Sunday, February 10, 2013
Gov. Tom Corbett's 2013-14 budget ties sale of state liquor system to a $1 billion grant for school safety, early education programs, individualized learning and science/math programs.
Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2013-14 budget, which he presented Feb. 5, contains an interesting cocktail that mixes the sale of the state's liquor system with funding of a public schools grant. Under his proposal, $1 billion obtained by the proposed privatization of the state's liquor sales would be used to create the Passport for Learning Block Grant that would focus on school safety; enhanced early education programs; individualized learning; and science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses and programs. The $1 billion in revenue to fund that grant will come from the three- to four-year process of selling the Liquor Control Board: $575 million from the wholesale license process, $224 million from the Wine and Spirits retail …
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Not one cyber charter school in the state and fewer than one-third of 'brick-and-mortar' charter schools made Adequate Yearly Progress last year.
Charter schools have been touted as a way for students to escape underperforming local public schools ever since Pennsylvania passed legislation in 1997 establishing them as a independent public schools. Cyber charter schools followed in 2002. One of the key selling points used by charter schools has been that their students outperform their public school counterparts. But according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, historical data indicate that a consistently lower percentage of charter schools make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) than traditional public schools. Last fall, the state Department of Education implemented a new way of determining whether charter schools have met student achievement milestones for AYP under the …
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
During discussion, one board member criticized the standards set under No Child Left Behind.
At the Canon-McMillan School Board meeting Monday, administrators discussed the 2012 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment data and the high school's 79 percent score in reading. Though higher than the state’s average, it is below the PSSA’s target by 2 percent. PSSA measures the Adequate Yearly Progress. It charts results and sets targets for the following years. The target for mathematics was 78 percent for the year, and the high school fell slightly short of that with 74 percent—but it was within the state's parameters. The reading goal was 81 percent and the high school scored 79 percent—just under the acceptable parameters. PSSA rates districts on attendance, graduation rate, performance and testing. “It should be noted that the …
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Joseph
1:47 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
I've been involved. I've seen the beast first hand. The only way to change it is to become a part of the special interest groups or run for office to diffuse the special interest groups (good luck winning an election without the support of special interest groups). more ›