THE ACADEMY

By the time you will have received this newsletter, information about THE ACADEMY for rural and small school district superintendents and aspiring superintendents will have reached all of our readers. Because of the nature of the seminar, there will be a limited registration. THE ACADEMY will he held at Toftrees in State College from July 12 to July 16, 1999. The PARSS board was most anxious to deal with the exigencies and issues of small and rural schools. We are investigating the possibility of applying for professional development credits for this intensive 31 1/2 hour program. The topics that will be covered at THE ACADEMY are:

• Street Smarts for Superintendents — politics and policy
• Cook Book on School Finance
• Board/Superintendent Communication and Feedback
• Mentoring for Chief School Administrators
• Problem Solving Paradigms for Your District
• Harnessing Community Energy
• Personal Development and Presentation Skills
• Simulation approach to Decision Making

WE HAVE LOST A FRIEND

Education and the children of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have lost a great friend. Dr. Carmen Sarnicola, former Superintendent of the Clairton School District in Allegheny County, passed away on February 1, 1999. Carmen's work with the children in his district was well known across the Commonwealth. The Department of Education featured his successes in publications throughout the years as an example of how at-risk children might be helped. Carmen was one of the bulwarks in the equity suit and his district served as one of the named plaintiffs. For those of us in PARSS who knew him well, we remember his forthrightness and concern for the children. He took chances for the children in his charge. He would say to us, "I'm so far out on a limb, I'm out there with the leaves." Godspeed, cousin Carmen Anthony.

On March 1, 1999, attorneys for PARSS submitted their final response to the Attorney General's brief in PARSS v Ridge. PARSS' brief counters the argument that education is not a fundamental right in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and that the question of "thorough and efficient" is just a political issue in our Commonwealth. The decision is now in the hands of the Supreme Court of our state. Since the case has been taken by our highest court through their "King's Bench" power, they will be the final arbiter. The possibilities are that they will find that this is a non-justiciable and then decide, or find that it is justiciable and then remand the case back to Commonwealth Court.

PASS THE PRINCIPLES

In February's issue of the PARSS newsletter, we reported that all of the former Secretaries of Education had agreed on four principles for conducting public education in the Commonwealth. If you didn't read them, please view them on the PARSS website, www.ezonline.com/parss. If you deem them worthy, the PARSS board asks that your school board pass them. Let us know if you did. Daniel Boone School District (Berks County) is the first district to do so.

JOE SAYS. . .
THE NEED TO CONFER

This is a commercial plain and simple. PARSS has its annual conference on April 19 and 20 at the Penn Stater in State College. YOU should be there. Although I have been part of these gatherings for the past four years, I was a frequent presenter and guest many other times. It has always been impressive to me that these occasions have the atmosphere of a rather highly charged community meeting of people with a common purpose and an agenda (not to be confused with one of your board meetings).

By design, these conferences reflect the personality of PARSS itself; highly informal, highly participatory, yet intensely focused on the attainment of our goal: more and better learning for the children in Pennsylvania's small and rural schools. It is one time in the year, that the people charged with that task, administrators, teachers, board members and community people, can come together solely in their rural and small school identities. Let me tell you folks, that is a good thing. After hearing what the Governor has put before the General Assembly as a budget, we need to talk. I don't think I have left any of the PARSS conferences without participants telling me it was a great experience or "best ever". Our evaluation results bear out this impression. Because the conference and its sessions are relatively small, the interaction between attendees and presenters is extremely high. It has become a favorite of a number of businesses and firms that work with school districts, because of their integration into the fabric of the conference, and the amount of quality "face time" it affords them in meeting with current or potential clients.

Telephone, fax, e-mail and the U.S. mail keep us in touch, but nothing can replace the value of face to face talking, shaking hands, sharing experiences and meeting new people. It gives flesh and substance to the rest of the year when we get together most often by those other means. I need to see and hear you. It recharges my batteries to return to the struggle where our main advantages are dogged determination and persistence. Be there or be square.

WE ARE PROUD TO HONOR

Freedom Area School District (Beaver County) and its community have been honored by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as one of the "Great Schools," for its work in special education. Mr. Robert Cercone, one of the early leaders of PARSS and the equity law suit, is proud of his district's accomplishments. The U.S. Office of Education receives nominations from states for school districts who have exemplary special education programs. In this case, Freedom was nominated for its transitional plan for 16-year old students in special education programs toward graduation. Students and parents sit down with staff and map out the best program for each youngster. The program has reduced absenteeism, dropouts and discipline problems, while improving grades. Freedom has also achieved the highest possible ratings in all of its federal programs, PARSS congratulates the students, staff and community for its tremendous efforts.

LEGISLATION ONLINE

If you have a desire to actually see proposed legislation as it goes through the legislative process, you may now do it by accessing www.legis.state.pa.us. It may also serve your staff and students in their classes on government, current events, civics and others.

MONEY REALLY MATTERS

Does money matter when it comes to producing educational results? The most recent round of scores from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests provides clear-cut evidence that the answer is yes. Using data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education,we analyzed the statistical relationship between student performance on the 5th, 8th, and 11th grade Math and Reading assessments on the one hand, and Actual Instructional Expenditure per Weighted Average Daily Membership (AIE/WADM) on the other. We took the district average score for each of these tests (6 total) and in every instance we found that higher test scores were strongly correlated with higher instructional expenditure (the correlations ranged from .18 to .33). All of the correlations were statistically significant well beyond the conventional .05 level. In fact, they were significant beyond the .0001 level. (That is, in every case, the chance that the relationship we found between the variables would have been the result of random chance was less than 1 in 10,000). We also looked at the relationship between actual instructional expenditure (AIE/WADM) and the proportion of a district's students that scored in the top and bottom quartiles on these 6 tests. In each of these 12 cases (6 Math scores and 6 Reading scores; one for the top and bottom quartiles of each of the three tests), the correlations were in the expected direction and were statistically significant beyond conventional levels. Simply put, higher expenditures were associated with higher proportions of students scoring in the top quartile, and lower proportions scoring in the bottom quartile, while the opposite was true for lower instructional expenditures.

The final step of this analysis attempted to statistically control for differences in average socioeconomic status of Pennsylvania's school districts. To do this, we used the Pennsylvania Department of Education's measure that it uses, when they group schools for their School Report Cards — the percentage of students in poverty. We used the percentage of students in poverty as a control variable in regression analyses designed to explain variation in our measures of student achievement. We again found a strong, statistically significant relationship between instructional expenditure and the district average Math test scores. The results for the Reading tests were again in the expected direction, but were statistically significant only for the 5th grade test. When we used the proportion scoring in the top and bottom quartiles as our measure of achievement, we found the same pattern for all Math and Reading tests; as instructional expenditures increased, the proportion of students scoring in the top quartile also increased, even after controlling for district wealth. These results all were statistically significant beyond conventional levels. Although higher instructional expenditures appeared to be associated with decreasing proportions of students scoring in the bottom quartile, none of these results achieved statistical significance. However, in every cut of the data we observed that higher instructional expenditures were statistically related to better test performance while the reverse was true for lower instructional expenditures.

LOCAL CONTROL????

Reflecting on the article submitted by Mr. Richard Rossi, Superintendnet of Schools of the Sharon School District on Charter schools, the following comes to mind. Charter schools seem to be antithetical to the concept of "local control". Under ACT 22, Pennsylvania's school districts have the primary responsibility for funding charter schools. However, the decision to deny or revoke a charter can be reversed by an unelected state appeals board appointed by the Governor and chaired by the Secretary of Education. Charter schools can have a major impact on school district budgets. (as seen in Sharon). Since the majority of school funding for school districts is provided by local taxation (57%), it follows that most of the cost for funding for these schools will come from local dollars. Some would say that this legislation is one of a host of unfunded mandates by the state. If the state is concerned about these charter schools and their establishment and continuance, why then are they not funded fully by the state?

GOVERNOR'S BUDGET

By now, most districts are aware of the funds for education that have been suggested in Governor Ridge's proposed state budget for 1999-2000. You have copies of these numbers. PARSS has looked at percentage increases for each school district on its website WWW.EZONLINE.COM/PARSS. There are still many questions about both the basic subsidy and special education. Districts of all spectrums of wealth have contacted us about these numbers and how they compare to the inflation rate and increases in the past. By looking strictly at the increases in the subsidy, this proposal is the least amount of increase, by percent, and excluding 2 years when there was no increase, in many years. The reduction in contribution rate for the retirement fund has been described as an increase in subsidy. It also means that the state obligation is lessened in that budget category.

Special education has no formula as yet. So there is no distribution table. There are two and maybe three proposals out there, the ASAP proposal, a mandated 50% funding of all district special education programs and a plan that may be presented by the Department of Education. If you have any questions, please give us a call.

DRAGSTERS, FROGS AND CHOCOLATE

On March 3, 1999, the Troy Area School District presented an integrated cross curriculum approach to teaching math and statistics in the middle school, to the House Education Committee. Troy was one of three districts in the state to be asked to show "What's working in Pennsylvania's Public Schools." Dr. Jane Karper, superintendent, Gary Merrick, math teacher, Glen Butters, computer specialist, and students discussed the three strands of the program. In a future program, the Otto-Eldred School Districtwill discuss its Peer Helper and Peer Mediation program.

CHARTER SCHOOLS — IMPACT ON ONE DISTRICT

Charter schools really sound good on paper. However, the reality of charter schools is financial devastation to a poor and rural district. The long term effects are not seen during the first year of the programs. In 1997-98, the Keystone Charter School was established to meet the needs of students who were unable to function in a regular public school environment. This charter school may have been the first in the Commonwealth.

There were eleven regular education and six special education students there at a cost of $11,146.24 per month. By May of the 1997-98 school year, 23 Sharon High School students - 12 regular students and 11 special education students were in attendance at the Keystone School. The cost was then $18,340.28 per month. State reimbursement for those students was $1,500 for regular students and $3,000 for special education students.

Total tuition costs and transportation for the Keystone Charter School was $161,398.52. The reimbursement from the state, based on an October 1997 head count was $42,000. This left the district with a net cost of $116,398.52 or 3.55 mils of tax.

With the start of the 1998-99 school term, 38 students enrolled in the Keystone Charter School. There were 25 regular students and 13 special education students in the program. The cost for September of 1998 was $30,840.38. The projected cost for the entire year will then be $324,800. The state will reimburse the district approximately $58,000 for a net cost of $266,800. This equates to 7.9 mils of local tax. In the school year, 1999-2000, all state reimbursement will cease and charter schools will be the local districts complete responsibility.

An oft given answer to these problems is; since you do not have these children anymore, you will then be able to reduce staff and expenditures. That presupposes that all of these students are in one class, have the same teacher and all have the same subjects. A depletion of 38 does not mean across the board diminution of an entire teacher's load.

Charter schools are having a severe impact on this local school district. The future may hold increasing costs for districts with no relief in sight. Local taxpayers will once again pay the price for state action that is not accompanied by a rational distribution of resources. Not only is this inequitable for taxpayers and students in poor districts, it removes any chance of real local control, something that Harrisburg trumpets when it takes action.

The answer for us may be to develop alternative education programs within our own schools. We must expand our paradigm focus and begin to cope with these devastating governmental actions. We must hire specialized staff trained to cope with the increasing number of "at risk" children.
(Richard Rossi, Supt., Sharon City S.D.)

CLELAND TESTIFIES AT VIOLENCE HEARINGS

Dr. Winston Cleland, member of the PARSS Board, and Superintendent of the West Perry School District recently testified in two separate hearings on school violence in the Commonwealth. On February 4, 1999 Representative Jane Clare Orie of Allegheny County convened a roundtable of representatives from law enforcement and human service agencies to discuss the problems of school violence in our state and ways of countering it. The Secretary of Education Dr. Eugene Hickok led off by talking about the general lack of civility in society and in schools and how we should not be tolerating those kinds of behaviors. He emphasized that a lack of respect for schools as an institution may cause the kinds of negative behaviors that we see. Law enforcement agencies talked about cooperation with schools and how that might be achieved. Human service agencies spoke of the roots of violence and how it might be prevented by early childhood programming.

On February 17, 1999, the House Education Committee held hearings to review legislation on school violence. There were representatives from education associations, the Attorney General's office, law enforcement and social service agencies. Once again cooperation was stressed and programming for prevention was highlighted. Representative Sam Rohrer (Berks County) cautioned that we should be aware that violence statistics actually show a sharp decline over the past few years and that we should not be creating more state mandates for local officials. He stressed the powers and duties of local school boards to use their discretion so that we do not go overboard in expelling children for bringing an apple and a paring knife to school (as happened to one elementary child).

In both of these hearings, Dr. Cleland pointed out that the last thing we need is another strategic plan — this time for school violence prevention. He described both programs and powers that districts need in the area of truancy, juvenile delinquency, day to day belligerence and lack of respect for authority. Dr. Cleland stated that cooperation with both police and human service officials are necessary for any violence prevention programs.

There are a number of bills in the hopper that will be reviewed by the House Education Committee over the next few months. We will try to keep you informed.