many transient students, "we're doing a great job, and we will continue to get better."
Montgomery County's Jenkintown district, which has an even smaller enrollment - 600 students - was among the top 10 in the suburbs for fifth grade, with increases of more than 30 percentage points.
"We say each individual child has to be accounted for and when a child is not getting it, we say, 'What are we going to do about it?' " said Superintendent Timothy Wade.
"In Bucks County's 900-student Morrisville School District, this year's 11th-grade scores were a cause for celebration. They were among the top 10 most improved in the Philadelphia suburbs. In math, the students improved by 26 percentage points in one year.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said that the focus was on quarterly reviews of student performance, with "focused instruction on what they had not learned.""
Here's the link to the scores.
Phila. region improving its report card
By Dan Hardy, Kristen A. Graham and Dylan Purcell Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
Inquirer Staff Writers
Even as standards rise, more schools in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs are making the grade in reading and math.
Still, weak spots remain. Across the state and around the region, high school scores and scores in underfunded districts continue to lag.
The region's gains buck a statewide trend. Overall, fewer Pennsylvania schools are reaching state goals - 72 percent of public schools passed, down from 78 percent last year, according to state data released yesterday.
In Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties, 79 percent of all schools made the mark, up from 78 percent last year.
City scores also improved. Of the Philadelphia School District's 265 schools, 113 - 43 percent - made the grade, up from 40 percent last year.
When charter schools are added to the mix, the overall city number rises to a 45 percent passing rate.
Still, the majority of Philadelphia schools - 57 percent in the school district, 55 percent overall - failed.
"We are pleased overall, but there is much more work to do," said Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman. Beginning next month, the district is dedicating $12 million to its 23 lowest-performing schools.
Students in third through eighth grade, plus 11th graders, take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment in reading and math annually.
To make "adequate yearly progress" under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools must have 56 percent of students scoring at proficiency in math, up from 45 percent; 63 percent for reading, up from 54 percent.
To pass, all students must score at grade level, including those in special-education classes, poor and minority children, and those who speak limited English.
Gerald Zahorchak, state education secretary, noted that the number of students who passed the tests statewide was up 29 percent since 2002, the first year of the law.
But, he said, efforts must be made "to bring students to grade level, as many low-income and minority students still lag behind academically."
There is good news, though. The region - city schools included - dominates the top-10 statewide list.
Masterman and Central Highs topped 11th-grade reading and math lists.
Sharon Parker, superintendent of the Unionville-Chadds Ford District, which also made both math and reading top-10 lists, said there is no complacency in the wealthy, high-achieving district.
The high school failed to meet state standards last year because of the performance of special-education students, and "it was a startling moment for us," Parker said. "We did a good bit of revision in instruction, looking at reinforcement of basic skills."
This year, all groups at the high school met the standards.
Schools with significant funding gaps fared poorly overall, Zahorchak said.
The districts with the largest funding gap, for instance, average 78 percent more students performing below grade level, compared with districts with adequate resources.
The solution is for the state to follow through on a six-year plan proposed by Gov. Rendell that would send more dollars to underfunded districts, Zahorchak said.
High schools remain the state's "greatest challenge," Zahorchak said, with 42 percent not making the grade.
In the region, 46 percent, or 72 of the region's 158 high schools, did not pass the state exams. In the suburbs, 35 percent of 82 high schools failed.
In the suburbs, Pottstown and Bristol saw the biggest declines in 11th-grade reading and math scores - Pottstown's math scores dipped 13 percent, and Bristol's reading dropped 16 percent.
Simon Gratz High in Philadelphia saw sharp declines, 24 points in math and 17 percent in reading.
"At the current pace, without significant intervention, it would take 40 years for all of our 11th graders to meet state standards," Zahorchak said.
To address the problem, the education secretary called for schools to "provide a rigorous curriculum . . . regardless of where the student lives."
That's in keeping with Rendell's stalled plan to require all students to pass tests to graduate.
Gallard, the Philadelphia spokesman, said that the district would attempt to address high school scores by adding an office devoted specifically to the city's large, comprehensive high schools, many of which did not pass the state exam.
And though some laud the progress made by Pennsylvania students, Ted Hershberg, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia and Operation Public Education, said the gains are "not good enough, not fast enough. Far, far too many kids are not getting the quality of education they need."
The state is not providing the kind of education needed to compete in a global economy, he said.
"There is no place for complacency here, yet that is what we find everywhere," Hershberg said.
Some schools that had not met the standards last year made the grade in 2008.
William Tennent High School, in Bucks County's Centennial School District, hit its goals for the first time in six years.
Jenny Foight-Cressman, Centennial's director of teaching and learning, said that the key was the work with special-education students, who raised their reading score at the high school by 18 percentage points. Data were monitored every two weeks, she said, and shared with students.
"That helps them set goals for themselves," she said. "They have responded very well; they have taken greater ownership over their own education. That's really exciting."
In Bucks County's 900-student Morrisville School District, this year's 11th-grade scores were a cause for celebration. They were among the top 10 most improved in the Philadelphia suburbs. In math, the students improved by 26 percentage points in one year.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said that the focus was on quarterly reviews of student performance, with "focused instruction on what they had not learned."
Even with the gains, the district still barely met proficiency standards on reading and was just below the benchmark in math. But Yonson said that for a district with high poverty and many transient students, "we're doing a great job, and we will continue to get better."
Montgomery County's Jenkintown district, which has an even smaller enrollment - 600 students - was among the top 10 in the suburbs for fifth grade, with increases of more than 30 percentage points.
"We say each individual child has to be accounted for and when a child is not getting it, we say, 'What are we going to do about it?' " said Superintendent Timothy Wade.
Re-register at your peril
Kate Fratti and the Re-Registration Blues
Re-register at your peril
The latest insult added to injury in Morrisville — where recent school budget cuts still sting for parents — is a student re-registration under way.
As in 2005, parents must prove residency with multiple documents. The purpose is to ensure that children living across the river in Trenton aren’t enrolling illegally in the Morrisville system. School board member Joe Kemp believes it is a myth that numerous city kids are being dropped off here for school. The re-registration could serve to dispel the myth or correct the problem if it exists.
What’s bothersome is that the reregistration is being conducted by community volunteers and not school staff. You must hand over personal information — a driver’s license number, a mortgage payment stub, your utility bill, a lease agreement, bank statement, tax return, etc. — to a virtual stranger selected by the school board president. No background check, no clearances, no assurances your information is safe from thieves or gossips.
The information-taker will record your driver’s license number and have your home, work and private cell phone number. He or she will know if you have a custody issue. Perhaps that you were late with payment of your electric bill, and that you lease your home, don’t own it.
Do you care? There’s been no mass protest of the process. Of course, parents are not informed that the person taking their information is not on staff.
By law, there is no need for formal clearances of volunteers because parents are not asked to provide details about their children other than the school they will attend.
Still, there is the possibility that you might reveal to the information taker that while your child’s home school is, say M.R. Reiter, he attends some other school to deal with a disability. Do you care who knows about your son’s or daughter’s learning challenges?
I would not hand over my papers or information about my child’s condition to just anyone, particularly not in the rotten climate that pervades the borough these days.
This school board president demanded at one point in the budget process to know the addresses and specific needs and services provided special education students.
Why?
Bill Hellmann said he wanted to protect against administrators padding the special education budget. The release of confidential kid information is illegal, however. Mr. Hellmann was told that repeatedly and still insisted on it.
In the end, the board was provided only information that did not impinge on a child’s privacy rights. Which is to say Mr. Hellmann was blocked from knowing that Johnny Doe at 123 Civil Liberties Street is challenged by severe autism and goes to Hope For Tomorrow School. He was provided the total cost.
That’s as it should be. The specifics of Johnny’s educational needs, and whether his parents live in a house or a subsidized apartment, are none of Mr. Hellmann’s business. Johnny’s entitled to an education under the law.
Nor is it my neighbors’ business whether I own my home or lease it or from whom. I’d prefer my being on welfare not be up for chit-chat at a bridge club meeting.
I don’t mean to demean volunteers, who for one reason or another feel strongly enough about re-registration to help with it. They may be very nice people. But they were organized by leaders who think privacy laws are a nuisance. Do they feel the same way?
You have to ask why this re-registration was not voted on or discussed publicly. It was merely a directive from the majority.
A defender of the volunteer process opines that if one has nothing to hide, one would cheerfully hand over his papers to anyone who wished to see them. That kind of logic isn’t just dangerous, it’s un-American.
Trust just anyone with my personal information? Not a chance. And surely not this crowd.
Kate Fratti, whose column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, notes that if you ask that a district staff person handle your re-registration, the request will be granted.
Re-register at your peril
The latest insult added to injury in Morrisville — where recent school budget cuts still sting for parents — is a student re-registration under way.
As in 2005, parents must prove residency with multiple documents. The purpose is to ensure that children living across the river in Trenton aren’t enrolling illegally in the Morrisville system. School board member Joe Kemp believes it is a myth that numerous city kids are being dropped off here for school. The re-registration could serve to dispel the myth or correct the problem if it exists.
What’s bothersome is that the reregistration is being conducted by community volunteers and not school staff. You must hand over personal information — a driver’s license number, a mortgage payment stub, your utility bill, a lease agreement, bank statement, tax return, etc. — to a virtual stranger selected by the school board president. No background check, no clearances, no assurances your information is safe from thieves or gossips.
The information-taker will record your driver’s license number and have your home, work and private cell phone number. He or she will know if you have a custody issue. Perhaps that you were late with payment of your electric bill, and that you lease your home, don’t own it.
Do you care? There’s been no mass protest of the process. Of course, parents are not informed that the person taking their information is not on staff.
By law, there is no need for formal clearances of volunteers because parents are not asked to provide details about their children other than the school they will attend.
Still, there is the possibility that you might reveal to the information taker that while your child’s home school is, say M.R. Reiter, he attends some other school to deal with a disability. Do you care who knows about your son’s or daughter’s learning challenges?
I would not hand over my papers or information about my child’s condition to just anyone, particularly not in the rotten climate that pervades the borough these days.
This school board president demanded at one point in the budget process to know the addresses and specific needs and services provided special education students.
Why?
Bill Hellmann said he wanted to protect against administrators padding the special education budget. The release of confidential kid information is illegal, however. Mr. Hellmann was told that repeatedly and still insisted on it.
In the end, the board was provided only information that did not impinge on a child’s privacy rights. Which is to say Mr. Hellmann was blocked from knowing that Johnny Doe at 123 Civil Liberties Street is challenged by severe autism and goes to Hope For Tomorrow School. He was provided the total cost.
That’s as it should be. The specifics of Johnny’s educational needs, and whether his parents live in a house or a subsidized apartment, are none of Mr. Hellmann’s business. Johnny’s entitled to an education under the law.
Nor is it my neighbors’ business whether I own my home or lease it or from whom. I’d prefer my being on welfare not be up for chit-chat at a bridge club meeting.
I don’t mean to demean volunteers, who for one reason or another feel strongly enough about re-registration to help with it. They may be very nice people. But they were organized by leaders who think privacy laws are a nuisance. Do they feel the same way?
You have to ask why this re-registration was not voted on or discussed publicly. It was merely a directive from the majority.
A defender of the volunteer process opines that if one has nothing to hide, one would cheerfully hand over his papers to anyone who wished to see them. That kind of logic isn’t just dangerous, it’s un-American.
Trust just anyone with my personal information? Not a chance. And surely not this crowd.
Kate Fratti, whose column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, notes that if you ask that a district staff person handle your re-registration, the request will be granted.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Did I Do That?
As a follow-up to this post, the Education Law Center is posting more information regarding the enrollment of students in a Pennsylvania school district.
Here's a copy of their letter to the PDE.
The Basic Education Circular (known as "Da Rulez") for Enrollment of Students is available online as well. One of the minor items it mentioned is this:
"Enrollment procedures may not require social security number, picture identification, reason for a child’s placement if not living with natural or pre-adoptive or adoptive parents, court orders, guardianship or a visa."
Oh dear...Here's a snip from the Morrisville requirements: "You will need to bring proof of identification for yourself. This must be in the form of a PA state issued I.D. card or valid PA driver’s license, passport or military I.D."
Aren't they all photo ID?
There's a lot of reading here, so I'll check back in later, but Morrisville is already violating the state regulations.
Here's a copy of their letter to the PDE.
The Basic Education Circular (known as "Da Rulez") for Enrollment of Students is available online as well. One of the minor items it mentioned is this:
"Enrollment procedures may not require social security number, picture identification, reason for a child’s placement if not living with natural or pre-adoptive or adoptive parents, court orders, guardianship or a visa."
Oh dear...Here's a snip from the Morrisville requirements: "You will need to bring proof of identification for yourself. This must be in the form of a PA state issued I.D. card or valid PA driver’s license, passport or military I.D."
Aren't they all photo ID?
There's a lot of reading here, so I'll check back in later, but Morrisville is already violating the state regulations.
From the York Daily Record.
New year, new schools
Growing student bodies require new classrooms.
By NICHOLE DOBO
Daily Record/Sunday News
Article Last Updated: 08/13/2008 12:23:14 AM EDT
Across the region, student enrollment has increased significantly in the last few years, and new schools are being built as classrooms fill up.
Here are a few facts and the status of some of the county's latest school building projects.
Spring Grove Area School District
--- The new high school was priced as the second-lowest Pennsylvania high school that was bid on in 2006. It cost about $147 per square foot, for a total of $49.8 million.
--- There are 80 classrooms, a 25-meter-long swimming pool and a 425-seat cafeteria. Lining the halls are 150 security cameras, and exterior cameras can zoom in to read a license plate a quarter-mile away. Season tickets with assigned seats will be available at the new 5,000-seat stadium.
York City School District
--- The school received bids last week for a new 800-capacity Ferguson Elementary. The estimated building cost is about $24 million.
--- School board and administration members will spend the next two weeks looking into details such as types of flooring and windows to be used. One option would place blinds inside the window panes, which would cut on maintenance costs, and energy savings could come from smart rooms that have lights that are in tune with natural lighting.
Dallastown Area High School
--- A new intermediate center has been planned for the district for the past two years, and the project could be finalized this year.
--- The project, which was estimated to cost $60 million two years ago, will house 1,800 fourth- through sixth-graders. The school district will open bids for the project Aug. 18, and officials are anticipating that inflation and a sharp increase in construction materials will escalate the cost.
Other projects
--- Eastern York School District high schoolers will go to a renovated building this year. About 85 percent of the building is new, and construction will continue, including the addition of an auditorium.
--- Central York School District students and community members should expect the natatorium to be completed this year. The tentative opening date is early December.
--- Rather than add on to their high school, the South Eastern York School District will use modular classrooms for some students. The hope is to avoid a costly construction project.
New year, new schools
Growing student bodies require new classrooms.
By NICHOLE DOBO
Daily Record/Sunday News
Article Last Updated: 08/13/2008 12:23:14 AM EDT
Across the region, student enrollment has increased significantly in the last few years, and new schools are being built as classrooms fill up.
Here are a few facts and the status of some of the county's latest school building projects.
Spring Grove Area School District
--- The new high school was priced as the second-lowest Pennsylvania high school that was bid on in 2006. It cost about $147 per square foot, for a total of $49.8 million.
--- There are 80 classrooms, a 25-meter-long swimming pool and a 425-seat cafeteria. Lining the halls are 150 security cameras, and exterior cameras can zoom in to read a license plate a quarter-mile away. Season tickets with assigned seats will be available at the new 5,000-seat stadium.
York City School District
--- The school received bids last week for a new 800-capacity Ferguson Elementary. The estimated building cost is about $24 million.
--- School board and administration members will spend the next two weeks looking into details such as types of flooring and windows to be used. One option would place blinds inside the window panes, which would cut on maintenance costs, and energy savings could come from smart rooms that have lights that are in tune with natural lighting.
Dallastown Area High School
--- A new intermediate center has been planned for the district for the past two years, and the project could be finalized this year.
--- The project, which was estimated to cost $60 million two years ago, will house 1,800 fourth- through sixth-graders. The school district will open bids for the project Aug. 18, and officials are anticipating that inflation and a sharp increase in construction materials will escalate the cost.
Other projects
--- Eastern York School District high schoolers will go to a renovated building this year. About 85 percent of the building is new, and construction will continue, including the addition of an auditorium.
--- Central York School District students and community members should expect the natatorium to be completed this year. The tentative opening date is early December.
--- Rather than add on to their high school, the South Eastern York School District will use modular classrooms for some students. The hope is to avoid a costly construction project.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Re-Registration Privacy Complaints: Family Policy Compliance Office
Thanks to the emailer for this information.
If you feel the re-registration is being conducted in such a way that puts your privacy at risk, there is a federal office that handles such complaints.
Below is the address and phone number of the Family Policy Compliance Office.
Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-5920
202 260 3887
If you feel the re-registration is being conducted in such a way that puts your privacy at risk, there is a federal office that handles such complaints.
Below is the address and phone number of the Family Policy Compliance Office.
Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-5920
202 260 3887
Sentences Never Heard in the LGI
“You acted alone...You have no authority to do anything on your own."
“This puts us in a bad light with the...community,”
“We’re a team, and we all have to be on the same page
Panel removes provision for 30 advertising signs
The district goes to the Warminster zoning board today to have advertising signs for the high school baseball field removed from its application.
By MANASEE WAGH
Centennial school board’s finance committee unanimously voted to remove a provision the board president had added to a zoning board application without the board’s knowledge.
The original application to the Warminster board was for a new Coca-Cola scoreboard at Claude Lodge Field behind William Tennent High School.
Board President Michael Monaghan added a request for 30 advertising signs on the high school’s baseball field as well, but he didn’t inform the board of his intentions.
“We needed cheaper advertising than what’s to be available on the Coca-Cola sign,” Monaghan said Monday night at a board finance committee meeting.
The cost for each of the six advertising slots available on the football sign is $5,000. Presumably, it would be cheaper to advertise on the baseball diamond, said Monaghan. However, the price for an advertisement has not been determined.
Monaghan said he was also worried about incurring an additional zoning application fee for a separate advertising request for the baseball field. He said that former district Superintendent Michael Masko had encouraged combining both requests to facilitate the matter. So Monaghan instructed Victor Lasher, director of facilities, to add the 30 signs to the application.
The superintendent is responsible to the nine school directors. As such, both Masko and Monaghan should have notified the board immediately, said other board members.
“I appreciate you were trying to save the district money,” board member Thomas Reinboth said Monday. “His heart was in the right place, but maybe he should have informed the board.”
Some board members learned about the zoning board addition from other sources in the community and brought up the issue in mid-July at the board’s operations committee meeting.
Board member Jane Lynch was bewildered and upset when she discovered the additional request only through the zoning board, of which Lynch is also a member.
“The [football stadium] scoreboards are our top priority. The baseball signs came from nowhere. It’s embarrassing,” she said.
The baseball diamond was never part of the stadium complex.
Board member Cynthia Mueller also expressed her consternation.
“You acted alone,” she told Monaghan. “I was very taken aback and extremely disappointed. You have no authority to do anything on your own.
“This puts us in a bad light with the Warminster community,” she added. The matter at least should have been introduced before a committee of the school board for discussion before taking it to the zoning board, she said.
Board member Betty Huf encouraged the entire board to learn from the mistake and move forward together.
“We’re a team, and we all have to be on the same page,” she said.
Today, Lasher will request that the zoning hearing board remove the Tennent baseball field signs request from Centennial’s application.
Now that the board is aware that Monaghan was looking to raise funds for the district through less expensive signs on the baseball field, the issue might be revisited in the future, said Mueller.
“This puts us in a bad light with the...community,”
“We’re a team, and we all have to be on the same page
Panel removes provision for 30 advertising signs
The district goes to the Warminster zoning board today to have advertising signs for the high school baseball field removed from its application.
By MANASEE WAGH
Centennial school board’s finance committee unanimously voted to remove a provision the board president had added to a zoning board application without the board’s knowledge.
The original application to the Warminster board was for a new Coca-Cola scoreboard at Claude Lodge Field behind William Tennent High School.
Board President Michael Monaghan added a request for 30 advertising signs on the high school’s baseball field as well, but he didn’t inform the board of his intentions.
“We needed cheaper advertising than what’s to be available on the Coca-Cola sign,” Monaghan said Monday night at a board finance committee meeting.
The cost for each of the six advertising slots available on the football sign is $5,000. Presumably, it would be cheaper to advertise on the baseball diamond, said Monaghan. However, the price for an advertisement has not been determined.
Monaghan said he was also worried about incurring an additional zoning application fee for a separate advertising request for the baseball field. He said that former district Superintendent Michael Masko had encouraged combining both requests to facilitate the matter. So Monaghan instructed Victor Lasher, director of facilities, to add the 30 signs to the application.
The superintendent is responsible to the nine school directors. As such, both Masko and Monaghan should have notified the board immediately, said other board members.
“I appreciate you were trying to save the district money,” board member Thomas Reinboth said Monday. “His heart was in the right place, but maybe he should have informed the board.”
Some board members learned about the zoning board addition from other sources in the community and brought up the issue in mid-July at the board’s operations committee meeting.
Board member Jane Lynch was bewildered and upset when she discovered the additional request only through the zoning board, of which Lynch is also a member.
“The [football stadium] scoreboards are our top priority. The baseball signs came from nowhere. It’s embarrassing,” she said.
The baseball diamond was never part of the stadium complex.
Board member Cynthia Mueller also expressed her consternation.
“You acted alone,” she told Monaghan. “I was very taken aback and extremely disappointed. You have no authority to do anything on your own.
“This puts us in a bad light with the Warminster community,” she added. The matter at least should have been introduced before a committee of the school board for discussion before taking it to the zoning board, she said.
Board member Betty Huf encouraged the entire board to learn from the mistake and move forward together.
“We’re a team, and we all have to be on the same page,” she said.
Today, Lasher will request that the zoning hearing board remove the Tennent baseball field signs request from Centennial’s application.
Now that the board is aware that Monaghan was looking to raise funds for the district through less expensive signs on the baseball field, the issue might be revisited in the future, said Mueller.
Happy Birthdays and Sunny Days
With the potential for Mr. Rogers to nearly disappear from the airwaves, it's nice to see something else continue an unparalleled run on TV.
Why 'Sesame Street' still counts
Monday, August 11th 2008, 1:26 PM
I like the number 39 because Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella wore it.
It also seems to work pretty well for television.
Jack Benny, one of the great TV personalities, had a running gag about never getting older than 39.
The greatest sitcom ever, "The Honeymooners," is most famous for the 39 episodes it filmed in 1955-56.
This morning "Sesame Street" enters its 39th season, having lost nothing except its newness.
CLICK TO SEE CELEB STARS ON "SESAME STREET."
"Sesame Street" is such a part of the culture that to anyone born after 1965, Oscar and Bert and all the others are family.
So they rarely surprise us anymore.
But they do still delight.
This latest season kicks off with a show featuring "Telly Monster and the Golden Triangle of Destiny," a spoof of "Indiana Jones."
Many of its younger viewers won't get the Indiana Jones reference, or the hat. But they'll have fun, while their parents will find it at worst painless and often charming.
That's probably one reason "Sesame Street" has lasted so long. It doesn't overreach and aim for blinding brilliance with every line.
While it doesn't condescend to kids, it also recognizes that's what they are: kids. Sometimes they just want silly.
In one scene, when Texas Telly is looking for the Golden Triangle of Destiny, he gets a hint that it may be underneath something in the Laundromat.
An energetic search follows, during which piles of socks and neatly folded shirts are randomly tossed into the air and scattered on the floor. There, they are forgotten despite the pleas of Leela, an Indian-American, the show's newest cast member, who joins this season.
If "Sesame Street" went strictly by the rulebook, Telly and his cohorts would go back, pick up all that laundry and put it back neatly where they found it.
But if doesn't happen in life, "Sesame Street" figures, maybe sometimes it shouldn't happen on the show, either. There's always a little anarchy in the lives of children, however hard parents try to order, coax, plead and pound it out of them, and there's still a little anarchy on "Sesame Street."
"Sesame Street" doesn't shy away from good deeds, of course. When Telly finds the Golden Triangle of Destiny, he decides not to keep it but to donate it to the Museum of Triangular History so everyone can enjoy it.
Nor do the writers forget that however endearing we find the cute parts, their show's core mission is to teach fundamental things like letters and numbers.
This episode features the letter "L," and tempting as it might have been for the writers, it never slips in even a remote reference to the fact there's another L-word show out there in another part of television.
There's plenty of time for that later. On "Sesame Street," the fundamental things apply.
Why 'Sesame Street' still counts
Monday, August 11th 2008, 1:26 PM
I like the number 39 because Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella wore it.
It also seems to work pretty well for television.
Jack Benny, one of the great TV personalities, had a running gag about never getting older than 39.
The greatest sitcom ever, "The Honeymooners," is most famous for the 39 episodes it filmed in 1955-56.
This morning "Sesame Street" enters its 39th season, having lost nothing except its newness.
CLICK TO SEE CELEB STARS ON "SESAME STREET."
"Sesame Street" is such a part of the culture that to anyone born after 1965, Oscar and Bert and all the others are family.
So they rarely surprise us anymore.
But they do still delight.
This latest season kicks off with a show featuring "Telly Monster and the Golden Triangle of Destiny," a spoof of "Indiana Jones."
Many of its younger viewers won't get the Indiana Jones reference, or the hat. But they'll have fun, while their parents will find it at worst painless and often charming.
That's probably one reason "Sesame Street" has lasted so long. It doesn't overreach and aim for blinding brilliance with every line.
While it doesn't condescend to kids, it also recognizes that's what they are: kids. Sometimes they just want silly.
In one scene, when Texas Telly is looking for the Golden Triangle of Destiny, he gets a hint that it may be underneath something in the Laundromat.
An energetic search follows, during which piles of socks and neatly folded shirts are randomly tossed into the air and scattered on the floor. There, they are forgotten despite the pleas of Leela, an Indian-American, the show's newest cast member, who joins this season.
If "Sesame Street" went strictly by the rulebook, Telly and his cohorts would go back, pick up all that laundry and put it back neatly where they found it.
But if doesn't happen in life, "Sesame Street" figures, maybe sometimes it shouldn't happen on the show, either. There's always a little anarchy in the lives of children, however hard parents try to order, coax, plead and pound it out of them, and there's still a little anarchy on "Sesame Street."
"Sesame Street" doesn't shy away from good deeds, of course. When Telly finds the Golden Triangle of Destiny, he decides not to keep it but to donate it to the Museum of Triangular History so everyone can enjoy it.
Nor do the writers forget that however endearing we find the cute parts, their show's core mission is to teach fundamental things like letters and numbers.
This episode features the letter "L," and tempting as it might have been for the writers, it never slips in even a remote reference to the fact there's another L-word show out there in another part of television.
There's plenty of time for that later. On "Sesame Street," the fundamental things apply.
Galloway votes to eliminate school property taxes
Thanks to the emailer who reminds us all about this. Be sure to let Rep. Galloway know you're out there and you want relief. Check out the link below to HB1600 with the text of the bill.
State Rep. John T. Galloway, D-Bucks
www.pahouse.com/Galloway
Galloway votes to eliminate school property taxes
'Independence from school property taxes closer than ever'
HARRISBURG, July 3 – State Rep. John T. Galloway, D-Bucks, today voted to move a bill out of the House Finance Committee that would eliminate school property taxes for Pennsylvania homeowners.
House Bill 1600, introduced by state Rep. David Levdansky, D-Allegheny, and co-sponsored by Galloway, would establish the Supplemental Homeowner Property Tax Relief Act and would cut school property taxes on homesteads by increasing income and sales taxes.
"I am pleased that on the eve of our Independence Day holiday that independence from school property taxes is closer than it has ever been," said Galloway, who is a member of the House Finance Committee. "This issue has been a political football for more than 30 years and the state legislature has done little but fumble. But with the dedication and ambition of the freshmen lawmakers, and the cooperation of seasoned House members from both sides of the aisle, it looks like we are about to score a touchdown for homeowners across the Commonwealth."
Galloway said an amendment added to the bill by Levdansky, and approved by the Finance Committee, would take away school districts' authority to impose school property taxes and set a date of Dec. 31, 2009, for the legislature to come up with an alternative way to fund education, such as increasing the personal income and/or sales tax.
House Bill 1600 now moves to the House Appropriations Committee, where Galloway is also a member.
"I am hopeful the bill will quickly move to the House floor for a vote," he said.
State Rep. John T. Galloway, D-Bucks
www.pahouse.com/Galloway
Galloway votes to eliminate school property taxes
'Independence from school property taxes closer than ever'
HARRISBURG, July 3 – State Rep. John T. Galloway, D-Bucks, today voted to move a bill out of the House Finance Committee that would eliminate school property taxes for Pennsylvania homeowners.
House Bill 1600, introduced by state Rep. David Levdansky, D-Allegheny, and co-sponsored by Galloway, would establish the Supplemental Homeowner Property Tax Relief Act and would cut school property taxes on homesteads by increasing income and sales taxes.
"I am pleased that on the eve of our Independence Day holiday that independence from school property taxes is closer than it has ever been," said Galloway, who is a member of the House Finance Committee. "This issue has been a political football for more than 30 years and the state legislature has done little but fumble. But with the dedication and ambition of the freshmen lawmakers, and the cooperation of seasoned House members from both sides of the aisle, it looks like we are about to score a touchdown for homeowners across the Commonwealth."
Galloway said an amendment added to the bill by Levdansky, and approved by the Finance Committee, would take away school districts' authority to impose school property taxes and set a date of Dec. 31, 2009, for the legislature to come up with an alternative way to fund education, such as increasing the personal income and/or sales tax.
House Bill 1600 now moves to the House Appropriations Committee, where Galloway is also a member.
"I am hopeful the bill will quickly move to the House floor for a vote," he said.
Education Law Center questions school enrollment policies
From the Lebanon Daily News.
Advocates question Pa. school enrollment policies
By MARTHA RAFFAELE AP Education Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa.—A legal advocacy group for public school students has asked the state to examine whether enrollment policies in some of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts are unnecessarily preventing children from going to class.
In the last school year alone, the Education Law Center has been asked to intervene in 270 cases where questionable policies and practices delayed the enrollment of new students by up to a month or longer, according to a complaint the center sent to the state Education Department.
State law requires families to provide proof of age, residency and immunizations for new students before they can enroll in public schools. It also requires districts to enroll students who live with caregivers other than their parents if the caregivers meet certain qualifications.
But some families have encountered requirements that are too rigid, exceed what the law requires or are specifically banned by the law, said Janet Stotland, co-director of the Philadelphia-based center.
"The whole point is not to make it a crapshoot to enroll students in school districts in Pennsylvania," Stotland said.
The Education Department was reviewing the complaint, but had no immediate comment Tuesday, spokesman Michael Race said.
The complaint, sent on Friday, cites four examples of its concerns without identifying school districts or students.
In one case, a mother of twins could not comply with a requirement to provide photo identification because she did not have a driver's license or other ID. The children missed one month of school until the law center got involved, according to the complaint.
Children who move frequently due to poverty, homelessness or foster care placements are most often caught in the middle of enrollment disputes, Stotland said. Nearly 13,600 Pennsylvania school-age children are in foster care, according to the Department of Public Welfare.
The complaint also suggests that the enrollment policies of at least 162 school districts may be illegal, based on the law center's review of policies posted on district Web sites. Since about 40 percent of all districts do not post enrollment policies online, the complaint said, the problem could be more widespread.
Common problems include many districts' insistence that only a birth certificate is acceptable proof of a student's age, the complaint said. Guidelines published by the state education department in 2002 say documents such as baptism certificates and notarized statements also can be accepted.
Nearly 60 school districts asked for a student's Social Security number, 34 required parental identification, and less than a handful demanded documentation of a student's immigration status—all prohibited by law in order to streamline the enrollment process, the complaint said.
The center wants the department to inform all school districts about the legal requirements for enrollment, review all enrollment policies and ask for revisions from districts not in compliance with state law, Stotland said.
Emily Leader, an attorney with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said determining whether a student can legally enroll in a school district can be tricky, but that most districts contact the association "at least once a year" to seek guidance.
"I think most schools are enrolling most children when they come in," Leader said. "My guess is that some enrollment policies and procedures go back to the beginning of time ... and there may need to be modifications."
———
On the Net:
Education Law Center: http://www.elc-pa.org
Pennsylvania Department of Education: http://www.pde.state.pa.us
Advocates question Pa. school enrollment policies
By MARTHA RAFFAELE AP Education Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa.—A legal advocacy group for public school students has asked the state to examine whether enrollment policies in some of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts are unnecessarily preventing children from going to class.
In the last school year alone, the Education Law Center has been asked to intervene in 270 cases where questionable policies and practices delayed the enrollment of new students by up to a month or longer, according to a complaint the center sent to the state Education Department.
State law requires families to provide proof of age, residency and immunizations for new students before they can enroll in public schools. It also requires districts to enroll students who live with caregivers other than their parents if the caregivers meet certain qualifications.
But some families have encountered requirements that are too rigid, exceed what the law requires or are specifically banned by the law, said Janet Stotland, co-director of the Philadelphia-based center.
"The whole point is not to make it a crapshoot to enroll students in school districts in Pennsylvania," Stotland said.
The Education Department was reviewing the complaint, but had no immediate comment Tuesday, spokesman Michael Race said.
The complaint, sent on Friday, cites four examples of its concerns without identifying school districts or students.
In one case, a mother of twins could not comply with a requirement to provide photo identification because she did not have a driver's license or other ID. The children missed one month of school until the law center got involved, according to the complaint.
Children who move frequently due to poverty, homelessness or foster care placements are most often caught in the middle of enrollment disputes, Stotland said. Nearly 13,600 Pennsylvania school-age children are in foster care, according to the Department of Public Welfare.
The complaint also suggests that the enrollment policies of at least 162 school districts may be illegal, based on the law center's review of policies posted on district Web sites. Since about 40 percent of all districts do not post enrollment policies online, the complaint said, the problem could be more widespread.
Common problems include many districts' insistence that only a birth certificate is acceptable proof of a student's age, the complaint said. Guidelines published by the state education department in 2002 say documents such as baptism certificates and notarized statements also can be accepted.
Nearly 60 school districts asked for a student's Social Security number, 34 required parental identification, and less than a handful demanded documentation of a student's immigration status—all prohibited by law in order to streamline the enrollment process, the complaint said.
The center wants the department to inform all school districts about the legal requirements for enrollment, review all enrollment policies and ask for revisions from districts not in compliance with state law, Stotland said.
Emily Leader, an attorney with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said determining whether a student can legally enroll in a school district can be tricky, but that most districts contact the association "at least once a year" to seek guidance.
"I think most schools are enrolling most children when they come in," Leader said. "My guess is that some enrollment policies and procedures go back to the beginning of time ... and there may need to be modifications."
———
On the Net:
Education Law Center: http://www.elc-pa.org
Pennsylvania Department of Education: http://www.pde.state.pa.us
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)