HARRISBURG, Pa. – The administration in Washington, D. C., may redirect billions of dollars of federal funding to charter and private schools, and that has public education advocates concerned.
Donald Trump’s transition leader for education, Gerard Robinson, said under the Trump presidency, federal education priorities will focus on entrepreneurship and private-school options.
According to Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, that would be bad news for the state’s public schools.
“It means that our local school districts will see a big cut in federal funding, and in order to make up for this cut, they’re going to be forced to raise taxes on the local level or cut programs and services,” she explained.
Republicans in Congress have said proposed regulations on the distribution of federal education funding are too restrictive.
Spending priorities are not the only changes on the way. Robinson also indicated that the Trump administration could significantly limit the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. Spicka said that means students who experience discrimination may have no remedy.
“If a school district doesn’t enroll any minority students in gifted or AP programs, that would continue,” she said. “If a school district suspended students with disabilities or minorities at a higher rate, that would just go unchecked.”
On the state level, Republicans have gained additional seats in both the House and Senate, which Spicka said could mean another round of difficult budget negotiations in Harrisburg.
Education Voters is one of 50 organizations that have formed the Campaign for Fair Education Funding. Spicka said their message to state lawmakers is simple.
“We need adequate funding for schools, we need equitable funding for schools, and all of our children need an opportunity to learn,” added Spicka.
THE MORNING CALL — The standardized tests that Pennsylvania students take every year aren’t going away, but they will count less under a new accountability system the state is developing.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Education outlined indicators it is recommending for use in the Future Ready PA Index, which would replace the School Performance Profile scores. The new system is expected to be in place in fall 2018.
When Gov. Tom Wolf took office, he tasked the Department of Education with coming up with a more holistic approach to measuring school proficiency and growth. In December, the state announced plans to replace the SPP with Future Ready PA Index.
The SPP scores heavily depend on the results of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment and Keystone exams. Students in grades three through eight take the PSSAs, while high school students take the Keystones in biology, literature and algebra at the end of each course.
But in talking with stakeholders across Pennsylvania, the state heard that growth-measure scores are more meaningful in determining a school’s success than just pure achievement scores, Stem said.
Read the full story and watch a video interview here:
I am pleased to advise that Pennsylvania has submitted its proposed ESSA Consolidated State Plan to the U.S. Department of Education. A copy of the plan may be viewed on the Department’s ESSA webpage. We have also posted a PowerPoint presentation in both English and Spanish to assist Pennsylvanians in understanding the plan. In addition, the Department has revised its ESSA webpage to include updated content on major elements of the plan, as well as a new section on Stakeholder Engagement. This page includes access to all stakeholder comments submitted to the Department during the formal 30-day public comment period. Please stay tuned for additional resources and updates in the weeks ahead.
Submission of Pennsylvania’s Consolidated State Plan is a significant moment for public education in Pennsylvania. The plan underscores the commonwealth’s commitment to creating more balanced and comprehensive school progress measures, reducing testing time, and supporting Pennsylvania’s educators and school leaders.
Highlights of the plan include:
A focus on providing a “well-rounded education” to students, by identifying the subjects and disciplines that should be part of every child’s education, including the arts, social sciences, health and physical education, STEM and computer science, and other areas;
Broadening the scope of the indicators used to measure school success;
A reduction of testing time on the Pennsylvania State System of Assessments (PSSAs) in English language arts and mathematics by 20 percent beginning in spring 2018;
Strategies for addressing the needs of students through school-based supports and community partnerships;
A strong focus on evidence-based professional development for educators and administrators that emphasizes equity; and
Identifying ways to prepare students to successfully enter postsecondary, career programs, apprenticeship programs, or even the workforce.
The Department is grateful to the thousands of Pennsylvanians who participated in review and comment on plan proposals since ESSA was enacted in December 2015. We look forward to continuing these conversations through the USDE plan approval process and on to implementation in our schools and for the benefit of all of our students in Pennsylvania.
The plan, which was made public at 4:59 p.m. Monday, establishes what the department describes as “ambitious yet attainable” goals of raising student performance, increasing graduation rates and having English learners move toward achieving English language proficiency.
It responds to the oft-heard complaints about too much class time spent on testing by shortening the state exams that third through eighth graders take in English language arts and math.
It also establishes a new school report card that expands the indicators used to measure performance, placing less emphasis on state test scores which educators had sought. The indicators chosen include academic progress, graduation rates, English language proficiency, chronic absenteeism, and career exploration and preparation rates of fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders.
“Pennsylvania’s ESSA Consolidated State Plan presented the department with an opportunity to shape education in the commonwealth for years to come, a charge we did not take lightly,” said state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera in a news release.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released a draft of its plan to comply with the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Under the new law, states were given more leeway in how to set education policy and spend federal public school dollars. The most notable news within the report was the announcement that PDE plans to unveil a new school quality metric in 2018 that it believes will foster a more holistic student experience, one less narrowly focused on state standardized tests.
But within the 133 page report there were a few other noteworthy facts about Pennsylvania public schools that caught our attention.
PDE Announces ESSA Consolidated State Plan Draft Now Available for Public Comment
Harrisburg, PA – State Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera today announced the commonwealth’s proposed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Consolidated State Plan is on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s (PDE) website and is available for public comment. The plan builds on an 18-month collaboration between PDE and a diverse group of stakeholders from around the state.
“The Wolf Administration, through its Schools That Teach initiative, has been focused on ensuring that all students, regardless of their age, socioeconomic status, or zip code, have access to high-quality educators and schools,” said Secretary Rivera. “Pennsylvania’s ESSA Consolidated State Plan accelerates state-level priorities in these same areas, and helps the state transition from the prescriptive policies and unintended consequences of NCLB to a more student-centered approach.”
To develop the ESSA Consolidated State Plan, PDE:
Assembled four work groups – comprised of teachers, charter school and district level administrators, advocates, civil rights leaders, former policymakers from both parties, and others – to study key aspects of the law and develop framework recommendations;
Commissioned an independent study to examine work group recommendations in the context of academic literature and other evidence;
Testified before the House and Senate Education committees and worked with lawmakers to address plan components;
Held six dedicated town halls in every region of the commonwealth to gather additional stakeholder feedback;
Participated in approximately 30 statewide conferences, professional association meetings, and other forums to reach more than 2,000 Pennsylvanians and present on the state’s ESSA planning and early implementation; and
Consulted with national nonpartisan policy and technical experts (American Institutes for Research, Council of Chief State School Officers, Education Commission of the States) to solicit additional insight, feedback, and suggestions for specific plan components.
Rivera noted that the plan also presents new opportunities for the commonwealth to develop, recruit, and retain a talented and diverse pool of educators, bolsters college and career readiness and effective transition strategies throughout the pre-K to postsecondary continuum, and focuses on student and school equity.
Additionally, the development of the Future Ready PA Index, a new, public-facing school report card that expands the indicators used to measure performance, extends the comprehensive approach to ensuring student and school success. The Index will place additional emphasis on academic growth, evaluation of school climate through a robust chronic absenteeism measure, attention to both four-year and extended-year graduation rates, and assessments of postsecondary readiness.
“The plan represents a collaborative, evidence-based approach to help every student, in every Pennsylvania public school, access a high-quality, well-rounded education,” said Secretary Rivera. “That collaboration continues as we invite stakeholders and members of the public to provide feedback on Pennsylvania’s Consolidated State Plan.”
Rivera added that public comment will close on September 2, and the Department will submit its Consolidated State Plan to the U.S. Department of Education on September 18. Initial implementation of the plan will begin in the 2017-18 school year, with full rollout by 2018-19.
For more information about Pennsylvania’s education policies and programs, or to read the ESSA Consolidated State Plan, visit the Department of Education’s website at www.education.pa.gov or follow PDE on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education will unveil a new school quality metric in 2018 — dubbed the Future Ready PA Index — that it believes will foster a more holistic student experience, one less narrowly focused on state standardized tests.
The change was announced Wednesday as part of PDE’s plan to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). That is the flagship federal education law, updated under President Obama in 2015.
Under that law, states were given more leeway in how to set education policy and spend federal public school dollars.
“It’s provided Pennsylvania with a once in a decade opportunity to revisit our assessment, accountability, and student support systems, and make changes with greater autonomy than we’ve been able to do in the past,” said department deputy secretary Matthew Stem. “It’s really given us an opportunity to focus on more holistic supports and holistic instructional strategies.”
Pennsylvania will still have a strong, federally required commitment to standardized testing with scores broken down by subgroup, but Stem says the new plan will push schools to foster better critical thinking and collaboration skills.
Fighting hunger has long been a priority for our family.
Frances Wolf (Commonwealth of Pa. photo)
Tom and I have seen firsthand how hunger affects families and communities and we are personally committed to ending hunger in Pennsylvania.
For years, we have worked as volunteers in our local soup kitchen, York Daily Bread, as well as others across the commonwealth – and we have supported both those in need and the organizations serving them.
That’s why I have been passionately advocating for a very specific component of Tom’s 2017-18 budget proposal – a $2 million investment to enhance our school breakfast program and help more students have the start to the day that they need to be successful.
It simply breaks my heart that 1 in 5 children – over 520,000 – right here in our great state of Pennsylvania don’t always know where their next meal will come from.
And many of them show up to school in the morning with an empty stomach, not having eaten anything since the night before.
As you can imagine, many of them cannot focus on their studies, lack energy and struggle with behavioral problems.
This is nothing short of devastating – as a mother and as a Pennsylvanian. And, it has an enormous impact on our schools and our kids’ future.
Improving our schools, and ensuring that our children and educators have the resources they need to succeed has been my husband’s top priority as governor. Tom and his team have fought for improving education from preschool through higher education in Pennsylvania since day one.
And, thankfully, that fight has produced real results for our students. Working with the legislature, Tom has successfully secured historic increases in education funding over the last two years.
But even with great schools and teachers, kids who are hungry struggle to concentrate and perform well in school.
Ask any teacher and they’ll tell you that food is a basic school supply, just like textbooks and pencils. When kids struggle with hunger, it’s harder for them to learn.
This $2 million is a relatively small investment compared to other state government programs, but it will have an enormous return. This investment will help the commonwealth leverage up to $20 million dollars in federal funding.
We know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It impacts a variety of outcomes in our children. We don’t need the research to tell us this. We see it as parents and teachers – both in academic progress, as well as behavior and the number of visits to the school nurse every day.
I am passionate about this because expanding access to breakfast in our schools is a smart investment and one that I know will have a lasting impact on our students and on Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s greatest resource is our young people and the public schools that prepare them to be our future leaders. Our goal is to support them in this great endeavor by providing the resources and opportunities they need to make the most of their educational experiences and to help prepare them for a competitive job market.
When children start the day with the nutrition they need, it has long-lasting consequences for the entire state – they grow up smarter, healthier, and stronger – and that means a smarter, healthier, stronger Pennsylvania.
Frances Wolf is the First Lady of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She writes from Harrisburg.
East Stroudsburg Area School District and its taxpayers paid cyber charter schools $3.7 million last year. That total has climbed consistently for at least the last five years.
The Pennsylvania school code requires that all state funding follow a student regardless of his or her choice of school. Funds are allocated directly to public school districts. Then, charter schools seek a tuition reimbursement from the district that sends the student.
Public schools are obligated to pay, but institutions have clashed on how much. Calculations are currently based on the expenses of the sending school. They do not consider what it actually costs the charter school to educate a student.
“In my opinion, it’s destructive to the public education system,” said Principal Bill Vitulli of Smithfield Elementary School. “Is it reasonable to pay cyber charter schools who don’t have nearly the same costs we do?”
Vitulli also manages the district’s own cyber program, East Stroudsburg Area Cyber Academy. It currently has about 90 students enrolled full-time and closer to 60 attending part-time, he said. All classes are taught by district instructors.
“Cyber charter schools don’t really have any different expenses than we do in our program,” he said. “They might have to hire more staff, but they don’t have all the costs of building maintenance, sports teams or after-school activities.”
Vitulli estimated an annual cost of $2,500 to educate a single, nonspecial student in the district cyber program. He did not have an exact figure available, he said.
Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Bader said cyber academy costs are included in district’s other expenses; however, he estimated the program costs less than $4,000 a year per student.
Right now, the district pays charter schools $12,735 for each student or $29,731 for each special education student.
In October 2015, East Stroudsburg school district had 202 students enrolled in nine different cyber charter schools, according to Pennsylvania Department of Education records. That total includes 51 special needs students, who have higher tuition costs.
Commonwealth Charter Academy had the largest population of East Stroudsburg area students that year. CCA had 84 district students enrolled as of October, including 21 special education students. It remains one of the most attended by students from Monroe and Pike Counties for the last five years.
“Our costs aren’t the same; they’re just different,” said CEO Maurice Flurie, who formerly worked as assistant superintendent for Lower Dauphin School District.
“The general expectation is that it’s less, but that’s not necessarily true,” he said. “Some things cost exponentially more, like equipment maintenance or technology infrastructure.”
It costs CCA a little over $11,000 a year to educate a nonspecial student, Flurie said. CCA currently has more than 9,000 students enrolled across the state.
“We have costs no school district has,” he said. “When traditional schools have Keystone Exams or PSSA tests, kids ride the same buses to school — there’s no added costs. We have to put teachers on the road, rent spaces and feed staff. It costs us $800,000 to $1 million a year just to administer tests.”
Testing performance is one of the indicators used by the state Department of Education to measure educational effectiveness. Those numbers comprise a weighted score, called a School Performance Profile.
Online education programs generally have lower SPP scores than brick-and-mortar schools. Cyber charter schools scored an average of 50.9 between all 14 institutions operating in Pennsylvania.
CCA scored 47.5 during the last school year.
“We care about our kids making progress over time,” said Flurie. “In most cases, students come to us because something wasn’t working at their other school. That’s not appropriately reflected in an SPP score.”
About 72 percent of CCA students are at least one grade level behind at enrollment, Flurie also said. While about 80 percent return the next year, about 20 percent seek another institution.
“It doesn’t take into account the amount of kids leaving and coming in,” he said. “Some students plan on being with us just for middle school, so they’re going to test better as a ninth grader at a new school.”
East Stroudsburg had a district-wide SPP score of 69.6, based on the average results of its ten individual schools. Its cyber program does not have a separate score. Those students’ performances are reflected in the results of the physical school they would have attended.
“The general consensus is that cyber school isn’t necessarily the best way to teach,” said Principal Vitulli of East Stroudsburg’s program. “Success in cyber learning — even in our district — is not as good as being in a brick-and-mortar school.”
The program has grown substantially since he took over three years ago, Vitulli also said. He estimated the program on its own could likely rate well above the 50.9 average SPP cyber school score.
“It’s hard data to get,” he said. “You can’t compare because cyber schools are not being held to the same standards as brick-and-mortar schools.”
Too often in policy debates, each side comes to the table with talking points and an agenda, rather than an open ear and a commitment to find common ground. When it comes to schools, whatever differences we may have on issues like Common Core, testing, and accountability, our unifying goal must always be to ensure that all children receive a quality education, regardless of zip code, and to find solutions that accomplish that.
In order to move educational equity from a shared priority for policymakers and practitioners to a reality for students in our state, education leaders and advocates have pushed for more intentional conversations and actions to address the underlying problems that prevent so many of our students from working on a level playing field.
This commitment to equity reflects many of the recommendations outlined earlier this year in the joint report from the Aspen Institute and the Council for Chief State School Officers titled “Leading for Equity: Opportunities for State Chiefs.” The suggested policy and engagement actions include pushing for greater funding, investing in professional development, and proactively engaging and listening to communities so they can hold state leaders more accountable in meeting goals.
The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act gave us an opportunity to reignite conversations in our state about what it will take to create quality educational opportunities for all students and how we can work together to achieve that vision.
As part of our effort to design a new state education plan, we created stakeholder workgroups made up of educators and the broader community to inform our efforts. We knew it wasn’t simply about changing policy or talking to community members – it was about listening to those who have been most affected by inequities and working with them to meet students’ needs.
Teachers have been at the core of that engagement. They are the ones who, on a day-to-day basis, educate, mentor, and bolster our children. In Pennsylvania, we’ve been fortunate to have exceptional teachers from across the state come together to form the Pennsylvania Teacher Advisory Committee, which will serve as a pipeline for teacher voices and input into our collective work.
Giving teachers a seat at the table allows them to share their stories and those of their students and provide timely insight on how changes in state education policy could make a positive difference in classroom practice – or where it might not have its intended effect. Policy makers must understand how their work might alleviate or exacerbate systemic inequities statewide for students most impacted by a legacy of inequitable access and opportunity.
Equity is also about assessing and meeting all the unique needs of our children, and not just the ones that can be measured in test scores. One of our state’s more successful ventures in this arena has been the launch of Pennsylvania’s Superintendents Academy, a two-year professional development program that addresses challenges faced by students, including poverty and mental health. This setting provides an important opportunity for superintendents to discuss how inequities outside of the classroom affect schools and what can be done to systematically support the whole child.
If we want to change students’ lives for the better, everyone – from the secretary of education to teachers to anyone in between – must not shy away from the difficult conversations that a discussion about equity sometimes surfaces, or avoid pointing out the real inequities that continue to affect many children.
With so many advances in technology, we have more opportunities than ever before to engage and connect with others that don’t share our own background. Let’s keep talking. More importantly, let’s keep listening, and work together to act on what we’re hearing.
Pedro Rivera is Pennsylvania’s secretary of education. @pedroarivera2
Mairi Cooper is the 2015 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. @patoy2015
The ESSA State Plan and related materials are now available on the PDE web site at 
