School related news 2009

This site is not affiliated with Selinsgrove Area School District and does not reflect the official position of the Selinsgrove Area School Board.

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StayWarmPA

Updated 12/13/09

My term on the Selinsgrove Area School Board has come to a conclusion. My passion and advocacy for a 21st Century education for the regions' children has not. I will continue to advocate for cost containment and principled decision making at all levels of government, including public education. I will also continue to inform the region on how our children are doing in school through my PSSA Reading, Math, Science and Graduation rate annual rankings. College Remediation Rate report

If your family has experienced a layoff or other financial problems: please consider contacting these helpful resources

2009 PSSA School Test Results and Rankings in Pennsylvania Morning Call
Look up your district

UPMC doctors developed stress test for brain PostGazette.com

School projects need extra $50K DailyItem.com

SNAP use up 30% in Valley DailyItem.com

Snyder County stores fight tax assessments - There have been quite a few successful appeals in the past 10 years. When these commercial properties are successful, your taxes go up more to make up the difference. Homeowners have the right to appeal their assessments, too.

Report: End all 'swaps,' then ban them - They cost Bethlehem School District taxpayers $10.2 million, auditor finds. $15 billion statewide still at risk

City schools get $40 million from Gates Foundation PostGazette.com

Selinsgrove school board riled by $33,000 change order Daily Item.com

Selinsgrove Seals’ meal tab runs $450 a week Daily Item.com

Career Education & Work (CEW) Standards Toolkit

Business officials back state grad exam PennLive.com "Sen. Piccola explained that the Keystone Exams initiative would require students, starting with the class of 2015, to pass end-of-course state exams in core academic subjects to graduate. The plan also allows schools to substitute Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams or their own state-approved local exams for the Keystone Exams."

600 armed against H1N1 in Selinsgrove Daily Item

Rewriting law could improve charter schools Post-Gazette

Teaching for a New World - Preparing High School Educators - "It is well established that teacher quality is one of the most significant school influences on student achievement."

Better school skills needed to compete in economy Post-Gazette

College leaders beat pay freeze Post-Gazette

Head Injuries and Concussions in High School Sports - important information PA - HB2060

Dental Clinic for low income adults and children, who reside in Snyder, Union and Northumberland Counties opens in Sunbury - Susquehanna Valley Dental Health Clinic opens at 8am daily M-F, 335 Market St. Suite 1, Sunbury. Kudos to all the health professionals who are volunteering their time at this facility. 286-7500.

State's teacher of the year helps make math add up for students Post-Gazette

Cheerleaders welcome special needs to the squad - ABC News Person of the Week

How America's Children Packed On the Pounds TIME

Back-Door Taxes Hit Americans With Public Financing in the Dark Bloomberg.com

IRRC approves the State Board of Education Keystone Exams regulations. This regulation amends state high school graduation requirements. New requirements

Avonworth middle-schoolers' anti-viral video catches on TribuneReview

Students in Pa.'s State System of Higher Education tap into financial aid TribuneReview

School Lunch - "The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program should adopt a new set of nutrient targets and standards for menu planning, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The recommended targets and standards would update and improve the programs' abilities to meet children's nutritional needs and foster healthy eating habits." National Academy of Sciences

Teens Still Not Getting Enough Fruits and Vegetables, CDC Report Finds

Comparison of current requirements and new recommendations

Chatspeak has not dulled kids' grammar, spelling skills DailyItem.com

Talking Financial Literacy: A Podcast Series to Guide Rethinking Financial Education
for 21st Century Learners

Swine flu shows up at elementary schools DailyItem.com Lots of facts at Flu.gov. | PA flu info

Concussion - MedicineNet.com

Head Injury - Concussion Fact sheet for parents - CDC

Facts about Concussion and Brian Injury - CDC

Concussion in Sports facts sheet CDC

High School Football, Wrestling Athletes Suffer Highest Rate Of Severe Injuries ScienceDaily

Students Held Back Did Better NYT

Universal Design for Learning - video

Learn CPR in 2 minutes CNN.com

Schools await a U.S. report on artifical turf Philly.com

C-SPAN's StudentCam is an annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think seriously about issues that affect our communities and our nation. Students are asked to create a short (5-8 minute) video documentary. Accept the challenge.

Alternative teacher certification programs are spiking in popularity PennLive.com

Pittsburgh schools gear up for teacher initiative PostGazette.com

PA State Education Budget - Public schools will get a $300 million boost in Basic Education spending. This is the largest in history. 2009 - 2010 Increases for Basic Education by district in IU16.

Transfers get credit for record enrollment - A law requires the State System and certain other institutions to accept the first 30 credits earned in general-education courses students earned at other schools. PSU, Pitt, Temple now included. Pennlive.com

Brief History - School Lunches Time.com Check out the school food service menus at SASD Go to district's website at http://www.seal-pa.org. Select Schools then Calendars - a drop down menu offers the many monthly menus.

Lunch debts piling up for school districts USAToday.com

More students on free lunch programs USAToday.com

USDA School Breakfast and Lunch programs

School Lunch Talk

From Birth, Engage Your Child With Talk New York Times

Election Day November 3, 2009 - Many school board seats are open.

Data.gov - A federal web site that permits access to State and Federal facts & figures databases.

Firing tenured teachers can be a costly and tortuous task LA Times

Secretary Duncan Says Rewrite of 'No Child Left Behind' Should Start Now; Reauthorization Can't Wait - Next Version of the Federal K-12 Law Should Drive School Reforms That Prepare Students for Success

Teaching podcasts by HACC math professors among the most popular on iTunes U Pennlive.com

Children get Pennsylvania's first swine flu vaccine doses Pennlive.com

Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control? New York Times

Library for the blind takes books on tape into digital age Post Gazette

Public pensioners have taxpayers as a backstop Philly.com - PA teachers pension is run by PSERS.

Infection fight shifts to schools Daily Item

Schools may send home 4,000 who need shots Pittsburgh Tribune Review

More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board. Governors and state commissioners of education from across the country committed to joining a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. PA schools are spending millions to align what they teach to the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. PA schools will need to change what they teach again to comply with these new standards. None of this spending directly supports classroom instruction or struggling/failing children. PA must comply with this in order to be able to apply for President Obama's "Race to the Top" funding.

The Best Evidence Encyclopedia - Dr Zahorchak's ( PA Education Secretary) comments regarding standards and change.

Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’- Who’ll blink first: the unions, or the White House? Wall Street Journal
"Democrats liked to claim that law was “underfunded,” but the reality is that inflation-adjusted Education Department elementary and secondary spending under President Bush grew to $37.9 billion from $28.3 billion, or 34%. NCLB-specific funding rose by more than 40% between 2001 and 2008"

GAO audit: Schools slow to get alerts about tainted food USAToday

Staph concerns athlete’s parents Daily Item.com

Owen J. Roberts flap could alter school elections Inquirer

Young students improve, but later minority achievement gap remains USA Today

Statewide credit-transfer agreement offers students in technical programs chance to earn college credits PennLive.com

Health departments monitor spread of flu DailyItem

Diplomas and Dropouts - Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't)

PA Higher Education Graduation rates:

University of Pennsylvania - 95%

Swathmore College - 94%

Bucknell University - 89%

Penn State, Main Campus - 84%

Susquehanna University - 82%

Shippensburg University - 65%

Philadelphia Biblical University, Langhorne - 62%

University of Pittsburgh @ Johnstown - 59%

Bryn Athyn College of the New Church - 58%

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania - 29%

Congratulations to Beaver-Main Elementary School, Bloomsburg which has been named a 2009 Blue Ribbon top performing school!!!

Selinsgrove 2009 PSSA Math results: IS | Middle School | HS

Selinsgrove 2009 PSSA Science results reviewed

Heat is on to improve school nutrition efforts Post Gazette

Presidential National Address to Students - CSPAN Archive

Reagan Address to Jr. High School Students

Sick Around America - Frontline

Sick Around the World - Frontline

CSPAN Health Care Reform Hub get the facts for yourself

Improving School Performance CSPAN Aspen Institute - NCLB Commission

Back to School/Do the Math: Counting too much on calculators post-gazette.com

Math resources on the Web

FYI - The September 8th School Board meeting will be held at the Intermediate School due to an event at the Middle School.

NOTICE OF MEETINGS The Selinsgrove Area School District's Board of Directors will hold committee meetings as follows: Technology on Wednesday, September 2, 2009, at 4 p.m. in the District Office and, Buildings and Grounds on Tuesday, September 8, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. in the Cafeteria of the Selinsgrove Area Intermediate School, 301 N. Eighteenth Street, Selinsgrove, PA 17870.

Algebra, the birthplace and graveyard for many in math Post Gazette

College and Career Readiness CSPAN Archives

Back to School/Do the Math: Difficulty understanding fractions can add up to a whole lot of trouble Post Gazette

Enrollment up 1 percent in Valley schools Daily Item.com

Cyberschool a constant for family on move Daily Item.com Commonwealth Connections Academy

Gearing up to compete - Pressure is on to customize public schools Daily Item.com

IU16 School District rankings in Pennsyvlania based on math and reading 2007
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Dept of Education, and Pennsylvania Dept of Education

13th - Lewisburg School District (19th in 2008) | HS ranked 27th Lewisburg High School 49th 2008

117th - Bloomsburg Area School District - 100th in 2008

124th - Southern Columbia Area School District - 129th in 2008

129th - Millville Area School District - 302nd in 2008

not given - Mifflinburg School District - 139th in 2008

145th - Selinsgrove Area School District - 79th in 2009 | HS rank 243 Selinsgrove Area High School 117th 2008

167th - Danville Area School District - 114th in 2008

172nd - Line Mountain School District - 202nd in 2008

not given - Warrior Run School District - 174th in 2008

207th - Benton Area School District - 295th in 2008

209th - Midd-West School District - 256th in 2008

234th - Central Columbia School District - 95th in 2008

305th - Berwick Area School District - 290th in 2008

332nd - Shamokin School District - 332nd in 2008

391st - Shikellamy School District - 420th in 2008

432nd - Mount Carmel Area School District - 375th in 2008

438th - Milton Area School District - 413th in 2008

468th - Columbia-Montour Avts

496th - Susq-Cyber Charter School

Math activities for preschoolers post-gazette.com

Latest 'new math' concept: Start early and make it fun post-gazette.com

National Broadband Plan and the Economy CSPAN video

Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom NYT 8/2009 The Report

School rides often end in traffic jams Daily Item.com

Are you ready for kindergarten? Daily Item.com

Early intervention is key to helping development Daily Item.com

Pennsylvania Dept of Health info on Swine Flu - 2009 Novel Influenza A (H1N1)

Everyone Graduates - "Efforts to keep students on the graduation path need
to be paired with efforts to close achievement gaps. It is during the middle grades,
and particularly in lower- performing schools that serve high-poverty populations,
that achievement gaps often become achievement chasms."

Secretary Duncan on College and Career Readiness CSPAN Archive

College and Career Readiness CSPAN Archive

Students, school leaders appreciate nod Daily Item SASD 2008 scores

The Science of Picky Eaters NOVA Science Now (Food for thought on forcing people to eat)

Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin Time 8/9/09

State panel endorses graduation competency exams The Daily Item 8/12/09

Graduation exam rule expected to pass Post Gazette

Education: Five Valley schools miss mark The Daily Item

How is your school doing? See PAAYP.emetric.net

Past PSSA scores for each school district - since 1995

Susquehanna Valley Community Education Council web site shows post high school training and education opportunities that are locally available.

Selinsgrove Contracts, Spending and Monthly Financial & Yearly Reports are available online

Selinsgrove Area School District Student Records Policies and Guideline

SASD Title 1 information

There is much parents can do to help children learn The Daily Item