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The Consortium for Public Education • 410 Ninth Street, McKeesport, PA 15132 • 412-678-9215 (phone) 412-678-1698 (fax)

Updated July 2, 2009

Middle-High teams to showcase successes at June retreat
The Consortium for Public Education’s Middle-High Forum convenes in June for a yearend retreat at which participants will showcase successes from the past year and plan for 2009-2010.

The retreat, to be held June 29-30 at the Lakeview Inn in Morgantown, West Virginia, caps a school year during which the Forum’s 14 participating districts made improvements in key transitions students make during their school careers, among other areas. Click here for full story.

TFIM advisors begin mapping plans for 2009-2010; Consortium schedules second Digital Storytelling Symposium

TFIM advisors attending a June program meeting gather outside a picnic shelter for a briefing on upcoming Consortium events.

The Consortium for Public Education expects to extend its career exploration program for high school students, The Future Is Mine (TFIM), to at least two or three more schools during the 2009-2010 school year and to host two more events to help students and teachers build skills using digital media.

Faculty advisors to TFIM, which already includes 24 districts, learned of the plans during a June meeting at Monroeville Community Park where they also shared ideas and strategies and compared notes on the projects their teams completed in 2008-2009. Read on...

Leadership retreat challenges districts to engage in “courageous conversations”

Leadership Design Teams gather for a work session at April retreat.

The Consortium for Public Education’s Annual Leadership Retreat kicked off with a challenge for district teams to hold the “courageous conversations” crucial to solving problems and to harness the power of diversity to achieve change. Click here for more.

Digital Media Symposium gives students and teachers a chance to learn together

A student attending the Digital Media Symposium discusses photographs with Steve Mellon.


Carl Kurlander went to Duke University when he graduated from high school, declaring a pre-med major and fully expecting to go on to medical school once he finished his bachelor’s degree. Instead, he wrote a screenplay that became a hit movie, St. Elmo’s Fire, and set off for Hollywood and a career in filmmaking. Read on...

Consortium convenes superintendents and administrators from around the region for briefings on cyber alternatives, SAS and Skills for Life Program

Dr. Paul Rach briefs district leaders on new state recommendations for curriculum, instruction and assessment.

It’s no secret that districts worry about students switching to cyber instruction whenever problems like disabilities or disciplinary measures raise barriers to bricks-and-mortar education. Not only do the districts lose funding, they often find these same students have difficulty catching up academically with classmates when returning to their schools after an interlude of cyber study. Read on

Principal credits Consortium programs
for supporting South Allegheny Middle School improvements

When Jeff Solomon became principal of South Allegheny Middle School three years ago, he thought striving for recognition as one of the nation’s Schools to Watch® would help set concrete goals for improvement and provide a roadmap for achieving them. Read on.

Gateway High School joins Expect Respect Initiative to prevent dating abuse

Guidance counselors, teachers and administrators at Gateway High School fielded dozens of inquiries from students this month immediately following assemblies introducing a new curriculum called Expect Respect. Click here for full story.



For the Love of Books
engages elementary school students in weeklong series of events at Barnes & Noble


The Consortium for Public Education welcomed hundreds of elementary school students to Barnes & Noble stores as part of its weeklong celebration of reading.

Hundreds of elementary school students from around the region got a chance to listen to storytellers, watch cartoonists at work and hear how authors get their ideas as part of The Consortium for Public Education’s weeklong celebration of reading, For the Love of Books. Click here for more details.

National expert cites research on
problems of ninth grade


Greensburg-Salem's Middle High team during a planning session at the latest Forum

It may sound simple, but in developing plans to ensure student success in high school, educators would do well to improve the way kids begin the experience.

Research suggests that the ninth grade, when students enter their freshman years, is a “critical juncture” in academic performance and a powerful influence on graduation rates, the Dean of Slippery Rock University’s School of Education told representatives of 20 school districts at The Consortium for Public Education’s Middle High Forum. Vulnerability to increased academic pressure in ninth grade comes just as students also are undergoing some of their most intense social, emotional and physical adjustments, he noted. Click here to read on.

 

More than 2,500 educators across The Consortium participated in the 2008 edition of Journey to Learn.

DUANELAND: Film about McKeesport native Duane Michals gets rave reviews, is still available.

Stay Up-To-Date with the Consortium!

TFIM Annual Student Leadership Conference brought hands-on learning opportunities at workplaces across the region

Students attending this year's TFIM Student Leadership Conference huddle together during a breakout session.

This year’s Annual Student Leadership Conference brought participants in The Consortium for Public Education’s career exploration program, The Future Is Mine (TFIM), plenty of chances to get their hands dirty, or at least keep them busy. Keep reading...

More than 40 schools bring creativity and enthusiasm to Reading Rocks!

Kindergarteners take a moment to get to know Captain Book during a school-wide assembly as part of the Centennial Elementary’s kick off to Reading Week – a pirate themed literacy week May 11 through 15.

Door décor, story hours and a visit from Captain Book were among the creative ways some 40 schools in 17 districts joined The Consortium for Public Education in reminding students and their communities that Reading Rocks! Continued...

Great Idea Grants helped bring new learning techniques and tools to classrooms across the region


A Logan Middle School student uses an electronic keypad to respond during quick quiz on a BrainPop lesson

Teachers at East Allegheny School District’s Logan Middle School are using the web platform BrainPop as a teaching tool and students at Laurel Highlands High School are producing their own television news programs, thanks to Great Idea Grants awarded during the past school year. Read on...

South Allegheny’s kindergarten registration follows up on Consortium’s ‘Challenge’ to promote Early Literacy
About 50 parents were shown the ropes of sending their kids off to kindergarten earlier this month during a registration event offered at South Allegheny School District’s Elementary Education Center. Over the next several weeks, they’ll go through three orientation sessions with their children. Click here for full story.

MHS Alumni Assn. announces 2009 scholarship winners

Winners of the 2009 scholarships and awards presented through the MHS Alumni & Friends Association gathered in the high school’s inner courtyard with Alumni Association president, Dr. Linda L. Croushore, at left in the front row, and high school principal, Dr. Tim Gabauer, first row right. Others in the front row, left to right, are Mary Alma Wright, Nina Beech, Amanda Slivka, Breanna Holmes, Jessica Dandar and Dante DiBeradin. In the second row, left to right, are Ian Moore, Daniel Pudlowski, Taylor Dowden, Cassandra McBride, Megan McFadden, Christina Hann, Rachel Popovich and Mitch Nielsen. Third row, left to right, includes Donald Shrott, Markus Bradley. Parris Perdue, Eric Hanna, Jessi Miller, Michael Milko and Erik Duffy.

The McKeesport High School Alumni & Friends Association once again has awarded nearly $45,000 in financial aid to McKeesport Area High School graduates in 2009, including two new scholarship awards established over the past year. Twenty-three current seniors and 13 former graduates benefited. Click here for full story and photos.

Four-time participant wins Jefferson Award at Greater Pittsburgh Civics Fair


A Trinity High School senior won first place in the Community Project category at the Greater Pittsburgh Civics Fair last week for an array of initiatives to engage peers and the community in the political process, particularly the November presidential election. Her project was titled “Beyond the Ballot.” Click here for full story. This link also contains a story on awards won by participants in Steel Valley's chapter of The Future Is Mine.

Expanding 'Food for the Mind' drive to bring in one million books
The Consortium is kicking off the eighth year of its decade-long campaign to collect and distribute 1-million books for needy children throughout the region.

Having surpassed the 610,000 mark in 2007, the campaign is well along the way, but the Consortium is hoping to step up collections this year because a depressed economy is expected to mean even more families facing hardship.

Distribution of the new and gently used books through the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s 340 regional food pantries, ensures that all kids have access to The Fifth Food Group: Food for the Mind, the campaign’s banner since it began in 2000.

As in the past, the campaign will be conducted through small book drives undertaken by community partners at times of their choosing over the course of the year. More than 60 businesses, schools, youth groups and community organizations have contributed to the campaign’s success to date.

“We need all of them and more this year,” said the Consortium’s Executive Director, Linda Croushore, Ed.D. “As the holidays approach, the availability of books in the food pantries becomes all the more important.”

The Consortium supplies partners with electronic files for printing posters, tips for holding their book drives and other support to make their individual efforts successful. The Consortium also arranges drop-off dates and times and oversees sorting and storage of books at the Food Bank.

Organizations that would like to hold book drives should call the Consortium’s Literacy for Life Coordinator, David Pribish, at 412-678-9215.


New Consortium
grant opportunity
The Consortium is announcing a new student-led, student-driven grant opportunity called The Power of Peers. It’s available through the Skills for Life initiative; grants of up to $2,500 will be awarded to groups in Grades
3-6 and 6-12 to design activities that focus on topics that impact school culture and behavior (alcohol, tobacco or drug resistance; healthy relationships; bullying and more). Click here for full details.

Consortium board member
wins Jefferson Award
Cheryl Kubitz a longtime member of The Consortium for Public Education’s board, has won a Jefferson Award for community service. Click here for full story.

In Memoriam
The Consortium for Public Education is saddened by the death of Stephen T. Tomko, a former member of the board of its founding organization, the McKeesport Education Consortium. Read on.

Linda Croushore appointed to PEN Board
Linda L. Croushore, Ed.D., Executive Director of the Consortium for Public Education (PEN), has been appointed to a three-year term on the board of the Public Education Network, a Washington-based national association of more than 80 Local Education Funds (LEFs), effective Jan. 9, 2009. Click here for full story.



 




 
Events Initiatives Issues
Reading Rocks
Journey to Learn
Kennywood Caper
Leadership Retreat
   
   
Public School Excellence
Literacy for Life
The Future Is Mine
Great Idea Grants
McKeesport Alumni
   
(PA PEP) PA Public Education
Partnership
Good Schools Pennsylvania