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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
Parents demand cellphone policy changes after school fight videos go viral
CBS 6 (WTVR)
April 26, 2015
Hundreds of parents met with Henrico School and community leaders Sunday to address the massive brawl that broke out at Varina High School prompting a lockdown last week. While school officials did not make any hard promises, they did listen to suggestions from parents after video of a massive fight was widely circulated online.
Henrico School Board members, the Superintendent, Board of Supervisors and even the Commonwealth’s Attorney were on hand to discuss what can be done to prevent fights. But the focus of the meeting quickly turned to parents needing to have one-on-one conversations with their kids about the violence.
However, there was consensus among parents that the School Board should reconsider the district’s cellphone policy. Several parents at the meeting said that students’ ability to easily capture video of the altercations on their cellphones not only leads to fights, but helps the videos go viral.
2 delegates criticize Fairfax proposal to protect transgender students
Washington Post
April 25, 2015
Two state Republican delegates spoke out against a proposal in Fairfax County to include transgender students and staff in the school system’s non-discrimination policy.
The proposal, submitted by school board member Ryan McElveen (At Large), comes after Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) issued an opinion in March granting local school boards the authority to include sexual orientation and gender identity in non-discrimination policies.
The Fairfax board voted 11 to 1 last fall to add protections for sexual orientation, and the board is scheduled to vote next month on a measure to expand coverage to transgender students and staff for the first time.
At a school board meeting Thursday night, Del. Robert G. Marshall (R) and Del. David A. LaRock (R), neither of whom represent Fairfax residents, spoke against the proposal, citing case law that they said shows the school board does not have the authority to create protected classes.
Expanded summer school program to pilot in Southeast Newport News
The Daily Press
March 21, 2015
Details are taking shape for an expanded summer school program planned to pilot this year in Southeast Newport News.The Newport News School Board made the new program part of the 2015-16 budget that was passed Tuesday, and officials shared more information in a meeting with the Daily Press Editorial Board Thursday.
The idea is to get more students involved in optional summer programs and to broaden their experiences academically and otherwise.
Some children get to participate in more activities outside of school than others, said School Board Chairman Jeff Stodghill. The summer program would help bridge the gap.
Federal Policy
Are NC charter schools becoming segregated?
The Citizen-Times
April 25, 2015
Translators have been called in for open houses at Evergreen Community Charter School. The school in the Haw Creek area of Buncombe County wants to ensure language barriers won't stand in the way of parents considering sending their children to the environmentally themed school.
School representatives make presentations in child care centers in minority communities. Advertising goes into publications reaching a multicultural audience.
While Evergreen's steps might be unique, charter schools statewide face a similar and growing challenge in attracting students from minority communities.
Publicly funded but with more freedom than traditional public schools, charter schools increasingly in North Carolina are becoming "segmented," according to a recent Duke University study.
More students are going to schools that are predominately white, a trend that raises concerns about resegregation of schools. At Evergreen this year, 89 percent of students are white.
This matters because the schools are supposed to be serving the public interest, said Helen F. Ladd, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy and one of the study's authors.
School of Public Affairs lifts off to become college
The Lantern
April 27, 2015With a crowd of onlookers gathered in anticipation and a clear blue sky affording favorable weather conditions, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the John Glenn College of Public Affairs was a go for launch.
The ceremony and open house at Page Hall on Friday celebrated the college’s change of status from what was previously the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, making it Ohio State’s 15th and newest college.
The countdown began Jan. 30, after the creation of Glenn College was announced during an Ohio State Board of Trustees meeting.
The college’s undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs “equip students with the skills to become tomorrow’s citizen-leaders or public service professionals,” according to its website.
Trevor Brown, dean of Glenn College, said during the ceremony that the college takes pride in embodying the university’s motto, “disciplina in civitatem,” or “education for citizenship,” as its students, faculty and alumni “work to solve today’s problems and produce tomorrow’s leaders.”
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What should graduates hear at commencement?
Here at VCU and many other colleges and universities, seniors and their families are looking forward to graduation ceremonies. Part of this ritual is the role of commencement speaker - often a notable and hopefully a wise person. Some speeches are funny, others reach for deep wisdom. Some are better than others. If you could write the commencement speech of the person who spoke when you graduated, what would you have them say? Would it be about how to maximize career success or live a meaningful life (or both)?
In a recent column in the New York Times, David Brooks wrote the following:
ABOUT once a month I run across a person who radiates an inner light. These people can be in any walk of life. They seem deeply good. They listen well. They make you feel funny and valued. You often catch them looking after other people and as they do so their laugh is musical and their manner is infused with gratitude. They are not thinking about what wonderful work they are doing. They are not thinking about themselves at all.
It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love?
We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé ones. But our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character.
Commencement speeches, perhaps, are really about these two questions. On one hand, what do I need to do to succeed in a career? On the other, now that I'll be on my own, what are the most important things to be doing, not just at work but in one's life?
A year ago, NPR compiled a top 300 list of best commencement speeches ever, ranging from 1774 to the present. Virginia is decently represented as a state: UVA, Virginia Tech, Sweet Briar (2), Liberty (2), William and Mary (2), Roanoke College, Eastern Mennonite University and Mary Washington all made the list at least once. Connecticut College either does a stellar job inviting commencement speakers or had an alum on the panel compiling the list - no less than 19 of their commencement addresses made the top 300.
This graphic is one of many from that site and it probably falls more in line with Brooks' eulogy virtues than resume. Who knows what great speeches will be added to the list of candidates this year? If you want to catch up on who is speaking where, check out this slideshow list from CNN. (UVA is going with comedian Ed Helms while Willam & Mary will have former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice address graduates.)
In this week's poll snapshot we look at that other question in the back of a graduates mind - am I ready for the working world? In our 2015 poll, we asked the public whether they thought college grads were ready for the world of work.
Below, we also excerpt Dr. Vacca's latest education law newsletter which deals with school responsibilities and potential liability when students with disabilities are bullied in a school environment. More on this topic next week.
Returning to the theme of commencement addresses, however, we leave you by sharing an invitation Dr. Bosher often gave to graduates when he was invited to speak at commencement exercises. Think of the 10 people who are most responsibile for helping you get to this point today. Then commit yourself to do two things:
- first, call or write to each of those 10 people and tell them what impact they had on your life because it will make their day;
- second, live life in the hope that you'll end up on the top 10 lists of other people's mentors.
Whatever graduations you get to witness this spring, may they be wonderful, rain or shine!
Sincerely,
CEPI
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Poll Snapshot: Are college graduates ready for the world of work?
One of the big questions on the minds of graduates (and their parents) may be this - do they have a job lined up? Behind this, though, is another potential question - are college graduates ready for the world of work. In this year's poll, we asked the following question:
“Thinking about students and their future, please tell me how much you agree or disagree with each of the following statements."
The chart below summarizes the responses about whether people agreed that college grads were ready for the world of work, alongside whether high school grads are ready for work, and whether high school grads are ready for college:
In general, 64% of the public agrees college grads are ready for the working world - though about a third disagree (25% somewhat and 10% strongly).
Women were slightly more likely than men to agree (68% vs 60%) that college grads were ready for the working world. Minorities were also slightly more likely than whites to feel the same (68% vs 62%).
Potentially the biggest difference among our standard breakdowns was in party affiliation. Seventy percent of Democrat identifiers agreed that college grads were ready, compared to 61% of Republican identifiers and only 51% of those who identified as independent.
(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 20 is cited above - topline results are on page 30 of the 2015 poll with demographic breakouts on page 63.)
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Bullying and Students with Educational Disabilities: Policy Implications
Overview
In Chapter Ten of our textbook my late co-author Bill Bosher and I include bullying as a part of our general discussion of student-on-student harassment. In our discussion we include a variety of cases where courts have held that school officials who exhibit deliberate indifference (i.e., know about or willfully avoid knowing about the possibility of serious harm to a student, but fail to take prompt and appropriate action) may be held liable when a student suffers harm. In these decisions the courts consistently rely on and expand a standard set by the United States Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe County School Board (1999) where, in a Title IX case, the Court opined that “in the context of student-on-student harassment, damages are available only where the behavior is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it denies its victims the equal access to education….” Subsequent courts applied the Davis standard to situations where the harassment (including bullying) actually created a “hostile learning environment” keeping the harassed student from accessing educational opportunities available to all students and from making “meaningful educational progress.” (See also, Vacca, 2012) In a footnote in our Chapter we make the following prediction: “the same elements of analysis will be used in a claim of student harassment based on educational disability, especially where the student victim has an I.E.P.” (Vacca and Bosher, 2012)
Students with Disabilities and Educational Progress. The primary intent of various federal and state statutes covering students with disabilities is fourfold. First, that students with disabilities not be discriminated against solely because of their disability. Second, that they receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE), including necessary related services, designed to meet their unique needs, in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Third, that they be included (not excluded) in all school (academic, social, and extra-curricular) offerings and activities, to the extent practicable, with their age appropriate peers, in general education settings. Fourth, as the United States Supreme Court opined in Board of Education v. Rowley (1982), that students with disabilities have access to a “meaningful educational program…a program designed to deliver educational benefit to that student.” Thus, the emphasis in post-Rowley court decisions has been on students with disabilities making meaningful and measurable educational progress, receiving some meaningful educational benefit, and not regressing. Where the matter involves the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2014), it is the student’s I.E.P. that serves as the fundamental document on which such a determination is made.
Recently I came across a very interesting federal district court case where plaintiff parents claimed that school officials failed to remedy bullying behavior by some students against their son (hereafter referred to as N.M.) and, as such, discriminated against and denied him FAPE under the mandates of special education law (IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act). The issue analysis and decision have implications for local school system policy.
To read the full brief, visit our website. |
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