Awww, shucks! Watch out now! Dr. Mumin is going to play The Original Harlem Globetrotters on March 8 at Santander Arena & Performing Arts Center! Order your tickets at the box office and use our special code#RSDproud. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Reading School District l Reading, Pa., and we'll use the donations to fund transportation for field trips. Order tickets here: https://jotform.com/tbateman/RSDproud.
t's a great week for Red Knights! Isabel Gonzalez just won the regional Poetry Out Loud competition in Harrisburg. She will next head to the state competition. RHS students competed at the state level 9 times in the past 10 years, according to RHS English teacher Paige Sechler. #RSDproud
Dr. Khalid N. Mumin, superintendent of Reading School District, was present in Harrisburg on Wednesday morning as Governor Tom Wolf signed Senate Bill 880, which delays the graduation requirement associated with Keystone Exams for two years.
“I’m humbled Gov. Wolf invited me to attend the bill signing,” Dr. Mumin said. “This illustrates the momentum we have in the Reading School District. Pennsylvania lawmakers are recognizing our successes, as well as understanding our challenges and finding ways to address those.” Senate Bill 880 will delay the graduation requirement associated with the state’s end-of-course tests, known as the Keystone Exams, for two years, until the 2018-19 school year. The Keystone exams are intended to ensure that students are prepared for postsecondary education or the 21st century workforce. However, there have been issues with the implementation of the Keystone Exams, and it is prudent to allow more time to evaluate the best options of measuring student success. Senate Bill 880, sponsored by Senator Smucker, passed both chambers unanimously and is a bipartisan step forward in ensuring our children are prepared for the jobs of the 21st century. “While we should have high academic and educational standards in the commonwealth, there have been issues with the implementation of the Keystone exams, which is why I am signing a bill to delay their use as a graduation requirement,” said Governor Wolf. “My administration is currently engaging teachers, administrators and students, community leaders, stakeholders and advocates from around the state to develop a comprehensive school accountability system that will support schools and help Pennsylvania students succeed.” The rationale for a delay in applying Keystone Exams as a statewide graduation requirement is as follows: • Significantly higher numbers of students are failing to demonstrate proficiency on one or both of the two modules available for each Keystone Exam (Algebra 1, Biology, English/Language Arts) even after a retake. • School Districts are required to offer “supplemental instruction” to students who fail one or both Keystone Exam modules. • The alternative method for demonstrating proficiency in the standards is the Project Based Assessment (PBA). • The PBA was intended and designed primarily as alternative for students who had difficulty with the Keystone testing format, not necessarily for students who had failed to master content. • Both Supplemental Instruction and the administration and scoring of the PBAs are expensive and time consuming and the high volume of students in the Supplement Instruction/PBA pipeline is overwhelming the capacity of both PDE and school districts to respond. In addition to delaying the use of Keystone exams as a graduation requirement, the legislation also requires the Department of Education to investigate alternative methods for students to demonstrate proficiency for graduation beyond just the use of the Keystone Exams and present a report of its findings within six months to the majority and minority chairmen of the House and Senate Education Committees. In preparation for this report, the Department of Education will meet with stakeholders to discuss how to improve the process, examine the necessity of a definition of college and career readiness that all students must meet in order to graduate, and study the graduation requirements of other states. “This bill is a great step in the right direction for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and, it’s a great bill for the students and staff in the Reading School District,” Dr. Mumin said. “The moratorium provides an opportunity for PDE to engage stakeholders throughout the state to produce an assessment tool that is more diverse in what is measured, provides time and resources for necessary professional development, and perhaps gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their success through a healthy balance of formative and content-based assessment.” The Reading School District extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Eduardo Albino, who was a Safe Schools Officer in the district. He passed away on Feb. 2. Read his obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/readingeagle/obituary.aspx?n=eduardo-albino&pid=177585169&fhid=17367
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February 2016
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