Modify PA HB 97 & Senate Bill 766 (An Open Letter to the Pennsylvania Senate)

Modify HB 97 & Senate Bill 766

The current Senate Bill 766 sponsored by Senator Argall and HB 97 by Representative Reese need some adjustments. Here is the core of the Senate bill. A task force will be appointed to determine minimum standards of academic achievement for students of cyber charter schools. Students who are determined as having failing grades will be removed from the cyber charter school system. Here is an excerpt from the bill.

(4) annually conduct an assessment of the student's achievement to determine whether the level of achievement satisfies the minimum achievement requirements established by the task force under section 1704-A to continue enrollment in the cyber charter school. (2) A student who fails, after being assessed in accordance with section 1743-A(e)(4), to satisfy the minimum achievement requirements established by the task force under section 1704-A shall withdraw from the cyber charter school at the end of the semester in which the assessment occurs and may not re-enroll in the cyber charter school or enroll in another cyber charter school unless the student satisfies the minimum achievement requirements at least one school year thereafter.

Here are some adjustments that I would recommend.

Stanford Study: 

The Stanford study has stimulated the desire to hold cyber charter schools accountable due to inadequate student achievement. While I applaud the concern for failing students in the cyber charter setting, the cyber charter school movement will not benefit from a one-size-fits-all policy. Some cyber schools are doing a better job of remediating student achievement and should be differentiated by the task force.

The Need for Differentiation:

The cyber charter schools are using different platforms and pedagogy to deliver instruction. In addition to differences in instructional platforms, there are also synchronous, asynchronous and blended learning models that are being beta tested. These innovations all have an implementation timeline for effectiveness. Many of these implementations are new. Cyber education changes as technology advances to deliver the best possible individual learning experience. A one-size-fits-all funding formula will punish innovation and reward the status quo. The loser in this formula is technological innovation which continues to change and increase in the proving grounds of cyber education.

Proving Ground or Dumping Ground

Cyber charter schools have become the dumping grounds for students seeking a second chance for success. There are legitimate reasons that many students choose a cyber educational setting. I call them the four B's. 

1. Bullying is a common reason students leave brick and mortar schools because they gain an individual setting apart from bullies. 
2. Bad or divergent behavior also provides a valid reason to minimize student interaction. Antisocial behaviors on the spectrum of autism can ostracize students causing them to withdraw. Cyber school provides students with a way to ease into a social setting with instant messages, multi-media classrooms, and field trips. 
3. Bad grades is the third reason for students leaving the traditional setting. Brick and mortar schools lose students because parents choose to send their children somewhere else. Many of these students suffer with poor grades and are looking for a different fresh start. Cyber schools provide a different alternative that provides individual instruction which allows for the possibility of success.
4. Breaking Boundaries is a different reason students choose cyber education. They embrace technological change to allow the time to reach other goals within their lives. They are leaders. They are also single mothers, gifted students, musicians, athletes, politically active, and young entrepreneurs.

Cyber charter schools are likely to have poorer graduation rates for the first three reasons, and traditional schools graduation rates should go up. Using student drop out averages across all schools to access effectiveness punishes cyber charter schools for accepting these students. 

Accountability:

The Task Force should take the average failing scores of students in the top cyber charter school when developing standards to determine "minimum achievement". This should be written into the bill to direct the task force to determine a benchmark. This will promote innovation without punishing systemic achievement.

Relationships:

The student teacher relationship is a foundation marker for student achievement. Students will never care how much you know until they know how much you care. The most at risk students are the students most deserving of a mentor relationship with their teacher. As a teacher of cyber charter students for fourteen years I have had the distinct privilege of making life long relationships with many of my students. As they have graduated and become Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram connections I have watched them succeed and flounder. The students who I have had the strongest relationship with seem to have found their way better in the world of work and family. 

Conclusion:

One size does not fit all in education or in cyber charter education. In my educational experiences over the past 14 years I have seen the need for greater differentiation in education. Technology provides a path to this. I do however understand the need for accountability. I welcome it when it comes with measures that reward innovation while punishing the lack of student achievement. 

"Whatever Sprinkles your Donut" and Tap the break lights on change.

I am the adviser for our Student Government Organization. Recently, our students organized a fundraiser to sell wrist bands to students and members of our cyber community of students. They gathered imprint ideas for the bracelets, and "Whatever Sprinkles your Donut" (Purposely grammatically incorrect) came up the winner. As I began to think about this trite saying it struck me that it reflects our current political environment. I recently watched a video from Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, and author of, The World is Flat". In this video he discussed globalism and its resulting acceleration of change. It was his premise that the election of Donald Trump was a response to that change. He felt that the consequences of this election could be very serious even leading to nuclear war. I am more of an optimist. Although I agree that there could be serious consequences for choosing a path of stagnation versus change, I feel that the current election is just a tap on the brakes as people feel threatened by too much change.

The choice by my students of "whatever sprinkles your donut" is a subconscious reaction to the stress my students are currently experiencing. They are living and studying in a global world where the jobs that they will be preparing for will be gone by the time that they graduate. My advice to my students is to embrace technology. Our students are currently learning in a cyber blended model of education. We have students who have formed life long relationships from all over the Commonwealth because of cyber learning. When students are considering the next step after high school they should also consider how technology interacts with that field. Technology is moving at a rapid pace, and embracing it in the field of their choice will guarantee their success after high school.

Our students in Student Government have written a legislative bill this year. The have formed a committee called The Student Legislative Initiative (SLIC). Four years ago. our students got the idea for the bill by interviewing former state Senator Lloyd Smucker. He felt that many students were not receiving the skills necessary to be successful after high school. Our students have interacted with a computer program that aligns several inventories with thier interest, skills and job or scholarship availability into an electronic portfolio. Since we originally wrote this bill several other legislators ie Dan Tuitt, Scott Wagner, Ryan Aument and Andy Dinniman,  and their staffs have helped us. In addition many of my students have graduated and are still involved in the process. You can read the bill here. This bill is designed to ease the transition from high school into the world of work by assigning every student in the Commonwealth with an electronic portfolio, that is interactive with their teacher. It is a technological solution to a traditional guidance problem.

I am currently teaching US History. In my opinion, our country had worse presidents than Donald Trump. The Warren Harding and Grant presidencies were filled with corruption and led to The Great Depression and flawed reconstruction. While Donald Trump's presidency may have a scandal similar to Nixon's Watergate, Clinton's Lewinsky or Reagan's Iran Contra he may also accomplish fair trade with China, or paid parental leave. The point here is that Trump with a more parliamentary congress may be able to end the grid lock and bring back governance to Washington. In the meantime, there may be a scandal or two, but if progressive reforms can ease the transition of the pace of change, then our students will benefit. What makes Trump an interesting politician is that he has shown signs of compromising with conservative goals in the interest of establishing pragmatic reform. In the primary season when he campaigned against Hillary Clinton, he would frequently poise Bernie Sanders against her by taking the Bernie's side. For example, Trump would talk about how unfair competition was robbing Americans of jobs, and he used similar rhetoric about Sanders in his campaign. Both Sanders and Trump were populist candidates who veered from traditional party rhetoric for pragmatic progressive reform. The Republican Party was able to realign to these populist reforms because Trump was running unopposed.

In conclusion, the pace of change has been dramatic in recent years. Our students at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School are in a unique position to embrace technological change because they learn in a cyber and asynchronous setting. Students like Vinh Li, Josh Marzak, Ben Byler, and Hannah Nguyen have worked on our government bill project before and after graduation. They have gathered data from school districts, vendors, legislators, business and executives in education. They have faced the strain of change by embracing technology. "Whatever Sprinkles Your Donut" is a mantra that may relieve the stress that many young people feel. Change is happening too rapidly and is complicating our lives. The temptation is to give in and take the easy path. Students want to learn the skills necessary to acquire a job like our parents have. The jobs that our parents have may still be around whenever students graduate, however technology will have changed them into a description using more technological skills. If students acquire those skills they will be positioned to take change into the next generation and beyond. So go ahead and tap the breaks to slow down, "Whatever Sprinkles your Donut". I have no doubt we will catch up and even pass the rest of pack with good old Yankee ingenuity.

PA Budget passes but the devil is in the funding for Cyber Charter Schools @PAGOP

I am watching #PCN today and hoping they do not cut Cyber Charter School funding. @PAGOP, The PA Budget is passed, but the devil is in the funding. Please write a letter to your legislator with this simple message today. NO CUTS TO CYBER CHARTER SCHOOLS. We do support the transparency, accountability and reconciliation language provisions but NO CUTS !!! Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (PALCS) PALCS Student Government

Link to “find your House Legislator”: http://www.house.state.pa.us/

Link to “find your Senator”: http://www.pasen.gov/

Senate Republican Leadership:

Joe Scarnati - jscarnati@pasen.gov

Jake Corman - jcorman@pasen.gov

Pat Browne - pbrowne@pasen.gov

Senate Ed Committee Chair: Lloyd Smucker - lsmucker@pasen.gov

Senate Democrat Leadership:

Anthony Williams - williams@pasenate.com

House R Leadership:
Mike Turzai - mturzai@pahousegop.com

Dave Reed- dreed@pahousegop.com

Bryan Cutler- bcutler@pahousegop.com

Bill Adolph- wadolph@pahousegop.com

Kerry Benninghoff- kbenning@pahousegop.com

House D Leadership:
Tom Dermody- fdermody@pahouse.net

Joe Markosek- JMarkose@pahouse.net

Mike Hanna- mhanna@pahouse.net

House Ed Committee Chair: Stan Saylor- ssaylor@pahousegop.com

jscarnati@pasen.gov

jcorman@pasen.gov

pbrowne@pasen.gov

lsmucker@pasen.gov

williams@pasenate.com

mturzai@pahousegop.com

dreed@pahousegop.com

bcutler@pahousegop.com

wadolph@pahousegop.com

kbenning@pahousegop.com

fdermody@pahouse.net

JMarkose@pahouse.net

mhanna@pahouse.net

ssaylor@pahousegop.com

pagov@palcs.org

Defending cyber charter schools

 

Another View: Defending cyber charter schools

By Dr. James Hanak

Posted: 02/26/15, 7:57 PM EST

Dr. Hanak is a mentor, friend and colleague of mine at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. :)

For years, Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools have been criticized for under-performing on the state’s standardized tests (PSSAs). This is in part because cyber charter schools attract many students from struggling school districts that have failed to give these students a proper education.

So, this month, on their website, the PA Department of Education released the statewide SAT scores for 653 Pennsylvania high schools/charter high schools. Of the 189 charter schools in the state, three of the top six charter schools were cyber charter Schools. 

The top charter school was 21st Century Cyber Charter School in 63rd place with the next charter school placing at number 116! This happened even though there are only 14 cyber charter schools among the 189 statewide PA charter schools.

The most amazing part of this report is that all top eight charter schools accomplished their scores with 27 percent less money than their traditional counterparts!

 

So, what do cyber charter schools get as a reward?

Currently in Harrisburg, the House of Representatives is considering a bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Reese, (HB 530) that, if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, would cut funding for cyber charter schools by more than 5 percent across the board and by as much as 8 percent for students from Philadelphia and as much as 15 percent from students from Chester.

The biggest problem with this bill is that it does not address the other inequities in the cyber charter school funding formula that punish the schools. All charter schools begin with only 75 cents on the dollar from the home sending school district. Along with this, charter schools are held to higher standards than traditional counterparts and cyber charter schools are graded with more stringent requirements than their equal brick-and-mortar counterparts.

The PA Association of School Business Officials, (PASBO.org) is the prime mover of this bill and has only one agenda. All the members of the PASBO board are top administrators in local school districts. They see students leaving their districts and taking tax dollars with them to the only charter schools that reach statewide – cyber charter schools. PASBO must do whatever it can to stop cyber charter schools from being successful. Forget the needs of the students. It is the needs of the budget that are paramount. 

Unfortunately, money talks and the little guy often gets crushed. Cyber schools were cut before because they were not making the grade. Now that they are successful, they most certainly must be cut. The education monopoly establishment must never allow a better innovative idea to catch hold. After all, it might force everyone else to rethink how they are delivering education. 

Cyber schools are utilizing tomorrow’s technology: iPads, video conferencing, multiple screens, touch screens, smart boards, interactive technology, educational gaming, avatars, MOODLE open source learning environments. Cyber schools can create virtual classrooms that pull students together from across the state and across cultural divides. Cyber schools provide state-of-the-art computers, a high-speed Internet and a full educational experience to all their students. A cyber school can provide a high school student any course he or she would ever want to take in a high school setting – including AP and honors courses and increasingly, university level courses.

This is why the education establishment must at all costs cut the funding to these already underfunded schools. The establishment fears the charter school movement, if left unfettered, will, in a couple of generations, take over as it already has in Washington, D.C. where now over 60 percent of the students attend a charter school.

If this bill passes, who are the winners? The well-paid administrators who won’t have to give up their perks and benefits. Who will lose? The thousands of students that are stuck in schools from which they cannot escape. Reported in “Chalk and Talk” ... written by Philadelphia public school teachers, in the Philadelphia Schools: 2005-2010 there were 19,752 assaults. During that same time there were zero assaults in all the cyber charter schools combined. Safe education with high SAT scores. Hard combo to beat.

Dr. James Hanak is CEO of the PA Leadership Charter School.

Cyber School PA, The right choice!

 

Dear Legislator, 

I have been a distance-learning educator for over ten years. During this time, I have seen many students who have been genuinely helped by this form of education. 

One thing that makes our learning platform different is access to quick responses from a teacher. Our students benefit most from this individual attention that we are able to reassure them with. They use the Open Source Moodle platform, and we communicate with many of them each day.  Our Moodle Platform is equipped with an instant messenger to help students at formative times when they begin to struggle. This access to a learning coach will be greatly diminished by a funding cut. 

I meet with students in groups every day in a multi-media classroom. My students have formed life long friendship with other students through this setting as well as looking to their teachers as mentors. I have been able to conduct these classroom sessions while in Panama, China and Quebec. The opportunity to tutor students in this setting will be greatly diminished. Teachers will have less time for synchronous instruction if funding is cut. 

Over time we get to know our students through their writing and responses in the classroom. We can access their group interaction, as well as their knowledge and skill in academics with the technological tools of multi-media classrooms, internal email, instant messaging and highly interactive lessons.  

If our students use distance education as a form of correspondence school, then they could have been doing this in the early 20^th century. While it is true that we could still develop a relationship with them through their writing, it is not a reason to spend this kind of money on learning though the Internet. There is nothing new about correspondence based learning. The Cyber Charter Schools of today use technology to rapidly reach students at critical times of learning. We can catch them at thresholds of learning to ease the transition from one concept to another. We can foster a mentoring relationship with them when we celebrate milestones of accomplishment together, and can correct or redirect them when they need it. Most importantly, we can prepare them for the 21^st century in a way that could have never been accomplished in the 1900’s. 

Our students are learning to reason with technological change. This is quite different from traditional education that clings to a process that is based upon rewarding compliant behavior. In a global world of change, someone needs to be testing new methods of learning that will eventually become mainstream. As other countries catch up with our standard of living, the process of preparation for the real world of work must change with it. 

Will we regret the cuts in this funding when other countries do a better job of preparing students to interact in a world where computers are the universal language? Pennsylvania will be rewarded for their leadership in connecting real world change with the skills necessary to face it. Our legislators in Pennsylvania should follow in the footsteps of our forefathers and do the right thing. Our Commonwealth has a stellar record of advocating for woman’s suffrage, homeschooling, equal rights, and family values when they were not popular. Over time our citizens will embrace the principles of educational choice and funding which follow the student instead of the system. Who is to say that this is not the next great revolution in education, and Pennsylvania is leading the way. 

For another point of view, please read this article. http://www.dailylocal.com/opinion/20150226/another-view-defending-cyber-charter-schools

Cyber School PALCS Teens for Jeans Drive.

How do you involve cyber school students from all over the state on a
service project from  #MLK to #GYSD Day? PALCS student government figured it out.