Recent Philadelphia Youth Risk Behavior Survey analyses revealed the following key findings: Approximately 8% of all Philadelphia public high school students reported having experiencing homelessness, and almost 11% reported that they had been kicked out, run away, or abandoned.

Youth who reported ever having been homeless and youth who had been kicked out, run away, or abandoned, evidenced disproportionately higher rates of physical, mental, and sexual health risk behaviors and higher rates of substance use.

The percent of youth who reported typically sleeping away from home with a parent more than doubled from 2009 to 2011. The percent of youth reporting that they typically slept away from home without a parent, i.e. unaccompanied youth, more than tripled in the same timeframe. The percent of youth who reported being kicked out, run away, or abandoned more than doubled from 2009 to 2011.

Compared to housed youth, youth who were homeless with their families were:

2.6 times more likely to be forced to have sex
Over 3 times more likely to get pregnant
3 times more likely to have attempted suicide

In addition to data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a series of key stakeholder interviews were conducted to develop a better understanding of the Survey findings and how they can be used to inform interventions and policies addressing the needs of youth experiencing homelessness.

The Philadelphia’s YRBS provides unique data on youth homelessness in Philadelphia. Adding housing questions to the national YRBS is an innovative method that should be of interest to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the federal agencies leading the effort to address homelessness. In addition, family emergency and transitional housing programs must persist in discovering the teens’ challenges and connecting these youth to services.

Full report is available, here.

Executive Summary is available, here.

Less than two months from when Pennsylvania school districts were expected to begin implementing the controversial Pennsylvania Common Core Standards, Gov. Tom Corbett has ordered a delay.

Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said the governor made that decision to push off the implementation date beyond July 1 after consulting with lawmakers.

Last week, it became clear in House and Senate education committees‘ meetings that not all lawmakers were on board with the move to these grade-level learning expectations that would have brought Pennsylvania public school instruction more in unison with the standards that 44 other states and the District of Columbia were in the process of implementing.

Find the full article, here: Corbett orders delay in Common Core academic standards’ implementation Jan Murphy, published in The Patriot-News, 5/20/13

News for Immediate Release
May 15, 2013

Harrisburg – Governor Tom Corbett today announced that Ronald J. Tomalis will
leave his post as Secretary of Education on May 31 to become Special Adviser to
the Governor on Higher Education.

Tomalis, who has been with the administration since January 2011, will be
responsible for overseeing, implementing and reviewing the recommendations
made by the Governor’s Postsecondary Advisory Commission.

To replace Tomalis, the governor will be nominating Dr. William E. Harner,
superintendent of the Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg,
Cumberland County. His nomination will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

Following a 20-year military career, Harner served in several educational capacities,
from middle school principal to school superintendent in South Carolina to deputy
chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia.

To read the full press release (.pdf), click here. 

A controversy is brewing in Pennsylvania over a new set of academic standards that will undergird all instruction in public school classrooms, starting this fall.

Called the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards, this initiative provides a framework for what students should be taught at each grade-level in English and mathematics.

School districts’ curriculum must be aligned with the state’s version of the Common Core standards starting next school year.

Along with this new set of standards, the State Board of Education has approved using passage of the end-of-course Algebra I, biology and literature Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement, starting with the Class of 2017 – this year’s eighth-graders.

A hearing on the revised standards and high-stakes graduating testing requirement is set for Wednesday before the Senate Education Committee. 

Senate Democrats are planning a news conference for today to voice outrage over this initiative’s implementation without legislative approval.

Meanwhile, advocates for this change are ramping up their rhetoric in support of Common Core with news releases and news conferences. And the state Department of Education issued a “fact sheet” about Common Core to clear up what it sees as myths being spread.

Find the full article, here: Controversy surrounds Pennsylvania Common Core Standards  Jan Murphy, published in The Patriot-News, 5/13/13

Among those to testify was Office of the State’s Open Records Executive Director Terry Mutchler, who raised the topic of charter schools, reportedly calling them “the cancer on the good health of the Right to Know Law” due to their track record of ignoring record requests. Ken Kilpatrick, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, told reporters that it was the first time the group has heard of the concerns and that Mutchler “may have been painting with a broad brush.”

Also discussed by a dozen witnesses was SB 444′s inclusion under the Law of the four state-related universities (Lincoln, Temple, University of Pittsburgh, and Pennsylvania State University).

Click on the following links to read the full stories about yesterday’s hearing:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Harrisburg Patriot-News; Philadelphia Inquirer; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“Focus on Education” will be broadcast on PCN at 9:00 p.m. on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, now through June, and then again this fall in September through December.

To learn more, visit PCN’s “Focus on Education” web page

Public education groups are calling on Gov. Tom Corbett and state lawmakers to make a three-year commitment to restore the $900 million cut from public school funding two years ago.

The groups say they can start next year by approving a $270 million increase in the basic education subsidy districts receive to cover operating costs.

At a news conference today in the Capitol Rotunda, representatives from groups that have mounted what they call the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign lamented the toll the funding cuts have had on districts.

Early education programs have been cut, class sizes have grown larger, tutoring has been eliminated. Joe Bard, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, said at a recent conference of rural district superintendents and board members, a topic of discussion was how long before their districts go bankrupt.

“Without greatly increased funding, our schools and our children face a grim future,” Bard said.

He noted that since Corbett and many lawmakers are adamantly opposed to raising taxes, it’s time to look at cancelling Corbett’s proposed business tax cuts.

Tim Eller, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said whether additional money is put into public schools next year will be a topic of the upcoming budget negotiations between Corbett and lawmakers.

The $900 million cut that the groups referenced resulted from the one-time federal stimulus funding going away, Eller said. He said the nearly $5.5 billion that Corbett proposed investing in public schools next year is the highest level of state funding ever provided to school districts.

“Every time you hear these types of discussions or rallies going on, all it is is more money, more money,” Eller said. “The amount of (federal, state and local) money being spent on public schools is nearly $27 billion, which is double what it was 15 years ago. If we were at $34 billion, they would still say we need more money.”

Ron Cowell, president of the Harrisburg-based Education Policy and Leadership Center, said for most of the past two decades, the state budget has been balanced by shifting more of the burden of funding public education on local taxpayers.

“As a result, we have one of the most unfair systems of funding public education in the nation,” Cowell said.

Some school districts spend two-and-a-half to three times of what other districts spend to educate each student. The deep funding cut two years ago worsened the inequities that exist.

“This year, the governor and General Assembly must act together to substantially reverse this trend.”

Aside from restoring $270 million for public schools in next year’s budget and the remaining $630 million over the next two, the group also seeks a more equitable funding distribution formula, reforms that lessen districts’ costs of funding charter schools, cost-of-living increases in funding for special education and career and technical education, and assurances that financially distressed districts have the resources to educate student to meet state academic standards.

Find the full article, here: Public education groups call for restoring $900 million in school funding cut two years ago, Jan Murphy, published in The Patriot-News, 4/30/13