Compass Point
A Weekly Collection of Data, Articles and Insights from the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
A project of the Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Public Policy
L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs
Articles of Interest
State & Local Policy

SEN. TIM KAINE PROMOTES TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA FOR HISPANICS
Breitbart.com

April 8, 2015 
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), co-chair of the Senate Career and Technical Education Caucus, is focused on promoting vocational work.

Kaine visited La Cocina VA in Arlington yesterday and shared his experience on Fox 5 DC Wednesday morning.

La Cocina VA is an organization aimed at generating workforce and economic development for minorities. It offers culinary job training and career certifications, workforce training skills and English instruction for Spanish speaking students. The organization teaches unemployed Latinos in Virginia about cooking and restaurant careers with certification through Northern Virginia Community College.

“It’s a win win because the work they do everyday in their 14 week program is to prepare meals that then get delivered everyday to low income families,” Kaine said in his TV interview.

Va. officials, educators talk tech needs in schools
The Fresno Bee
April 12, 2015
Internet demand is growing in Virginia schools, but some rural localities — including those in the Shenandoah Valley — experience challenges to improving broadband access for their students.

Educators and technology professionals gathered last Tuesday at Harrisonburg High School for a panel discussion with Virginia Education Secretary Anne Holton and Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson to explore the issue.

"Look at yourselves as guinea pigs, and let us know what's working and what's not so that we can learn from your experience for the rest of the state," Holton told the group.

Vince Scheivert, chief information officer for Albemarle County Public Schools, said bridging the gaps between areas of high and low broadband access is critical for rural students both during and after school.

Virginia attorney general weighs in on Sweet Briar College case
The Washington Post
April 9, 2015

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring weighed in on the lawsuit seeking to stop Sweet Briar College from closing, with a brief arguing that the county attorney does not have legal standing to bring the case.

It’s another hurdle for alumnae and others trying to keep the 114-year-old college open.

Sweet Briar’s leaders announced abruptly last month that the private women’s college would close permanently at the end of August, and many of the school’s supporters have been fighting desperately to keep it open.

Ellen Bowyer, the Amherst County attorney, has asked the court for an injunction, arguing that charitable funds have been misused in violation of state law and that a closure would violate the terms of the will under which the college was founded.

Federal Policy

Duncan wants new law to include early childhood education, state oversight
The Washington Post
April 9, 2015
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the nation’s main federal education law, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday that Congress needs to craft a modern version that stays true to the law’s intent: to create equal educational opportunity for all children.

Speaking beside a mural of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the District’s main library, which bears King’s name, Duncan said he was heartened by a bipartisan plan to upgrade the law written by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate education panel, and the ranking Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.).

“I’m just glad we have a Republican and a Democrat who are actually talking and trying to work together,” Duncan said. “There’s a long way to go in the process, and we don’t know whether it will lead to anything or collapse at some point. But I’ve said for six years that we need a bill for the country.”

How Schools Can Lower Suspension Rates and Raise Graduation Rates: Why aren’t traditional school discipline policies working?

Washington Monthly
April 9, 2015

Having racked up multiple absences and missed assignments, a high school sophomore showed up in his English class last year, hopeful for another chance. “Where have you been?” his teacher asked. “You can’t pass this class if you don’t show up.” Without warning, the young man exploded.

“Shut the f— up,” the 16-year-old shouted. “You think you’re better than me? Who the f— do you think you are?” He stormed out of the room.

As the screaming and the swearing escalated in the hall, the Metropolitan Business Academy principal, Judith Puglisi, was called. She approached the student. “What do you need?” she asked in an almost-whisper. He kept yelling and pacing, and Puglisi walked with him, she recalled.

After she quietly repeated her question close to a dozen times, he turned to her and said, “I need to come to your office.” There, Puglisi and the assistant principal listened to him shout until he began to cry, telling them that his stepfather had beaten him since he was 7. “I am sick of people calling me a loser,” he said.

The student was not suspended, which would be normal protocol at some schools for cursing at a teacher. Instead, he saw a drama therapist trained in trauma at Metropolitan the next day. The day after that, he met with the teacher, apologized and said he knew he had overreacted. He returned to the class immediately after that meeting.

What are the dangers of implicit bias in education?

As we noted last week a significant international conference took place last week in Richmond, focusing on the topic of Healing History: Memory, Legacy and Social Change.  CEPI was pleased to be among the local sponsors for the conference.  Please feel free to visit the conference website.


Several of the panels and plenaries touched on aspects related the education system, including a panel on implicit bias in education that drew 80 participants. A full plenary session, held at VCU's Grace Street Theater, focused more generally on defining and educating participants about how implicit bias affects individuals and institutions.

According to Dushaw Hockett, executive director of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs), implicit biases, or subconscious preferences for or against a group of people, are something each of us carries. He shared a story of his own realization in making a snap discipline decision with two African-American boys and two African-American girls. He gave a more harsh punishment to the boys than the girls, which caused him to reflect on how his action was influenced by implicit biases that were based on stereotypes of black young men.  This, he said, happened even though Hockett identifies as a black male himself.

Hockett noted that neuroscience is increasing our understanding of how the mind works and showing us that most of the work happens away from our conscious thinking.  Though the mind processes 11 million bits of information each minute, we are usually conscious of only about 40 of them.  These are often the things we look for because of the training of our experience or the priming form others.  To get a sense of how this works, check out this awareness test video Hockett used during the conference.



This reality of seeing what you expect to see can also play a role if we are used to seeing certain ethnic groups primarily in one way.  This video highlights and satirizes the way African men are portrayed in Hollywood.


For educators, the question becomes, how might implicit bias impact decisions made in the same types of pressured moments Hockett described?  As he noted, African-Americans make up 18% of pre-school enrollment in the U.S. but represent 48% of those students who have at least one out of school suspension.  

The relevance of the question was reiterated for Virginians this week when a new report showed the commonwealth leading the nation in the rate at which school discipline cases are referred to law enforcement.  Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams reflected yesterday on the way this may have greater impact on students of color. 

This topic, of course, is not new.  But for policy-makers and educators in Viriginia, being at the top of this particular list may generate calls for adjustments to be made.  Here's a few links to academic research on the topic:

And in line with these topics, we also excerpt below Dr. Vacca's 2010 newsletter looking at recent legal developments in the realm of equal educational opportunity.  

This past week was also the 50th anniversary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, signed into law by President Johnson and later renamed No Child Left Behind by President George W. Bush when it was renewed in 2002.  Since then renewals have languished in a divided Congress, though many experts feel 2015 may allow for passage of a renewed package.  In honor of the anniversary, in our poll snapshot, we take a look back to our 2006 poll where we asked whether the increased federal involvement with NCLB would help, hurt or make no difference in school performance.  

Sincerely,
CEPI

Poll Snapshot:  Did people think No Child Left Behind would improve school performance?
The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also called No Child Left Behind during the Bush effort to update the Act in 2002, is a major legislative task currently before Congress.  Many are trying to figure out what will make it in the new reauthorization, while others are also assessing whether Congress will successfully pass a bill this year or not.  There is less debate over the need for reworking some of the key components of NCLB, including the concept of Adequate Yearly Progress.

Given the sense that some aspects of NCLB were less than helpful when viewed in hindsight, it's interesting to look back at what the impressions of it were in its first years of implementation.

In 2005, we asked the following question:

“In the past, state and local governments oversaw most decisions related to the schools. The federal government in Washington has passed a law called the No Child Left Behind Act that increases the federal government's role in decisions about the schools. Do you think the federal government's involvement in the schools will help, hurt, or make no difference in school performance?”

The chart below summarizes the responses:


Several interesting differences are worth pointing out.  First, a strong plurality thought the new focus would help school performance.  But the differences between whites and non-whites, as well as between age groups, are striking.  Very few non-whites (8%) thought NCLB and increased federal involvement would hurt school performance while 60% thought it would help.  Whites were more mixed with 42% seeing it as helpful and 27% saying it would hurt.

Larger divides exist between the youngest and oldest cohorts, and this same demographic difference is likely also reflected in the division between those who had children in public school (51% thought it would help) at the time of the poll and those who did not (only 22% thought federal involvement would be helpful). 

(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 14 is cited above on the likely impact of increased federal involvement on school performance - topline results are on page 12 of the 2005 poll with breakouts on page 28.)

Equal Educational Opportunities - Emerging Issues

Excerpted from Dr. Vacca's December 2010 Ed Law Newsletter

Emerging Challenges

As public education moved through the 1990’s and into the 2000’s, public education moved through a period of major reform in which local school officials, administrators, and classroom teachers, faced new challenges as community demographics began to rapidly shift and parent and student populations became more diverse. Coupled with a reluctance of many judges to remain actively involved in school desegregation cases post-Oklahoma City Public Schools v. Dowell (1991), new curricular approaches and teaching methodologies were implemented to: (a) promote diversity in schools, (b) narrow a rapidly growing achievement gap, and (c) reduce a growing student drop-out rate.

To meet emerging challenges, while maintaining “integrated and diverse school environments,” pubic school systems fashioned creative and more flexible approaches to school system organizational patterns (breaking free of a strict attendance zone model) and, at the same time, increased efforts to establish and expand non-traditional curricular offerings were implemented. In addition to strengthening academic programs and career and technical offerings, school systems across the country established theme-based secondary schools (e.g., arts and drama, communications, science and mathematics, leadership, engineering and technology, military); special purpose academies (e.g., at risk students); gender specific schools and programs (all female or all male); special education alternative schools and programs (e.g., students with autism), and charter schools. In other parts of the country local public school systems entered into contractual arrangements with private companies—in which the private company provides specialized programs and services within the public school district (e.g., programs and schools for at risk students, and programs and schools for students categorized as chronic disciplinary problems).

At the same time, a growing number of public school systems (urban, suburban, and rural) experienced an influx of students with limited English language proficiency. Where small English as a second language (ESL) classes once existed, whole programs grew to accommodate a rapidly growing population.

Equal Educational Opportunities: Emerging Issues: 2010-2011
Several important lessons were learned during the post-Brown (1954) era one of which is that equal educational opportunity is not synonymous with same educational opportunity. To put it another way, local school officials, administrators, classroom teachers, and other school system personnel discovered that curricular offerings, programs, and related services must be tailored to meet the diverse and unique needs of students and their parents. To provide every student with “the same” was not the key to establishing access to meaningful educational opportunities. The path was moving public education forward in an individual child (student) oriented direction.

As my colleague Professor Bosher and I have concluded, based on our research, today’s goal is for states and their local school districts to provide an appropriate educational opportunity for all children of school age (based on a unique needs model)—an opportunity that “ensures basic, minimal quality education for each child.” (Vacca and Bosher, 2008) At the same time, however, we are beginning to see new legal and policy issues replace old ones as evidenced by a growing demand for special purpose (alternative) schools and curricular programs—schools and programs that place some children of school age outside the mainstream of the school system’s general student population.