September 7, 2011

In This Issue

* Auditor General says he will audit superintendent separations

* PLUS schools receive SIG awards

* Corbett signals student weighted funding in "backpacks"

* Voucher and charter reform debate continues

* Secretary Duncan announces NCLB waivers coming

* and Duncan lauds Pittsburgh Public Schools for courage and collaboration.

Auditor General Jack Wagner announces audit policy for superintendent separation agreements.  

Following the announcements of separation agreements in Philadelphia and Allentown, Auditor General Wagner said he was particularly concerned with the appropriateness of the amount of severance deals as well as transparency to the public .   

Wagner also repeated his  proposals to the General Assembly to regulate superintendent buyouts. Read the press release.    

Sixteen schools in seven PLUS districts share in $66 million in federal SIG funds.    On August 23, Pa Education Secretary Tomalis announced the award of $66 million in federal School Improvement Grants to twenty-six "lowest performing schools." Sixteen of those schools are in seven PLUS districts.

Secretary Tomalis criticized the leaders of schools which were eligible for the competitive grants but did not submit applications. A total of 141 schools met the criteria but only 40 applied.
This year, federal SIG funds had to be used to adopt and
implement one of four reform models developed by the federal government:
Transformation, Turnaround, Restart and School Closure.
 
Read more.

Quick Links

PLUS website
Pa School Funding Campaign
Pennsylvanians Opposed to Vouchers
Keystone State Education Coalition
Education Voters Pa
Education Law Center

Corbett Administration foreshadows education goals in budget policy guidelines.      

In August, Governor Corbett set forth a clear statement of his policy objectives for his second year with the publication of the usually arcane Program Policy Guidelines. These are intended to provide direction to executive agencies for their budget requests. According to these guidelines, agencies "should not assume  funding increases for the 2012-12 fiscal year."   

In addition, the guidelines set forth several specific policy goals for basic education:    

1. To ensure state funding is based on accurate student counts, the Department should propose a plan to use to real-time ADM reporting in its spending allocations. 
2. To ensure greater transparency in resource allocation, the  Department should revise the Annual Financial Reports submitted by school districts so that they reflect actual spending at the school level. 
3. Our education finance system should recognize differences among student learning needs by "weighting" funding to account for these differences among students. The weighted student funding approach should ensure funding is linked directly to the student and the school they attend, creating a "backpack" approach. The Department working with the Governor's Budget Office, should develop a basic education funding plan with weighted student funding that incorporates portability and unbundling. 

Read the Guidelines.    

Committees hold summer hearings on voucher proposals and charter school reform.   

On August 25, the Senate Education Committee held a hearing on SB 904, introduced in the spring by Committee Chair Jeffrey Piccola (R, Dauphin) which would repeal the existing Charter School Law and create new legislation regulating charter and cyber charter schools. Among other changes, the bill would create a independent commission to oversee charter and cyber charter schools. Both the commission, school boards and institutions of higher education could authorize charter schools. Read more about SB 904 including testimony at the hearing.   

Meanwhile, the House Education Committee continued with its series of hearings with two final days on August 17 and 18.  According to Committee chair Paul Clymer (R, Bucks), testimony focused on accountability, funding, best practices, student testing and why parents choose to send their children to schools other than the traditional brick and mortar schools. Read testimony from August 17.  and 

Read testimony from August 18.  

Thanks to our friends at the Education Policy and LeadershipCenter for posting this testimony.    

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announces NCLB waiver process for states.    

Frustrated with congressional inaction on ESEA reform, the Obama administration announced in August that it would proceed with providing waivers to states for certain provisions of No Child Left Behind.

"The administration's proposal for fixing NCLB calls for college- and career-ready standards, more great teachers and principals, robust use of data, and a more flexible and targeted accountability system based on measuring annual student growth. Barnes and Duncan will note that the final details on the ESEA flexibility package will reflect similar goals. The specifics of the package will be made public in September."

Read the Secretary's statement.

Arne Duncan commends Pittsburgh Public Schools for teacher initiatives
IIn particular, Secretary Duncan congratulated district leaders and the PIttsburgh Federation for Teachers for "their unusual courage and collaboration."

For example, at King and BrashearHigh School, experienced teachers work with younger teachers to help the less-experienced instructors improve. All district teachers are evaluated under a new system that will include performance pay based on students' yearly academic progress.

 Read More