Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators
(http://www.pac-te.org)
MEDIA RELEASE
Contact:
Telephone:
Email:
Linda Cook, Executive Director
814-860-1283
pacte@coaxpa.com
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATION-RELATED ASSOCIATIONS PRESENT UNITED FRONT on
WHAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE FOR STUDENT LEARNING
State College, PA – April 16, 2013
Today, the Keystone Consortium of Educational Associations, a collaborative effort among education-related
associations within the Commonwealth, as coordinated by the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher
Educators (PAC-TE), released its “Talking Points” document. This document, developed with input from 12 distinct
education-related associations, announces consensus among the associations as to basic policies and practices which
must be in place for the Commonwealth’s students to have the best opportunities and support for learning. The three
elements around which this group of educational professionals has found consensus are: The Narrowing of the
Curriculum and Its Implication on the Whole Child; Professional Development of Educational Professionals; and
Assessment and Evaluation. The “Talking Points” document outlines practices and policies which the associations have
identified as critical to the improvement of education in Pennsylvania from preschool/Kindergarten through completion
of the Bachelor’s Degree.
The education-related associations responsible for writing the document began their collaboration in October 2012 with
the goal of working proactively with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, State Board of Education, and
legislature to shape policies and legislation that will be beneficial for students and educators throughout the
Commonwealth. It is noteworthy that although the associations endorsing the “Talking Points” document are made up
of educational professionals of various types they readily agree on fundamental research- and evidence-based aspects
of a quality education. Hopefully the “Talking Points” document will be the base for collaborative development and
implementation by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, State Board of Education, legislature, and educational
associations to enhance the quality of education provided for all Pennsylvania students.
For additional information about the “Talking Points” document and the Keystone Consortium of Educational
Associations please visit http://www.pac-te.org/public-keystone-consortium-of-educational-associations.
April 16, 2013
(Contact coordinating association PAC-TE at pacte@coaxpa.com or 814-734-3881)
(Keep up with KCEA at http://www.pac-te.org/public-keystone-consortium-of-educational-associations)
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TALKING POINTS
KEYSTONE CONSORTIUM of EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Keystone State Reading Association
Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology
Pennsylvania Association for Middle Level Education
Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators
Pennsylvania Council for Exceptional Children
Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies
Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts
Pennsylvania Music Educators Association
Pennsylvania School Librarians Association
Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association
CURRICULUM and the WHOLE CHILD
Introduction
The Keystone Consortium of Educational Associations identifies the following issues, concerns, and questions to be
pertinent in engaging stakeholders in conversation about the narrowing of the PK-12 curriculum and its impact on
the education of the “whole child” who we define here in terms of the physiological factors that mediate learning,
including the three domains of learning (cognitive, affective and psychomotor), brain hemisphericity, the senses and
multiple intelligences, and the ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)
“tenets” that “Each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged in a global environment.”
According to the ASCD website, “Research, practice, and common sense confirm that a whole child approach to
education will develop and prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow by
addressing students’ comprehensive needs through the shared responsibility of students, families, schools, and
communities” (“The Whole Child Initiative,” 2012).
Talking Points
We offer a way to begin and to continue this conversation with all parties interested in working for change toward
best practices with the following observations, suggestions, and recommendations:
1. Students and teachers must have sufficient time to gain expertise in modeling, practicing, and mastering
critical thinking and decision-making skills. Students also need to develop critical literacy skills. Critical
literacy helps students to think about, reflect upon, and dispute the information they are receiving. It is
important that all people become critically literate so that they understand the purpose for the information
and question its content.
April 16, 2013
(Contact coordinating association PAC-TE at pacte@coaxpa.com or 814-734-3881)
(Keep up with KCEA at http://www.pac-te.org/public-keystone-consortium-of-educational-associations)
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2. The arts, in addition to being a mainstay of societal growth and human interaction, offer access to the
development of higher-order thinking skills for all students. Arts courses, including the humanities, music,
and the fine and performing arts, not only develop creativity but also serve as a platform upon which critical
thinking and problem-solving skills can be developed. That executive-function skills developed through arts
subjects transfer to applications in all subject areas is well documented.
3. “Authentic learning” experiences, i.e. experiences that are connected to out-of-school activities, in all
disciplines, and especially in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses, are absolutely
critical to the development of career interest and competence in these courses.
4. Transfer of knowledge and skills across subject areas is necessary to achieve higher-order thinking thorough
comprehension, application, and retention.
5. All students, including the best university science and technology students, are multi-dimensional in their
interests and thrive in arts-infused academic settings (Friedman, 2006). With appropriate and effective
pedagogy in place across a curriculum, we know that attention to a broad-interest spectrum raises the
quality of students’ overall academic achievement (King-Shaver & Hunter, 2003; Pink, 2006).
6. Bringing issues such as school safety and security to the forefront (Miller & Norris, 2007; Parsons, 2005) and
shifting “the focus of school reform from restructuring to reculturing” (Louis, 2006; Nieto & Bode, 2008) may
greatly contribute to better school reform and curriculum redesign. Reculturing involves fundamental
changes in policies, values, norms and patterns of interaction that support both student safety and learning.
7. A comprehensive PK-12 curriculum is a natural outgrowth of the essential “knowledge, skills, and
dispositions” advocated in the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Conceptual
Framework and Unit Standards (2008) and endorsed by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, which
specifies essential skills as follows: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity (the 4C’s).
8. Whole Child initiatives along with those such as 21st Century Skills provide broad comprehensive curricula
and instruction that promote information/digital literacy, prepare learners to use information ethically and
productively in a global society, and identify, develop, and maximize student potentials. These schools find
that a student’s overall achievement is increased and maintained because the bases of curricula and
instruction in these schools recognize the multidimensional abilities and interests of students, including
course work in the humanities and the arts as well as in science and technology (e.g., Freeman, Freeman, &
Ramirez, 2008).
9. The quest for achievement in high stakes tests may mitigate against attending to a curriculum that
addresses the health and wellness of young learners if too much time is allocated to tested subjects.
April 16, 2013
(Contact coordinating association PAC-TE at pacte@coaxpa.com or 814-734-3881)
(Keep up with KCEA at http://www.pac-te.org/public-keystone-consortium-of-educational-associations)
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Professional development for educators consists of planned teaching and learning opportunities that meet the
specific needs of school environments and provide opportunities to enhance individual personal professional
competence.
Talking Points
1. Ongoing professional development is important to teacher quality and must be directed by the professionals
themselves or members of professional organizations who are experts in the professional development
topic/focus.
2. Professional development serves current district needs as well as personal professional needs providing a
foundation for future growth, innovation and educator advancement.
3. Cost effective professional development involves both the cost of providing the development and the
productivity of the development to ensure high quality teaching.
4. Collaboration is a critical element as well as a cost-effective measure to be leveraged when providing
professional development and that collaboration may include school districts, institutions of higher
education, professional associations, and intermediate units.
5. Impactful professional development should involve best practice, exemplary teaching models and sharing of
expertise.
6. It is imperative to provide opportunities for today’s teachers to form professional learning communities
(PLCs) on topics the teachers themselves believe to be critical. This approach is an important step toward a
better understanding of the social, political, economic, and environmental factors impacting individual
school districts and provides communities a way for curriculum to become relevant for all students.
April 16, 2013
(Contact coordinating association PAC-TE at pacte@coaxpa.com or 814-734-3881)
(Keep up with KCEA at http://www.pac-te.org/public-keystone-consortium-of-educational-associations)
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ASSESSMENT and EVALUATION
Introduction
The last decade has seen a significant increase in national and state efforts to standardize educational assessment
efforts in the service of greater accountability. Standardized assessment and evaluation efforts have focused on
students, schools, teachers, school administrators, teacher educators and teacher education programs.
Talking Points
Because learning and teaching are complex and multi-faceted processes, any system of assessment and evaluation
that is designed to measure learning and teaching at any level of education must:
1. Include the use of multiple sources of data over time as opposed to relying on any single measure of
learning or teaching quality at a single point in time;
2. Be based on well-defined and clearly communicated standards of performance;
3. Use reliable and valid authentic assessment tools in ways that are consistent with the purpose for which the
tools were created;
4. Be developmentally and culturally appropriate;
5. Include opportunities for evaluators to obtain the necessary preparation to use assessment and evaluation
tools skillfully;
6. Provide data in a timely manner that can be used by educators to create plans for improving learning and
teaching and providing both remediation and enrichment for all students;
7. Be used in fair, ethical and responsible ways; and
8. Produce results that can be communicated to key stakeholders in a manner that is not overly simplistic or
misleading and is not likely to lead to inappropriate negative consequences for students, educators or
schools.
April 16, 2013
(Contact coordinating association PAC-TE at pacte@coaxpa.com or 814-734-3881)
(Keep up with KCEA at http://www.pac-te.org/public-keystone-consortium-of-educational-associations)
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