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TO:         News Editor/News Director

CONTACT:     Sheri L. Thompson, Director of Communications, Pennsylvania Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals
122 Valley Road, P.O. Box 39, Summerdale, PA 17093
(717) 732-4999 (Office)
(717) 395-6814 (Cell)
(717) 732-4890 (Fax)
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RELEASE:    UPON RECEIPT

(Harrisburg, Pa.) — Dr. Barry L. Purvis, principal of Chambersburg Area Senior High School, Chambersburg Area School District, recently assumed the Presidency of the Pennsylvania Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals (PAESSP), headquartered in Summerdale, Pa.

• During the period of closure, school districts and Act 48 providers will be unable to upload Act 48 hours for professional education activities, and institutions of higher education will be unable to upload college credits into PERMS. No updates of information will occur.
• Systems may be accessed for viewing information that is currently in the system at the time of closing.

TIMS/TCS specific implications:

• Paper applications will continue to be accepted and date stamped as received, but will not be entered into TCS or TIMS.
• Type 06, day-to-day emergency permits uploaded through TCS will not be available.
• Both systems may be accessed for viewing of information at the time of closing.

Operations will resume on all systems on the announced "go live" date.

1. Provide an update of the work being done by the Chapter 4 Local Assessment Validation Advisory Committee.
2. Review the new “Local Assessment Validity Evaluation Handbook” that describes the validity criteria for local assessments. The “Local Assessment Validity Evaluation Handbook” will be available for review prior to the webinar at: www.pdesas.org/localassessmentvalidation.
3. Review the proposed timeline for implementation of the validity process.

According to an article in the Patriot News, By a 27-22 vote, the state Senate passed a school voucher plan that is targeted to low-income children attending poor-performing schools. The vote on the plan, co-sponsored by Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin and Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, followed a more than four-hour debate. It now goes to the House for consideration where support remains uncertain for a taxpayer-funded voucher to allow students to attend another public or a private school where they are accepted. Click here to read the Patriot News article.

Source: myPLS Eye Opener, Oct. 27, 2011.

Governor Tom Corbett today outlined his agenda for education reform in Pennsylvania.

"We are set to start work on one of the most important jobs state government can do,'' Corbett said, and that is to rearrange our priorities when it comes to education.

"It needs to be: child, parent, teacher… and just in that order,'' Corbett said, speaking at the Lincoln Charter School in York.

Joined by Secretary of Education Ron Tomalis and several legislative leaders in education, Corbett listed his top four priorities for school reform in Pennsylvania including: opportunity scholarships, expanding the Educational Improvement Tax Credits program, improved charter school quality and accountability, and more robust and comprehensive educator evaluations.

To read the full article, click here.

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education Press Release, Oct. 11, 2011.

By a wide margin, Pennsylvanians oppose recent state funding cuts to public education and support investments in programs that work, according to a new public opinion poll.

Pennsylvanians strongly support investing in tutoring students, reducing class sizes and making schools safer. By a similarly wide margin, Pennsylvanians oppose creating a taxpayer-funded voucher system for private and religious schools.

Those are the findings of the latest Terry Madonna Opinion Research survey, released today by the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). The results are available on PSEA’s web site, www.psea.org.

The Madonna poll asked Pennsylvanians for their views regarding the $860 million cut from public schools as part of the state budget Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law last June. Sixty-nine percent said they oppose or strongly oppose these cuts, while only 27 percent said they favor or strongly favor the action.

The Madonna poll then asked survey respondents to give their opinion on how state funds for education should be used if the cuts were restored.
The respondents favored or strongly favored “more individualized student attention and tutoring” (89 percent),reduced class sizes (88 percent), and “programs to help make schools safer” (85 percent). They also favored: alternative placement for disruptive/violent students (85 percent); “pre- and full-day kindergarten” (73 percent); and “programs to coordinate school, community and law enforcement programs”(79 percent).

At the same time, the poll results establish Pennsylvanians oppose “a voucher plan to send students to private, religious and parochial schools.” Fifty-nine percent said they were “strongly opposed or somewhat opposed” to vouchers, while only 38 percent were in favor of such plans.

The poll presents the findings of a survey of 801 Pennsylvania adults designed by Terry Madonna Opinion Research and conducted September 2011. The sample error for the total sample is plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Source: PSEA Presss Release, Oct. 5, 2011.