SDP Collapsing Faster than Expected

[Jayfar]

I'm not following what you are both saying. According to the article, it sounds like the rule change is making the charters based on the same criteria as public schools. It sounds like they were stricter beforehand. Again, I could be missing something or the article isn't explaining it well.

The way I'm reading it, it makes the rules for assessing individual charter schools more in line with those used to evaluate entire districts, as opposed to the rules for assessing individual public schools.

Instead of averaging the scores of all tested students to make AYP, under the new rules charters could average the test scores of only a few grades to meet state benchmarks, the way it is done for entire school districts.

State Education Department spokesman Tim Eller said the change was made to bring calculations for charters into line with those of districts. Some charters have a wide range of grades and, like districts, would get a fairer evaluation that way, he said.

Many public school advocates said the change was part of continuing Corbett administration favoritism for charters and other school-choice options.

[seand]

To make AYP, normally, a percentage of your students have meet certain skill levels on the PSSA. Or if your school has had history of not being up to snuff, you have to show you are making progress at a steady rate to meeting those numbers. A normal public gets measured at different age ranges and has to meet the standard at all of them. A charter gets measured at the same age ranges but only has to meet the same criteria on a single age range (miss the target on another age range) according to how the state implemented it.

Annie said the different criteria was for cyber charters (who have high turnover) but it meant some marginal brick and mortar charters were said to be making AYP when a public with the same performance would have been described as just missing it.

[seand]

Scratch this. All wrong.

[annie]

I'm not following what you are both saying. According to the article, it sounds like the rule change is making the charters based on the same criteria as public schools. It sounds like they were stricter beforehand. Again, I could be missing something or the article isn't explaining it well.

It's not explained well so I'll quote myself:

Basically a K-12 district school had to improve its PSSAs to the progress threshold at grades 3-8 and 11 in order to make AYP. A K-12 charter school only needed to meet the progress threshold in a single grade span (3-5, 6-8 or 11) in order to make AYP.

I don't know why you would think this would make sense.

[annie]

you can't use high performing 3 and 4rth graders to completely mask that your 11th graders can't read, as you could before.

No, you don't understand, that is what they are doing NOW.

[Lakey]

I'm not following what you are both saying. According to the article, it sounds like the rule change is making the charters based on the same criteria as public schools. It sounds like they were stricter beforehand. Again, I could be missing something or the article isn't explaining it well.

The rule change allows charters to qualify for AYP (or be evaluted as "passing" broadly speaking) using criteria used to assess school districts. Those standards are less discrete, or exacting if you will, than individual school standards since districts can meet AYP by having only a single grade in a range of several grades satisfy AYP criteria. Conversely schools can fail to meet AYP by having a single subset of studdnts not meet the standards. The article in the Call mentioned a middle school that didn't meet AYP because of the performance of special ed students (BTW this is a common reason for otherwise satisfactory schools to not meet AYP). Tomalis is attempting to use the letter of the law, an individual charter school is from a legal perspective a school district unto itself, to game the system in favor of charter shools by evauating them as districts not schools. There may be some merit to doing that for the cyber schools since their enrollment is so large. Applying that same standard to all charters, however, is nothing more than gaming the system in favor of charters and it's disservice to parents as they attempt to choose a school for their child(ren). If parents are going to have accurate information with which to make decsions, then apples (schools) need to be compared to other apples using the same criteria. They schouldn't be compared to watermelons (districts) using dissimilar criteria. The fact that he enacted this change without getting federal approval is the icing on the cake. It will be interesting to see how the feds rule on this one.

[raider.adam]

Ok. So school districts are treated different than individual schools and charters are now using the school district rules instead of individual public school rules? If that is correct then I agree, that is not a correct implementation.

Didn't seem like the article explained that distinction very well.

[seand]

No, you don't understand, that is what they are doing NOW.

Right. Totally mixed up.

Cyber charters are radically different beasts and they may need a different kind of measuring stick but an individual charter should have to meet its targets in each of the same categories if that is the criteria applied to each of the same categories for conventional schools.

[annie]

Ok. So school districts are treated different than individual schools and charters are now using the school district rules instead of individual public school rules? If that is correct then I agree, that is not a correct implementation.

Didn't seem like the article explained that distinction very well.

No, it's total inside baseball that a parent shouldn't be expected to parse which is why it sucks the journalist did such a crap job. Same writer did a whole article on the state's closure of CCCS' cheating investigation without mentioning Vahan's connection to CCCS or Corbett. I know space can be tight for reporters and things get cut but wtf.

[Lakey]

Ok. So school districts are treated different than individual schools and charters are now using the school district rules instead of individual public school rules? If that is correct then I agree, that is not a correct implementation.

Didn't seem like the article explained that distinction very well.

That is exactly what PA is doing with the revised evalutation methods. I suspect that the feds will determine that what PA is doing complies with NCLB statutes as currently written. Each charter school, no matter how small or large its enrollment, *is* also a school district. So, presumably you should be able to evaulate a charter school using district rather than individual school criteria. This really isn't doing parents any favors, but for many of those involved; school choice is a battle primarily over money and ideology far more than it is about education.

[raider.adam]

No, it's total inside baseball that a parent shouldn't be expected to parse which is why it sucks the journalist did such a crap job. Same writer did a whole article on the state's closure of CCCS' cheating investigation without mentioning Vahan's connection to CCCS or Corbett. I know space can be tight for reporters and things get cut but wtf.

Yeah, it's a shame because as it is written, I was thinking the policy change was correct and that it was a complaint just to complain.

[billy ross]

Maybe it makes more sense to differentiate by enrollment or to not differentiate at all? Differentiating by whether it's a district or an individual school or a charter school seems to invite abuse since the semantics are open to interpretation.

[annie]

PhillyDeals: Proposed Pennsylvania tax benefit aimed at just one company

As the Philadelphia School District prepares to borrow $300 million from investors to cover its next two years of budget deficits, Moody's Investors Service has threatened to cut the district bond rating below the current Ba1 level, which is already "junk bond" status. That's below the level at which insurers and other conservative investors tend to buy tax-free city bonds. The district owes $3 billion on previously issued bonds.

The agency gave the planned new bonds a higher Aa3 rating, thanks to the state Lease Revenue Intercept Program, which promises to redirect state taxpayer aid to pay investors, instead of school expenses, if the district looks like it may default.

Moody's analyst Geordie Thompson blamed the city schools' "weak financial position [on] increasing expenditures related to charter school growth."

He said also to blame were: Fixed spending related to government mandates and personnel costs, City Council's reluctance to boost property taxes, high current debt, money-losing interest-rate "swaps," which were supposed to protect against rising interest rates but have cost millions as interest rates fell, and high unemployment.

Charter school bill falls apart in Pa. House - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

We also dodged a ****ing bullet with this charter "reform" legislation that didn't pass last night. It would have established a statewide authorizer for charter schools potentially making it impossible for school districts to project charter enrollment and plan for it financially .

[raider.adam]

City Council's reluctance to boost property taxes

Say what? I think they meant to say "raise property taxes as much as the School District wanted".

[annie]

Say what? I think they meant to say "raise property taxes as much as the School District wanted".

As has been noted elsewhere, the Inky's really been on a roll lately.

[billy ross]

Say what? I think they meant to say "raise property taxes as much as the School District wanted".

Despite all of the Sturm und Drang, Philly's property taxes have continued to become more affordable relative to our competition. City Council is scared to death of tax revolt; the article is correct.

My taxes on my first home went from $1,060 in 1993 to $2,014 in 2013 while the place went from a generous $60k in value to a conservative $200k in value. The value more than tripled while the taxes less than doubled. I know you don't accept this, but my tax rate went down in that time period, and I think that I am fairly typical. Looked at another way, while the market rent for that property went from roughly $700 per month to about $1,600 per month the taxes became more affordable - the rent pays for the taxes (i.e. Tax Freedom Day) earlier in February now than it did before. I've written that check for almost 20 years now and I remember my $1,047 well.

I take comfort in Council's obvious reluctance to raise property taxes. I don't think that a sudden citywide tax increase would be healthy, and I don't expect that we'll get one. We're getting closer and closer to punting AVI for yet another year, by the way.

[raider.adam]

I take comfort in Council's obvious reluctance to raise property taxes. I don't think that a sudden citywide tax increase would be healthy, and I don't expect that we'll get one. We're getting closer and closer to punting AVI for yet another year, by the way.

Actually Harrisburg just passed one of the pieces of legislation City Hall needs to be able to implement AVI.

And every political body is reluctant to raise taxes.

[billy ross]

Actually Harrisburg just passed one of the pieces of legislation City Hall needs to be able to implement AVI.

And every political body is reluctant to raise taxes.

Does the city need any more enabling legislation from Harrisburg, or did it get all that it needs?

[raider.adam]

Does the city need any more enabling legislation from Harrisburg, or did it get all that it needs?

I believe it got what it needs to do it, but there is more that they would like to have.

[annie]

Failed attempt at Pennsylvania charter school reform leaves collateral damage

For years, disability rights advocates like Maureen Cronin, the executive director of the ARC of Pennsylvania, have been pushing to make the state's special education funding system more fair. The current system sets a single per-pupil payment for all special needs children and assumes that every district in the state serves 16 percent special education students. Advocates want school districts to be paid for the actual number of special needs students they serve, based on the types of disabilities those children have.

"It's extraordinarily important to us because children all across Pennsylvania are not receiving the special education services they need, and a good deal of the reason is the funding distribution," said Cronin.

A proposal to establish a commission charged with fixing the problem had broad bipartisan support and was approved by the state Senate last spring. But House Republicans tied a package of controversial charter school reforms to the special education funding bill at the last minute, leading to its demise. When the bill was reintroduced during the most recent legislative session, some of the more controversial charter-related provisions has been stripped, leading many to expect its passage.
But some House members got cold feet Wednesday. When they pulled the plug on the charter school changes, special education funding reform died, too.

WAY TO GO THERE, HOUSE REPUBLICANS. WAY TO GO.