Time for teachers' merit pay?

School is out, but education is a hot topic right now. The state's budget deadline is hours away, and Gov. Ed Rendell has been out stumping for his education plan, which calls for $300 million in new funds for basic education. Republicans have proposed using federal stimulus money to keep funding for basic education flat. Whichever side you're on, there's no disputing the fact that the quaility of the state's educational system goes right to the heart of how competitive Pennsylvania will be in the 21st-century economy.

How well prepared for college will our students be? How will we reverse brain drain? What will the quality of our workforce be? How attractive will the state be for recruiting and retaininig key employers?

Part of the governor's plan for improving Pennsylvania's public-education system includes new testing for students and new evaluations for principals and teachers. Even the liberal think tank Center for American Progress makes the case in this new report that teacher evaluations should play a larger role in assessing student performance, and now might be the time to consider ideas such as merit pay:

"New educators, both teachers and principals, are more receptive to differential treatment of teachers than were prior generations. Seventy percent of new teachers in a representative sample said that the fact that teachers do not get rewarded for superior effort and performance is a drawback. Eighty-four percent of these teachers said that making it easier to terminate unmotivated or incompetent teachers would be an effective way to improve teacher quality. The influx of so many new educators also provides an opportunity for supervisors to evaluate teachers more rigorously now, before these individuals gain tenure."

What about this? Is it reasonable to think that tracking the performance of teachers and schools and giving bonuses to high-performing teachers might produce higher-performing students?

- Dan Fink

Sattler to leave York

Ryan Sattler, the former Bon-Ton executive who founded York County Community Against Racism and has been a key leader of the effort to establish a county Human Relations Commission, announced in May he will move to Baltimore this summer for family reasons. Sattler said he wants to remain involved in YCCAR and the YorkCounts HRC working group unitl his move is completed, and that could take several months.

- Dan Fink

YorkCounts e-newsletter - May 2009

Found on the blog at yorkcounts.org

May 2009

In this issue:

• YorkCounts work advances on three fronts
• Partner spotlight: United Way of York County
• Indicators update: Bias-related incidents

YorkCounts work advances on three fronts


It's a busy time for volunteers working on three different YorkCounts initiatives. Here's a recap on where each effort stands.


The IB charter school: York County Community Foundation and the Women’s Giving Circle, a program of the Community Foundation, awarded $60,000 and $15,000 in grants respectively to YorkCounts for its effort to create a new K-12 regional charter school in York. Once approved by the state Department of Education, the new school will offer an International Baccalaureate curriculum, and it will be the only K-12 IB school in Central Pennsylvania.
YorkCounts Director James DeBord accepted the grants on behalf of Dennis Baughman and Sue Krebs, volunteers who have guided YorkCounts’ Metro-York Educational Opportunities Subcommittee since it formed in January 2008.
The money will allow the regional charter school effort to move to its next stage. The Educational Opportunities group will next write its charter school application and start looking in York at possible sites for the school.
The regional IB charter school concept emerged in response to a 2007 Metro-York recommendation that called for attacking the root problem in the York City School District: the concentration of poverty in the city. In his 2002 visit to York, David Rusk made establishing a charter/magnet school one of his key recommendations. The IB school, which is to be made up of a 51 percent-49 percent mix of city and county students, would create a new public school opportunity for parents and students throughout York County.


Public safety study: Representatives from nine municipalities begam monthly meetings in April with a goal to cooperate on a study of the role regional policing might play in improving public safety. The nine municipalities - Dover, East Manchester, Manchester, Spring Garden and Springettsbury townships, Manchester, Mount Wolf and West York boroughs and the city of York - have chosen a chairman, found two municipalities to take the lead in the state's grant application process and heard a presentation by the consultant that will likely be asked to perform the study. The group's smart, honest conversations have been encouraging.


Stay in School: The United Way of York County took the lead in convening a group to study the array of local in-school and after-school programs aimed at keeping more kids in school. The group also set out to determine which ones were having the most success and to assess whether they could be implemented on a larger scale. The group will release its recommendations in a report due in August 2009.



Partner spotlight: United Way of York County


The United Way held its annual meeting June 15, electing new board officers and recognizing the work of key volunteers. A big part of the program detailed how the United Way did in the past year on its core function: funding community agencies. Despite one of the most difficult fund-raising environments in memory, the United Way managed to raise $7.1 million for its 2008 campaign and distributed some $5 million to its 34 partner agencies.


The local United Way was also part of an organizational change in May that changed the name of the global umbrella entity to United Way Worldwide. United Way chapters around the world approved the change to better integrate United Way of America and United Way International and to "position the United Way as a leader in the global market and better ensure . . . long-term growth," according to a statement from United Way of America.


Indicator update: Bias-related incidents


In May, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission released its annual report for 2007-2008. That report put the number of bias-related incidents reported for 2007 in York County at 17. That's a significant dip from 2006, when 35 cases were reported. It would put the average per 100,000 residents at 4.1, and that's lower than the county average during the past 10 years. But it would still be higher than the state per-capita average in the same time period, which means that the county has more intolerance than what would be considered the statewide average. That's an aspect of the county's quality of life that still needs work.



- Dan Fink

Meeting held on draft county comp plan

The York County Economic Development Corp. and the York County Planning Commission have issued a draft 10-year economic development strategy for York County. They released the draft May 5, and there's a public meeting tonight to give an overview of the plan and take public comment. The meeting starts at 6:30 in the county planning offices on the second floor of the former York County Courthouse, now called the York County Administrative Center. Find a press release from the county planners here. Read the full draft plan, all 222 pages, here. The public comment period ends June 22. York County Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the plan at their regular meeting July 8.

- Dan Fink

Libraries respond to avoid cuts

Libraries across the state have begun mobilizing in response to a budget proposal by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvavnia Senate to reduce library funding statewide by 50 percent, to $37 million. In York County, the cuts would reduce state support by almost two-thirds, from $2.4 million to $900,000. Libraries are a key community resource, especially for lower-income families who might otherwise not have free access to computers and the Internet. And libraries are busier than ever, as more people look for work and interact with government aid agencies. The York County Library System has a "Libraries are a Lifeline" page set up that allows Web visitors to send a form e-mail to their state legislators. Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed budget would reduce the state subsidy by $1.75 million. Here's an analysis of Senate Bill 850 and the governor's budget by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.

What's the value of a strong, well-equipped local library system? How much of a priority should libraries be in the state budget?

- Dan Fink

More on swine flu, public health

CBS News reports the swine flu outbreak didn't turn out to be an international health crisis. But it did reveal "the precarious state of local health departments" at a time when those same departments are feeling the pinch of government budget cuts.

Here's a key point:

A review by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department in January noted great strides in preparedness but said many shortfalls remain. They include the ability to maintain public health functions such as food safety and daily needs during a pandemic, and the capacity to meet surges in health care demand and to strategically close schools.

Here at YorkCounts, we have made the point before that York County needs a countywide health department. This news story shows how difficult it would be to respond to a major public health crisis, even under the best circumstances.

Want to learn more? Go to Where's My County Health Department.

- Dan Fink

Good Gov Monthly - April 2009

Found on the blog at yorkcounts.org
April 2009

In this issue:

• Tragedy increases urgency of anti-gang work
• A snapshot from the Indicators Report: Idle youth
• IB charter school reaches milestone

Tragedy increases urgency of anti-gang work

The shooting death of 9-year-old Ciara Savage on Mother's Day showed in the starkest possible terms the need for a comprehensive approach to the problems that lead to gang violence. The county's anti-gang initiative, led by Beth Gill-MacDonald, will surely have more people willing to join its work. Safer York, the city's Weed and Seed anti-crime project, will find it easier to argue for continued support. Downtown Inc.'s effort to bring a more sophisticated approach to public safety should gain traction. The Stay in School project recommendations, due this fall from the United Way of York County and YorkCounts, hopefully will attract a little more attention. All of this will require the three Cs that David White talked about at the recent gang-prevention summit: cooperation, coordination and communication. Maybe Bev Mackereth, the county's new director of Human Services, and the next mayor of York - whoever that is - can begin a new period of ambitious, big-picture thinking to help these groups work together to develop a county plan to provide better education, more job opportunities and safer streets for the youth of York County.

A snapshot from the Indicators Report: Idle youth

The Indicators Committee added this measure to the 2009 report to show the number of youth who aren't working. These so-called "idle youth" are kids who dropped out of school or who graduated but haven't found a job or gone to college or a trade school. In the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, 8.7 percent of youth ages 16 to 19 were considered idle by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage rose to 13.3 percent for ages 19 to 21. It's hard to draw many conclusions, since there's no previous data to use for comparison. But when hundreds of young people are out of school or not working, they are the most likely to turn to gangs, crime and drugs. Finding these kids, training them and helping them find decent-paying jobs is one of the education recommendations from YorkCounts' Metro-York group.

IB charter school reaches milestone

The effort to increase educational opportunities for York residents reached a significant milestone in April. A public K-12 charter school, one designed around what's known as an International Baccaleurate curriculum, identified two likely funding sources that will allow the YorkCounts Educational Opportunities committee to hire a consultant and begin considering potential sites in the city. If the effort succeeds, city residents will have a new option (see update) for a public education, in addition to the York City School District, and the first in central Pennsylvania with an IB program. It is hoped that an IB charter school will also make it more attractive for middle-class families to live in York, and their children would, in theory, help break up the concentrated poverty that interferes with student performance in the existing city schools.

Update, 5/21: To clarify, this IB school would be the fourth charter school in the city. Crispus Attucks YouthBuild, Lincoln Edison and New Hope Academy also operate as charter schools, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.

- Dan Fink