K-12 Education

One of the most important factors influencing the future success of any child is the quality of his or her education. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is a state of “haves” and “have-nots.” Some school districts have the financial resources necessary to ensure all students can meet the state’s rigorous academic standards, while others are ill-equipped to ensure their students learn the skills necessary for success in higher education or a career. However, this is not regulated only to our basic education classrooms. Students with special needs and those pursuing career and technical education opportunities at the secondary level are often faced with the same issues including large class sizes, inadequate learning conditions and a lack of instructional materials.

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children strives to ensure all students, regardless of the zip code they live in, are afforded a high-quality public education. Equitable and adequate funding as well as the need for consistent and transparent accountability standards are the foundation to making this goal a reality.

K-12 Basic Education Policy Goals

• Ensure all children receive a high-quality public education that is supported by a rational school funding system and sustained multi-year commitments that provide schools with the resources needed to maximize student achievement.
• Continue to develop a comprehensive and transparent accountability framework that effectively evaluates the performance of schools and their personnel, while also providing parents with insight on the quality of education their child is being provided.
• Ensure the state’s academic standards continually provide a quality benchmark for defining student proficiency across all grade levels, and support an assessment system that measures student growth, identifies adequacy gaps and recognizes curriculum and instruction needs.

K-12 Basic Education Publications

Click here to browse