In a “Dear Colleague” letter dated February 12, 2021, PA Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Matthew S. Stem provided an update on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s (PDE) planning for statewide assessments required by the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Noting that the update is “long overdue,” he said that PA would be heading “down one of two paths within the next two weeks”. Those two paths are:

1.  If the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) changes direction and invites state waivers from school year 2020-21 assessment administration, PDE will carefully consider such an option and will likely quickly survey local education agency (LEA) leadership to gather data that could inform such a waiver request. At this time, PDE is not requesting this information because it is unclear what requirements USDE would include in a waiver process, should one become available.

2.  If the USDE requires states to move forward with assessment administration, PDE will quickly issue guidance that balances, to the greatest extent possible, the complexities of statewide testing during the pandemic and safety considerations for students, staff, and families. In the event Pennsylvania moves forward with Spring testing,the testing windows would be:

        PSSA: April 19 -May 28, 2021

        PASA: March 8 -May 7, 2021

        Keystone Exams: May 17 -June 25, 2021

Within these windows, schools would not be required to test all students in a cohort at one time. Schools could test smaller groups for the sake of social distancing, thorough cleaning, and other prescribed safety protocols. Any school that remains in a remote or hybrid learning situation in March, and cannot safely provide face-to-face Keystone exams during the extended Winter Keystone window,would plan to test those students during the Spring window.

In closing, the letter states that PDE will continue to monitor developments every day, and will do its best to communicate a definitive path forward by the end of February 2021.

On February 10, 2021, Bureau of Special Education Director Carole L. Clancy sent a PennLink to all LEAs titled Review of Enrollments in the Approved Private School Electronic Management (APSEM) System. The memo said that Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) ha recently received a notification about reviewing School Year 2019-2020, 4010 enrollments through the Approved Private School Electronic Management (APSEM) system.  LEAs were asked to review their Approved Private School (APS) enrollments by: Logging in as an APS or a LEA User; Clicking the Reports link on the header; Choosing the 4010 Enrollment Report from the report dropdown; Choosing 2019-2020 from the School Year dropdown; Clicking on the Run button; Clicking the Open button at the bottom of the screen to open the spreadsheet; and Reviewing the 4010 enrollments data, including the student name, date of birth, primary exceptionality, age category, etc.  Recipients of the PennLink memo are asked to forward the email to the individual responsible for the APSEM data review in their APS or LEA.  Questions regarding this information, should be directed to Jessica Burkey at 717-783-6906 or [email protected].

On February 9, 2021, Governor Tom Wolf signed the 13th renewal of his January 2018 opioid disaster declaration to help the state fight the opioid and heroin epidemic.

This declaration was the first of its kind for a public health emergency in Pennsylvania, and proved to be an important tool to allow the state to respond quickly, adapt to developing needs, increase access to treatment and save lives. The declaration allows the state to loosen regulations and work outside of typical procedures to expedite aid and initiatives to help those suffering from opioid use disorder and those who work to prevent and treat this medical condition. It also allows agencies more flexibility to coordinate and share resources to address the changing needs of communities throughout the commonwealth. To learn more, click here.

On February 7, 2021, Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega, sent a PennLink titled Kindergarten Entry Inventory – 2021-2022 School Year, which stated that all elementary schools are encouraged to implement the PA KEI in the 2021-22 school year to assist in meeting enhanced federal requirements. The PA KEI is available to all LEAs at no cost and remote implementation options are available if necessary. Pennsylvania’s Kindergarten Entry Inventory (PA KEI) is a reliable reporting tool that offers teachers an instructional strategy for understanding and tracking a student’s proficiency at kindergarten entry. The PA KEI collects information on a consistent set of standards-based indicators across the commonwealth. The PA KEI is based on Pennsylvania’s Learning Standards for Early Childhood and the Pennsylvania Core Standards. PA KEI includes 30 indicators and provides a comprehensive profile that includes the domains of: Social and Emotional Development; English Language Arts; Mathematics; Approaches to Learning; and Health, Wellness and Physical Development. PA KEI is intended to be used by kindergarten teachers to record a student’s demonstration of skills within the first 45 calendar days of the kindergarten year. More information is available at www.kei-pa.org.

 The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides opportunities to strengthen the contribution of high-quality early childhood education in school reform and improvement efforts. The law recognizes that school success starts before a student enters the K-12 setting. It calls on states to describe how they will assist school districts and elementary schools to collaborate with early childhood education programs, and to invest in evidence-based practices. ESSA supports early learning and local education agency (LEA) collaboration in three main ways: (1) expanding access to high-quality early learning; (2) encouraging alignment and collaboration from birth through third grade; and (3) supporting educators. The PA KEI is a tangible tool to assist districts in understanding the comprehensive learning strengths and needs of students entering the K-12 setting, in establishing common expectations and language for beginning and extending collaborative conversations with pre-kindergarten programs and families, and in planning and implementing joint professional development opportunities that focus on strengthening evidence-based practices for young learners.

Implementing the PA KEI requires a Point of Contact (POC) who will serve as the liaison between LEA administrative staff, implementing kindergarten teachers, OCDEL and data systems staff. A dedicated POC ensures effective communication and implementation throughout the PA KEI process.  To initiate PA KEI participation in the 2021-2022 school year, send the POC name, email address, and phone number to [email protected] by May 30, 2021.

All kindergarten teachers who have not previously participated must complete a required professional development on-line course and obtain a certificate of completion in order to gain access to the web-based data system. Teachers with an expired proficient user certificate (more than five years since certification) are required to complete the professional development protocol. Below is the tentative training schedule and timeline for participation:

• March-September:                  Required professional development online course available
• August-September:                 PA KEI systems professional development opportunities available
• By the start of school:             Implementing kindergarten teachers must have a required professional development online course certificate of completion on file in order to gain systems access
• 45 calendar days
  from start of school:                Observation and evidence collection/scoring completed
• 60 calendar days
  from start of school:                Data submissions (student outcomes) finalized within data system

Questions about the PA KEI memo may be sent to [email protected].