A daily round-up of education news and views for the Keystone State.

Legislation requiring public schools to adopt multi-year strategies for spending federal aid to address the need for pandemic-spurred remedial education was approved Tuesday by the State House Education Committee. Under the bill, school districts, charter and cyber charter schools would develop a strategy to deliver “accelerated learning” through in-person instruction except at cyber charter schools to address students’ academic, emotional and social needs at no cost to families. The plans would cover spending from June 2021 through Sept. 2023 and schools would have some reporting requirements. Separately, the Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to move the governor’s nomination to Noe Ortega, the acting state education secretary, to full status in that post to the Senate floor without a recommendation. Later in the day, Ortega won confirmation from the full Senate on a 44-6 vote.

 

The Patriot-News

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Biden administration is set to issue regulations governing two programs in the American Rescue Plan, as well as the federal law governing the privacy of student records and a pilot for new student assessments, among other priorities. The list of upcoming rules also includes those that would affect magnet schools, charter school facilities, and preschool special education grants. One involves the American Rescue Plan’s $800m earmarked to support homeless students, a group that’s been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. The Education Department says its rules for the program will apply to three-quarters of the funding and will focus on the formula that state education agencies use to provide subgrants to local school districts. The other concerns the relief package’s $2.75bn in relief for private schools; the department says this must go to private schools enrolling “a significant percentage of low-income students” and to “schools most impacted by COVID-19.” The government also plans to issue rules for the testing pilot authorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal Charter Schools Program that’s designed to help states establish or enhance per-pupil funding for charter school facilities, and the federal Magnet Schools Program that will help “magnet schools that incorporate evidence-based designs and strategies that have been shown to both increase diversity and improve outcomes for students.”

 

Education Week

The Lancaster school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to maintain a dual language immersion program, of sorts. The board is charging the administration to come up with a strategic plan by January 2022 to replace its existing dual language immersion program after a nonprofit hired by the district last winter concluded that the current program needed "significant improvements." The board also approved a pause on kindergarten enrollment for the current program, paving the way for $129,000 in savings, which the administration can use to help prepare a strategic plan in time. Since the program's inception, it has cost the typically cash-strapped district $9.7m, though only 39 students, who participate through a lottery that selects 25 incoming kindergartners each year, have actually completed it.

 

One of Gov. Tom Wolf's nominees to the Charter Appeals Board is drawing criticism for her connection to a Republican political donor. Jennifer Faustman, CEO of Belmont Charter Schools in Philadelphia, was nominated on June 14. Less than three weeks earlier however, a company run by the charter network’s founder, Michael Karp, donated $50,000 to the campaign committee for Senate Republicans, who obviously have the power to confirm or reject her nomination. "Faustman’s nomination gives the appearance of a quid pro quo, which could diminish public trust in the impartiality of the CAB’s future decisions,” says Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters PA, an advocacy group that supports public schools and has been backing Wolf’s push to curb charter funding. State Sen. Lindsey Williams (D., Allegheny), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Education Committee, agrees that Faustman’s nomination raises “red flags.”

 

Philadelphia Inquirer

While most principals have spent time as teachers at some point, there is value in remaining closely connected to the classroom. At the Weilenmann School of Discovery, a charter school outside of Salt Lake City, administrators continue to spend time teaching students, which lets them “walk the walk.” Utilizing this approach can help administrators build credibility and leadership; the school community also benefits when teachers can see the vulnerability in their leaders, who in turn are maintaining firsthand experience of how their decisions impact the classroom. In recent years, principals' roles have also increasingly shifted to that of being an instructional leader. This has included revising principal standards and evaluations, creating additional administrative positions to oversee non-instructional duties, and strengthening the roles of principal supervisors.

 

K-12 Dive

Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the civil rights organization Advancement Project National Office, looks at how the conversation on the role of police in schools has changed in the 13 months since the murder of George Floyd. The decades-long argument for police-free schools has seen numerous districts across the nation, including in Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, and Portland, sever ties with local police. She goes on to note that "the pendulum seems to be shifting back to business as usual," with federal funding allowing schools to monitor students through anonymous reporting systems, social-media surveillance, and threat-assessment teams that coordinate with law enforcement.

 

Education Week

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) may not bar payments to student-athletes. The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, clears the way for colleges to provide more school-related perks to students like computers, musical instruments and internships; it did not directly touch on the issue of whether athletes may earn money for the use of their names, images and likenesses, but some legal experts say the case could be a prelude to challenges aimed more broadly at compensation restrictions on college athletes.

 

The Hill

New York Times

Reuters