High School Community Advisory Board Approved

The School Board held a meeting on Thursday night to finish the discussion involving the formation of the Community Advisory Board. The motion passed 5-3.

There is a great discussion amongst community members regarding the pros and cons of the idea happening over at BlogLebo and I suggest that you get involved in the comments thread over there if you have anything to add (or subtract as the case may be).

The thing I will take issue with on that comment page is the unfair characterization of the meeting on Thursday night. This meeting was a continuation of the meeting from October 19th. Our Board President made a judgment call on the 19th and determined that the Board as a whole was not prepared to vote for the motion that was before it. Before bringing that meeting to a close he was clear to the members of the Board what he expected to happen prior to the reconvening of the meeting on Thursday night. He did a couple of things:

1) In anticipation of the motion passing on the 29th, he directed Dr. Steinhauer to advertise to the community that we would be accepting letter's of interest to be a part of this Community Advisory Board.

2) He asked all Board members to submit any changes they wanted to see to the motion in writing to the Superintendent prior to this Thursday's meeting so that those changes could all be seen and reviewed by Board members prior to the meeting. This was done in order to avoid to kind of confusion that happened at the October 19th meeting when some members of the Board made a number of motions to amend the original motion on the table.

3) He directed the solicitor to review our contract with the architect to determine if the amount that was being charged by Celli-Flynn was reasonable. At the time, Celli-Flynn was going to charge more than $30,000 for the first meeting and upwards of $20,000 for each meeting after that (see story here). This resulted in our architect substantially reducing the charges associated with this process.

When Board members received their weekly packet, it contained in it all the changes that were requested by each individual Board member. In the end, the President and Superintendent included in the final motion those changes that they thought the majority of the Board would support. For example, the two changes I requested were that, 1) the CAB have access to all previous project documentation (this was not made clear in the original motion) and, 2) that the CAB be able to continue their work if their suggestions were taken under consideration by the Board (the original motion simply said the CAB was disbanded after their December presentation). These changes along with the changes requested by a few other Board members were added to the resolution seen on Thursday night.

Some change requests were not added to the resolution. however, Board members were given the opportunity on Thursday night to get those changes in if they so desired. If you watch the meeting you will see that one of board member Sue Rose's recommendations did not make the resolution that was shown to the public. She requested at the meeting that her change be added to the motion. It did not get the votes required to become a part of the final motion. That process is good board leadership (setting expectations as was done at the Oct 19th meeting so that all Board members may be aware of changes that might be requested) and good board membership (following board procedure to get your requests heard and considered by the board). You can read the final motion at the District website here.

There are some things that I have disagreed with the Board president about in the past, however, in the case, he got it absolutely right.

My hope for the CAB is that the group will do what its purpose in the resolution says it should do:

1) Review the design according to the design criteria established by the Dejong group
2) Make recommendations to the Board that will save money (I am not talking about changing paint schemes here)
3) Determine if there was anything overlooked by the process that has been followed by the Board thus far that could potentially be costing us money

Contrary to what was said by some members of the public at the meeting, there is not a single board member who wants to start this group in order to delay the progress of the high school project. Accusations like that are just absurd. There is community buy-in on a high school project. This is something I have learned since I first got on the Board. We simply need to make sure we are collectively buying-in to the right project.

Thanks for reading.

James

Keystone Exams a done deal

UPDATE---

In my review of some of the posts on my blog, I realized that I have very little on what the actual Keystone Exams do to our graduation requirements. For that review I have found a great Pennsylvania School Board Association Document that can be found here.

Some highlights
-Keystone Exams will replace the 11th grade PSSA's. This was a development in July. Many people raised the concern of simply adding an additional standardized tests for our students. This was addressed by eliminating the 11th grade PSSA tests.

-Keystone Exams will be developed in literature, English composition, algebra I, geometry, algebra II, biology, American history, civics and government, chemistry, and world history

-Students will be offered remediation courses and alternative means of proving graduation readiness if they fail

- School districts will be given an opt-out provision that needs to be reviewed and approved by a 12 member board composed of people from the PDE, State Board of Education, PSBA, and other appointed board members as chosen by the PDE, State Board of Education, and PSBA

-Costs for validation will be split between the state and local government. If the state government is unwilling or unable to pay for their share, the local school district requirements will be deemed valid by default.

-Successful completion of an Advanced Placement course and test may be used in lieu of one of the courses required for graduation without the student having to take the Keystone Exam. International Baccalaureate classes will be treated the same way.

-Alternate measures of graduation readiness will be available for those students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP)

-In sum, the new graduation requirements for the class of 2014-2015 and beyond will include a combination of course completion and grades, graduation project, demonstration of proficiency as determined by the District, assessment requirements chosen by the school board in the form of Keystone Exams, validated local assessments, or AP/IB exams.

END UPDATE------

There was a big vote yesterday from the State Review Board regarding the Keystone Exams. In a 4-1 vote they approved the use of the exams in school districts across the states. Please see this article from the Philadelphia Enquirer.

I have talked about these exams from time to time on my blog. My issue, along with countless others, has always been that Pennsylvania has typically allowed local control of curriculum and graduation requirements. This exam, even while having an "opt-out" option will turn that control over to the State. The exams will be based on the graduation requirements by the State. Again, there is an opt-out provision but any school district that opts out has to have its requirements reviewed and approved by the state.

For the other side of the story, please see this op-ed from Joe Torsella, Chairman of the State Board of Education:

Strong Pennsylvania high school graduation requirements would pay off in long run
By Patriot-News Op-Ed
October 22, 2009, 1:59PM

by Joe Torsella

For almost two years, Pennsylvania has been engaged in spirited debate about the academic expectations we hold for our young people. In public hearings, the halls of the Capitol and newspaper editorial pages, there has been sharp disagreement about whether Pennsylvania should strengthen its high school graduation requirements.
grad hat.JPG
On the surface, this shouldn’t be a controversial question: Today’s high school graduates are entering the worst economy of our lifetimes, and our increasingly mobile society adds complexity and competition to their postsecondary plans. Nor is the state board’s proposal to strengthen graduation requirements a radical one.

Under the plan, students will have several options to meet graduation standards. The state will couple the reform with new resources, and no student will be denied a diploma based on test scores alone. The proposal will eliminate the 11th-grade state tests currently used to comply with No Child Left Behind and replace them with a series of standard course finals — a step that will make the state assessment more relevant to students and reduce testing time.

The proposal isn’t perfect — some business and postsecondary leaders advocated for higher standards. Others claim the regulation is too complicated and will present implementation challenges. But these qualms don’t explain away the fervor of the opposition — and that got me thinking.

In significant ways, I believe the debate around graduation requirements has become a proxy fight for broader policy questions buffeting public schools — and Pennsylvania.

For example, the emerging conversation about a voluntary national “common core” of academic standards might be seen by some as a threat to Pennsylvania’s tradition of local control of education decision-making and the power of school boards. Meanwhile, the weak economy might exacerbate worries among parents and educators that higher expectations will increase dropout rates, making the search for good jobs even more challenging for disadvantaged students.

On the issue of local control, let me be clear: School districts will decide how their students meet graduation requirements, and districts that want to set higher standards may do so. In addition, education stakeholders, and especially teachers, will have a significant role and voice in implementing the new policy.

Regarding dropout rates, there is no correlation between higher academic expectations and students leaving school. In fact, an absence of challenging curriculum is the more likely culprit along with systemic issues such as school safety.

While it’s worth remembering that assessments will be just one part of one pathway to meeting graduation requirements, results released last month by the Maryland Department of Education should help ease these concerns: only 11 of about 60,000 Maryland high school seniors did not graduate in 2009 solely because they failed the state’s exams.

Indeed, evidence from other high-performing states suggests that stronger graduation requirements are a powerful reform lever. Since instituting new graduation requirements, Virginia has seen significant achievement gains in every subject. Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, a former Massachusetts legislator and co-author of that state’s Education Reform Act, calls strong graduation requirements the “single most significant act in catalyzing Massachusetts’s phenomenal growth in student achievement.”

For Pennsylvania, the question now is whether to go forward or stand still. State-level education reforms — sustained across multiple administrations — have produced significant achievements, including some of the nation’s most rigorous academic standards. And during the last seven years, Harrisburg has made a commitment to dramatic increases in state funding for public education. Even this year’s budget, with billions in cuts to worthy programs, provides a $300 million increase for K-12 education.
torsella
These efforts have led to achievement gains across Pennsylvania and among all groups of students. But we have more work to do — especially for our high schools when more than 40 percent of graduates cannot demonstrate grade-level mastery of reading and math.

We have today a proposal that reflects input from thousands of Pennsylvanians and diverse stakeholders.

The proposal has been strengthened thanks to study by legislative leaders — especially Sens. Jeffrey Piccola and Andrew Dinniman and Rep. James Roebuck.

The regulation borrows from strategies in the nation’s best-performing public education systems. And it finds balance between rigorous expectations for every student and flexibility that respects individual learning needs.

For all of these reasons, it’s time to move ahead.

Thanks for reading.

James

Updated: State Revenues

Regular readers of this blog may remember an article I linked to back in June. It was a report from the Rockefeller Institute that discussed how State revenues were declining and predicted that states would end up having to again raise revenues and cut costs in the 2010-2011 budgets. I also posted my thoughts of the possibility of this happening last week.

Bloomberg has picked up the latest update from Rockefeller Institute and has this article:

State Revenue Falls Most Since 1963 on Incomes, Sales (Update2)

By Jerry Hart and William Selway

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. state tax collections tumbled the most in almost half a century in the second quarter as the economic recession curbed levies on incomes and sales.

The 16.6 percent plunge was the biggest since at least 1963, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government said today. For the 12 months to June 30, the fiscal year for most states, revenue declined 8.2 percent, or $63 billion, about twice what states got from the $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package, the institute said.

State revenue has dwindled for two straight quarters and continued to decline in July and August, the Albany-based research organization said. Budgets for the year that began July 1 already face $26 billion of deficits, the Washington, D.C.- based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said Aug. 12, forcing state lawmakers to confront additional spending cuts.

“We’re looking at a multiyear problem hitting essentially every state,” Robert Ward, the institute’s deputy director, told reporters. “It has happened during recessions before, but the depth of this decline is unprecedented in modern times.”

Collections dropped in 49 states in the second quarter as sales and personal-income taxes slid for the third consecutive period, the institute said. Income tax was down 27.5 percent and sales tax fell down 9.5 percent, its study said. Both categories fell by the most in 45 years.

“Many economists believe that the national recession has ended and that a tepid recovery is now underway,” Rockefeller analysts Lucy Dadayan and Donald J. Boyd wrote. “Unfortunately for states, an emerging economic recovery does not spell instant budget relief.”

‘Considerably More’

Figures for July and August for 36 early-reporting states showed tax collections down 8 percent, the Rockefeller Institute said. At least 17 states have announced budget shortfalls since July, with “considerably more” expected, Boyd said.

New York’s tax revenue from April 1 to Sept. 15 was $634.5 million below projections and $3.6 billion less than a year ago, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said yesterday. California reported last week that revenue trailed a forecast made less than three months earlier by $1.1 billion, or 5.3 percent.

States are anticipating more cuts to current-year budgets, already pared once to bring them into balance. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour told managers on Oct. 13 to cut spending 5 percent because tax collections in the first three months of fiscal 2010 were 7.7 percent below estimates. Florida Governor Charlie Crist told department heads on Oct. 12 not to request more money for next year, when the state faces a $2.6 billion deficit.

“It’s clear that when governors propose their budgets in January, the vast preponderance will be looking for more spending cuts and tax increases,” Boyd said.

'Housing Market'

The main driver for the second-quarter decline was lower income-tax collections, Boyd said on a conference call, “most likely due to lower capital gains from market declines in 2008 and the bursting real estate bubble.”

Payroll-tax withholding fell 4 percent from a year earlier and estimated-tax payments made in the quarter fell 32 percent in the median state, he said.

“Real wages take 13 to 17 quarters to recover from the end of a recession,” he said. “It will take several years for states to bring spending into line with incomes.”

The study’s retail-sales index showed an 11 percent decline since the start of the recession in December 2007, he said. The second quarter’s 9.5 percent decline in sales taxes followed an 8.3 percent decline in the first quarter, he said.

Alaska’s tax income declined the most of any state, the study said, with an 86.5 percent drop because of lower oil prices. Vermont fared the best, with a 2.2 percent gain because of a one-time estate-tax settlement.

Local tax collections declined by 2.8 percent in the second quarter, the Rockefeller study said. That’s less severe than the state slowdown because municipalities rely more on property taxes, which rose “a surprising” 3.1 percent in the quarter, the report said.

Still, 88 percent of local finance officers said in a September poll by the National League of Cities that they’re less able to cover expenses than in the year before.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jerry Hart in Miami at jhart@bloomberg.net; William Selway in San Francisco at wselway@bloomberg.net.

A couple of points struck me. First, the fall in state revenues is of record proportions. However, while state revenues collectively declined 16.6%, local government tax revenues declined by only 2.8%. This disparity is due in large part to local governments being dependent upon local real estate taxes as opposed to income and sales tax. See the following chart from the Rockefeller Institute Report that depicts this:


Click on image to enlarge

Also from the report is the following statement:

Unfortunately for states, an emerging economic
recovery does not spell instant budget relief. As we have noted
previously, some elements of the economy that are very important
to state finances — particularly employment and wages — are
likely to recover more slowly than gross domestic product. In addition,
state tax revenue, when it does begin to recover, will be below
its earlier peak for at least several years and will not be
sufficient to support spending commitments that are now in
place. Despite the recovery, most states will face budget gaps this
fiscal year and next, and probably for at least one to two
additional years.

When I say state budgets are based on the past, this is exactly why. It is always a game of playing catch-up. Spending every dime in good economic times leads to the severe cuts we are seeing now.

If you like tables and charts and graphs, the Rockefeller Report is really a revelation. It contains a ton of information on every state comparing revenues, changes, and the effect of recent legislation.

One more point I need to make on this, and I did not see this in the Rockefeller Report, is that many states, if not most of them, used the Federal Stimulus funds to balance their budgets this year. I believe Pennsylvania used $3 billion to do just that. What this means is that every one of these states was already in a structural deficit before the new fiscal year began. Many states used that money as a one-time fill for their budget gap. The problem is, this is not a one-time revenue shortcoming. Tough decisions are going to have to be made.

Thanks for reading.

James

State Budgets Across the Country Struggle

First, let me explain a little about State budgets. All state government budgets are unique in this way; government budgets are based on the past. That is, they are based on past tax collections on transactions that took place even farther in the past- especially income tax collections. This isn't like a real estate tax where one can predict every day what kind of revenues are going to come in. This is why you see state and federal government revenue collections struggle 1-2 years after economies start to struggle. The first budget that was passed in good times typically can be adjusted to make ends meet. But the second budget where the full force of the economic downturn has finally had its impact and revenue collection, states have a difficult time closing gaps. As time goes on and short-term budget gap solutions have been exhausted, each successive budget gets more and more difficult to balance.

Pennsylvania passed its budget the other night. There is a good, quick summary of the roundabout way we got the the budget we did over at the Post-Gazette. There are many who say we did not cut spending enough. The problem is that the impetus to cut spending just wasn't there. The budget wasn't bad enough for lawmakers to have make those kind of very difficult decisions. However, in other states, lawmakers are struggling with budgets that are under water mere months after passing.

Let's take a look at California. Once the worlds seventh largest economy on its own, California has struggled the past two years to figure out a way to cut programs and raise revenues. Even with $32 billion in budget cuts and efforts to raise almost $17 billion in new revenue, California is still in the red. From this article at Bloomberg you can see that things in California are still dire.

Next, let's take a look at New York. You may remember back in April/May that New York planned on implementing a 30% increase in taxes on the wealthy. They saw it as an easy way to close their budget gap. The income tax increased 3.45 percentage points to 10.4% on people earning greater than $250,000- one of the highest rates in the nation. Other states across the country waited to see what the outcome of this taxation would be. Well, here in this article from Miami (Florida was apparently one of the states watching) New York Governor David Patterson admits that the higher tax rates have "yielded lower than expected state wealth". Twenty-percent lower to be more exact.

Ok, so those are two of the larger states in the Country. Surely the smaller states are in better financial condition. Well, not exactly.

Indiana- Continuing Plunge in Revenue Alarms Governor Daniels- State revenue for the last three months is almost 10% less than projected just a few months ago.

Kentucky- State Revenues Plunge in First Quarter- General Fund revenue has dropped 10% from last year.

Iowa- Tax Collections forecast to drop 7.1%; steep budget cuts expected- "Today's news is that plunging tax revenues have knocked the state budget severely out of balance just three months into the budget year."

Texas- State sales tax collections down for 8th month in a row- In Texas they expect this will continue through the end of the year.

Georgia- State Tax Collections Drop Sharply- Georgia's collections are down over 16% year over year.

A lot of states made some tough decisions last year in cutting workers and making serious budget cuts. Look for round two of these cuts to start heating up early in the new year.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned here. First, committing future budget dollars to perpetual programs based on the tax collections obtained in good economic times only leads to the pain that many of these states are feeling today. If the states had budgeted within their means and had sufficient reserves then some programs would not have been started in the first place. Unfortunately, most governments budget to the last dollar leaving insufficient dollars for the lean times. Pennsylvania has a "rainy day" fund and they have tapped that fund the last two years to help make ends meet- this is why we didn't have as severe cuts as other states. The second lesson to be learned (thanks to New York) is that increasing taxes on the wealthy will only make the wealthy leave. There were some high profile defections from New York from Rush Limbaugh to Tom Golisano (owner of the Buffalo Sabres) to Nancy Bell (a manufacturer who moved her facility to Florida). All three of these people moved their residences to Florida to avoid the higher taxes. The fact is, you need the wealthy. You need them to stay and invest and employ people.

There is a lot of uncertainty out there at the moment. People are talking about a "V" shaped recession where we get out of the thing as fast as we got into it. Others suggest "W"s or "U"s or even "L"s. No matter what letter you choose, unemployment is expected to rise past 10% and continue rising into next year. If George W. Bush had the "jobless economic expansion" then this is turning into the "jobless economic recovery". Income tax and sales tax revenues to governments will not recover until employment recovers. This means we have at least two more years of state and federal budget cuts coming.

Thanks for reading.

Keystone Exams 2.0 Update

There is currently some wrangling on the Keystone Exams going on in the PA Legislature. There is a bill out there that was co-sponsored by a majority of legislators that would have required legislature approval for Pennsylvania Department of Education and Governor Rendell to adopt the Keystone Exams. That fight is apparently ongoing and I will update when I find out more. The introduction of the resolution of PA House Resolution 456 is below:

A Concurrent Resolution urging Governor Edward G. Rendell to cease funding of implementation of high school graduation requirements until the General Assembly establishes a policy by legislation, requesting the Governor to impress upon his cabinet officials involved in educational policy to regard the desires of the citizens of Pennsylvania, recognizing that actions by public officials that impede the democratic process will be considered as actions in disregard of the officials' assigned constitutional and statutory duties and in disregard of the honor which their constituents have called these officials to uphold, and asking the Independent Regulatory Review Commission to consider whether proposed high school graduation requirements have been given due consideration by the General Assembly and by the Governor, in accordance with the Regulatory Review Act, before a decision is made on final-form regulation of high school graduation requirements.

Full text of the bill can be found here. State Representative Matt Smith is a co-signer of the above resolution. In fact, 161 of the 200 members of the House have supported the bill.

Today I came across this article from the Times-Herald that talks about some of the pros and cons of the current Keystone Exam proposal as well as many of the parties involved in the discussion:

By GARY PULEO
Times Herald Staff

WORCESTER — Earning passing grades is not necessarily assurance of obtaining a high school diploma for many U.S. public school students anymore.

A growing number of states now require high school students to pass an exit exam before that diploma is handed over,

With opposition from many education officials, Pennsylvania’s own version of the assessment, the Keystone Exams, has overcome several stumbling blocks. But the test is no less controversial as it awaits review by Senate and House committees and final approval by the IRRC next month.

The State Board of Education voted earlier this year (14-2) to adopt the final regulation for implementing the new statewide standard for the 2010-2011 school year. Schools will have the choice of putting the Keystone Exams into service or local assessments that conform to Pennsylvania standards that are validated by the state.

Many local educators have concerns with the Keystone Exams, including Methacton Area School District superintendent Timothy Quinn, who worries that having the test count for one-third of a student’s final grade puts too much emphasis on it and takes away from other course work students do.

“In its current form, the exams for 12th graders will constitute 33 percent of their final course grades,” Quinn noted. “Any student falling below basics on that exam will get a zero on that test. If they get a zero on 33 percent of their test, you can imagine what that’s going to do. We can have students failing because they’re bad test takers or just having a bad day, or any other reason.

“A student could get 100 percent on all other tests, but if I get a zero on the Keystone test, I now get a 66 for the course and have now failed it. So that’s pretty serious stuff. Mathematically, it lowers the grade point average of a student who does well. They can do all sorts of things that are showing they’re good students, but now one test could erode their grade point average and really cause our students harm whether it be getting into college or something else. So that shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

While Quinn said he supports holding students to higher academic standards, he doesn’t support the Keystone program in its current form.

“There has been serious discussion with educators who are coming out in droves against it and there are a lot more conversations that have to occur about the ramifications and consequences,” he said. The directives imposed by the Keystone Exams will unequivocally destroy any control at the local level, he added.

“Right now, it all comes under teachers, school boards and principals how grading works. I think the state needs to make more clear the precise purpose of the Keystone Exams. Are we looking to prepare a student for the world of work, or are we preparing students for the world of college or other possibilities after high school graduation?

“Is it supported by clear research and data that their success in college and/or the work world will go up? I think as part of the review process they should be looking at other states and see if it has had a positive effect.”

According to www.greatschools.net, 26 states either currently have a high school exit exam or plan to adopt one. Given the number of high school students in those states, more than two-thirds of the nation’s public high school students are affected by the exams. The exams vary from state to state in terms of content and opportunities for students who do not pass to retake the test and prove their competency.

Most states test students on their reading, writing and math skills as part of the high school exit exams. Nine states use end-of-course tests on specific classes, such as English, rather than specific grade-level tests, which allows students to take the test for a particular subject after they have completed the course rather than taking the test at a designated grade level.

Remediation classes and opportunities to take the test again are offered by most states.

Jane Callahan, Upper Merion Area School District assistant superintendent said she would reserve judgment on the Keystone Exams until she saw “a final picture of exactly what it’s going to look like. The Pennsylvania School Board Association has been following it very carefully and they just put out an update where they said at this time they don’t support it, so I’m following all of that very closely.

“We get regular updates from the Legislature, so we know what’s going on and where things are in the process,” she added. “Like every other school district, we’re paying close attention to the discussions that are taking place. Nothing is finalized yet so until then I don’t think the districts know clearly what the options will wind up being.”

The possibilities that have been discussed include allowing the exams to cover specific disciplines, Callahan noted.

Four states currently use end-of-course exams. By 2015, 11 states will rely on end-of-course tests to determine if a student receives a high school diploma, while others will have a dual testing system in place that includes the high school exit exam and end-of-course exams. The 14 states that will use end-of-course exams by 2015 are: Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

“Another possible option would be local assessment which would have to be verified by an outside provider.”

According to www.stateline.org, five companies are responsible for producing the majority of state tests currently in use: CTB/McGraw-Hill, Educational Testing Service, Harcourt Assessment, Pearson Educational Measurement and Riverside Publishing. Together, they own about 90 percent of the state-testing business, which has blossomed into a $1.1 billion industry since passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The law, which took effect in January 2002, requires states to give annual reading and math tests to third through eighth graders, and to re-test students in those subjects in high school.

On Sept. 21 the Keystone exams were formally submitted to the IRRC legislative committee, as well as the House and Senate Education Committee

“Text of the regulations is not yet posted but will be eventually, along with the required regulatory analysis document sometime soon,” Callahan said. “Without the text being published, it’s difficult to know what it’s going to say.”

IRRC will meet in Harrisburg on Oct. 22.

The House and Senate Education Committee have until 24 hours before the meeting to take action on the regulations, she allowed.

Testimony of Secretary of Education Gerald L. Zahorchak before the Senate Education Committee in June — available at www.edweek.org — supported the case for stronger high school graduation requirements.

“Let me underscore why business leaders statewide, the State Board of Education, and many of our educational leaders believe there is such a sense of urgency in addressing the need to better prepare our students for college and the workforce,” Zahorchak said, as he made the following points: Approximately 50,000 students graduate each year from a Pennsylvania public high school without demonstrating proficiency on the PSSAs.

A 2009 study by Penn State’s College of Education revealed that only 18 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts — making up less than 3 percent of the state’s total public school enrollment — appropriately measure whether their students can read and do math at the 12th grade level in order to award high school diplomas, according to a February 2009 study.

Zahorchak also noted that in 2007-08, 20,394 public high school graduates who enrolled in a public higher education institution required some form of remediation, with a total cost to taxpayers, students, and parents in excess of $26 million.

Finally, it was revealed that 66 percent of business leaders surveyed considered it a high priority that new employees be able to demonstrate that they have the basic skills to enter the workforce.

Colonial School District superintendent Vince Cotter regards the Keystone Exams as a burdensome mandate.

“It’s being imposed on school districts like Colonial that have made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) consistently,” Cotter said. “Additionally, it appears to structurally and financially penalize the districts that have previously invested heavily in the development of final exams that are aligned with state and national standards.

“From a practical perspective, the Keystone Exams’ percentage calculated into a student’s final grade appears to be too heavily weighted and further undermines a rigorous curriculum already designed to address national and state standards,” he added.

“Finally, at a time when additional state funding for a district like Colonial is virtually non-existent and local revenues have diminished due to the downturn in the economy along with previously established financial limitations through Act 1, the development of a state testing program that would literally cost millions of dollars should be reconsidered in this current economic environment.”

Gary Puleo can be reached at 610-272-2500, ext. 205, or gpuleo@timesherald.com.

This is definitely something that can change at any moment. Legislators are dealing with this and the budget at the same time.

Thanks for reading.

James

Message from Dr Steinhauer on H1N1

I think this is important to share.

October 1, 2009

Dear Mt. Lebanon School District Parents and Guardians:

This letter is to inform you that our first case of the H1N1 influenza virus has been confirmed in the High School. We are working in consultation with the Allegheny County Health Department to manage this flu season with the least disruption for our students and staff while maintaining a healthy school environment. We will continue to monitor the situation, and at this time, schools will remain open and operating normally.

Please continue to follow the guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control by keeping your child home from school if he or she shows any flu symptoms including fever (100 degrees and above) severe cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue, diarrhea, and/or vomiting. Students who come to school with flu symptoms will be evaluated by our nursing staff, and in some cases, you may be called to pick your child up from school. Students with the flu should stay home until at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medicines.

Children experiencing flu symptoms who have chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart problems or who have immune systems that are compromised or suppressed should contact their family doctor for advice. These conditions can result in more severe illness from influenza, including the new H1N1 virus.

The best way to reduce the spread of H1N1 or any other virus is to maintain good hygiene practices. I encourage you to teach your children to wash their hands often, keep their hands away from their eyes, nose, and mouth, and cover coughs and sneezes with their sleeve or a tissue. I have directed our staff to reinforce these skills with all of our students. For more prevention tips, see the back of this letter.

To learn more about the precautions our schools are taking, visit http://www.mtlsd.org/healthservices. For more information about H1N1 and seasonal flu viruses, visit http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us and http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu.

Let me assure you that the health and well being of our students is our top priority. We will inform you of any changes to our District’s strategy to prevent or reduce the spread of the flu via email or phone alerts. To receive Mt. Lebanon School District emails, please make sure you register your email address on the Dashboard.

Please contact your school nurse or family health care provider if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Dr. Timothy Steinhauer
Superintendent