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| State & Local Education News |
Bill on Virginia high school graduation requirements passes House
The Virginian-Pilot
February 22, 2016
The House of Delegates on Monday passed, by a 99-1 vote, a bill that would alter high school graduation requirements in Virginia.
State Sen. John Miller’s bill, SB336, would require the state Board of Education to work with school and community leaders to establish a “Profile of a Virginia Graduate.”
Instead of focusing on traditional graduation requirements, the profile would identify the knowledge and skills needed to successfully contribute to Virginia’s economy, the bill says. It would emphasize the development of core skill sets in the early years of high school, then require students in later years to move toward college or career readiness, possibly through internships.
The bill requires the Board of Education to establish the new graduation requirements no later than Sept. 1, 2017, and says they would apply to each student who enrolls in high school as a freshman after July 1, 2018.
Va. lawmakers: Pay raise for teachers, but no Medicaid expansion
The Washington Post
February 21, 2016
House and Senate finance committees on Sunday unveiled dueling two-year budget proposals that reject Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s vision for Medicaid expansion but pour big money into his top priorities: education and economic development.
The spending plans take different approaches to giving schools greater flexibility in how they spend tax dollars and give lawmakers and businesspeople more authority to shape the state’s approach to diversifying and growing the economy.
McAuliffe (D) and the legislature both propose 2 percent pay raises for public school teachers. The House also wants to give state employees a 3 percent pay raise in the year starting July 1 and a 1 percent raise the following year as long as revenue meets projections, while the Senate plan calls for a 2 percent raise in the first year.
Proposed law would allow Virginia schools more armed security options
ABC 3 (WHSV)
February 19, 2016
We're learning more about a bill that aims to arm more school security personnel with guns. The bill in the Virginia General Assembly would allow school security officers to carry guns, under certain restrictions.
We stopped by Harrisonburg High School to find out what leaders in our area schools think about the proposal. Harrisonburg High School already has school resource officers, who already carry guns in the halls. But, House Bill 1234 would also allow school security officers also to carry firearms if they meet two requirements.
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National & Federal Education News
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Obama Administration Launches Two Initiatives Targeting Absenteeism
Education Week
February 19, 2016
The White House and U.S. Department of Education announced two initiatives on Friday designed to raise awareness about and combat chronic absenteeism in schools.
The Success Mentors Initiative, which will be under the administration's My Brother's Keeper umbrella, will focus on using school personnel to work closely with students in schools to monitor their attendance, provide support, and connect them to other educational resources. And the Absences Add Up public relations campaign will try to highlight the issue for parents, particularly for those with children in elementary and middle schools.
Both efforts are part of the "Every Student, Every Day" campaign that President Barack Obama's administration unveiled last October, and which involves the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice, as well as the Education Department. The campaign is designed to highlight and present solutions to the estimated 5 million to 7.5 million students the Obama adminstration says are chronically absent from school every year, or those who miss at least 10 percent (roughly 18 days) of school. They also build on recommendations from the My Brother's Keeper task force.
Governors urge federal restraint in new K-12 law
The Tennessean
February 21
Governors from around the country praised a new federal K-12 education law on Sunday, but some aren't convinced Washington bureaucrats will stay out of their way as states implement it.
The governors, in Washington for the National Governors Association's winter meeting, credited the new law with limiting federal control over local schools. But some said they're on the lookout for hidden federal mandates on elementary and secondary education policy.
They plan to monitor the U.S. Education Department “to ensure that it adheres closely to the principles of federalism,” said Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.
The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed by President Obama in December, leaves it up to states to set their own academic standards, decide the role of test scores in measuring school quality and dictate state plans for improving underperforming schools.
A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding
The New York Times
February 21, 2016
When the Kentucky governor, Matt Bevin, suggested last month that students majoring in French literature should not receive state funding for their college education, he joined a growing number of elected officials who want to nudge students away from the humanities and toward more job-friendly subjects like electrical engineering.
Frustrated by soaring tuition costs, crushing student loan debt and a lack of skilled workers, particularly in science and technology, more and more states have adopted the idea of rewarding public colleges and universities for churning out students educated in fields seen as important to the economy.
When it comes to dividing the pot of money devoted to higher education, at least 15 states offer some type of bonus or premium for certain high-demand degrees, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“There will be more incentives to electrical engineers than French literature majors, there just will,” Mr. Bevin, a Republican, said after announcing his spending plan. “All the people in the world who want to study French literature can do so; they’re just not going to be subsidized by the taxpayers like engineers will be, for example.”
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Why are there so few charter schools in Virginia?
As our latest
General Assembly Update points out, this past week there were several interesting votes related to efforts to change laws that govern the establishment of charter schools in Virginia. The efforts to reduce the ability of local school boards to have unilateral say on whether charter schools can be set up within their district would require both approval by the General Assembly and a voter referendum this coming fall. Though the
Senate's version of the voter referendum legislation was surprisingly defeated on Feb. 15, the Senate version of the underlying legislation passed the Senate and is currently before the House Committee on Education. The voter referendum bill from the House (HB3) was also narrowly approved and is currently before the Senate. Togther these mean the potential for a voter referendum is still alive but facing an uncertain future. Its success or failure will be a closely watched drama over the next few weeks. Given the debate, we thought we would review some of our past poll data on charter schools, as well as look at why changing the status quo may be so difficult.
First though, a quick review of where Virginia falls among the states when it comes to charter schools. As the map below shows, there are relatively few charter schools in Virginia and the students attending them make up less than 1% of all students. The
Dept. of Education lists nine active schools in the state. This contrasts strikingly with the District of Columbia, where more than 37% of students now attend charters.
The limited number in Virginia is due, in part, to the requirement that local school boards must approve the creation of a charter school within their jurisdiction, a decision that boards are sometimes reluctant to make if the charter is seen as competing with existing schools.
Given this limited number of schools, it's safe to say that most Virginians don't have first hand experience with charters. Yet in past CEPI Education polls, a majority of respondents have supported charter school programs (61% in 2013; 56% in 2010). A relatively large portion of respondents (15% in 2013) responded that they didn't know whether or not they did.
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There were significant regional differences on this issue. South Central Virginia was the most likely to support the concept of charter schools with 70% in favor. Tidewater and Northern Virginia also had clear majorities in support, with 64% and 60%, respectively. The Northwest and the West regions were the least likely to support, with 54% and 53% respectively.
Given this support, one might expect it to be easy to enact legislative change on the issue and for a change to be approved by voters in a referendum. But while there is support for charters overall, support for giving charters greater freedom from local school boards via a change in the constitution was very mixed. In 2012-13 when we last asked this question, only 42% favored changing the constitution while 41% were opposed. Critically, 18% said they didn't know whether they favored or opposed the idea.
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Looking at the comparison between 2013 and 2010, there may have been some movement toward greater support for charter schools as those in favor of each question increased by five percentage points. However, this increase is still within the poll's margin of error, so we can't be sure. However, the large percentage of respondents who said they didn't know what they thought on the issue indicates that if the question does go to a public referendum in November, efforts to educate those who are undecided may be a critical factor in which way the vote goes.
(To read the full results of any of our Education Polls, visit our
website. In the 2012-13 poll, the questions discussed above are 13 and 14..)
This week, be sure to also check out the
excerpt of Dr. Vacca's most recent Education Law Newsletter, which focuses on age discrimination in educational settings.
We hope you have a great week!
Sincerely,
CEPI
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General Assembly Update - Week 5
Excerpted from CEPI's
General Assembly Update, written by Policy Analyst David Blount. The update will be published weekly during the General Assembly session.
"Overview/Budget Issues
General Assembly money committees are poised to release their proposed amendments to the introduced budget this coming weekend. The House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees have been busy this past week crafting the spending plans they will propose. The committees will outline their recommendations on Sunday; line item amendments should be available by Tuesday and floor votes on the respective plans are expected next Thursday.
House and Senate leaders confirmed this past week, to no one’s surprise, that they will reject the governor’s Medicaid expansion plan and the cost items linked to the projected savings. Additionally, House leaders previewed their coming budget announcement late in the week. Among their proposals will be a plan to accelerate the $189.5 million repayment to the VRS for the contribution rate deferrals from 2010. Pay raises for state employees would be targeted for the first year of the biennium. Teacher salary increases were not specifically mentioned, but recall that the governor’s introduced budget included the state share of a 2% teacher pay hike in FY18.
Click
here for additional information about Governor McAuliffe's proposed changes to the public education budget for the remainder of FY16; and
here for the proposed FY17/FY18 education budget.
Education Legislation
This past week, several education bills received significant debate as each chamber cleared its docket of its own bills. After a long debate the previous week on
HB 565, the House defeated the bill on a 53 to 46 vote on Monday. The measure would have revised the existing charter school law to correspond to legislation that calls for a voter referendum at the November election on whether to grant the Board of Education (BOE) the authority to establish charter schools within local school divisions. Recall that the House approved its referendum legislation the week before. However, on the Senate side, its voter referendum bills,
SJ 6 and
SB 588, were defeated on close votes on Monday. The same day, the Senate debated
SB 734, its counterpart to HB 565. In an unusual twist, that bill was approved on a party-line 21 to 19 vote.
(To read the full update, visit our
website.)
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Age Discrimination and Employment: Policy Implications
Excerpted from from Dr. Vacca's
February 2016 Education Law Newsletter.
Overview
Employment law is one body of law where the “but for factor” seems ever present—more specifically, in cases where the plaintiff claims discrimination. For example, in such cases individuals might make the following claims: While I am qualified for the job, “but for my race,” or “but for my ethnicity,” or “but for my religion,” or “but for my gender,” I would have been hired as a teacher, or promoted to assistant principal, or retained in my tenured position.
For the past several years, beginning with the United States Supreme Court’s landmark Title VII (CRA, 1964) decision in Griggs v. Duke Power (1971), employment discrimination claims involving local public school systems have made their way into a federal court. As a general rule, post-Griggs courts have focused attention on the relationship, if any, between essential job-related criteria, job performance, and job effectiveness. (Vacca and Bosher, 2012)
In my view, in addition to requiring more specific job descriptions and expectations, the Supreme Court’s causation standard highlighted the importance of and need for documentation (i.e., results of procedurally fair formative and summative evaluations) of employee performance over a specified timeline. Direct evidence of employee performance would be needed to defeat an allegation of pretext.
Policy Implications
For public school officials and administrators the value and policy implications of Bordelon v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago (7th Cir. 2016) are found in the Seventh Circuit’s analysis and reasoning. The Court offers an excellent example of the judicial analysis consistently applied by federal courts in employment discrimination cases post- Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971), where the “but for factor” element (i.e., allegation of pretext) is the focus. More specifically, in placing a burden on an employee to demonstrate, by direct evidence, an employer’s discriminatory intent, and on an employer to demonstrate reliance on job-related decision making criteria, fairness and balance are achieved.
What follow are implications for local school system policy gleaned from the Seventh Circuit’s decision. Generally stated these are that school board policy must make it clear that:
- The personnel evaluation process is intended to improve employee job performance and in doing so enhance employee development and improve access to educational opportunities for all students in the school system.
- Board expectations for employee on-the-job performance are made clear to all employees.
- Personnel decisions are based on valid and reliable job-related criteria.
- Methods and procedures used to evaluate employees are directly related to and measure on-the-job effectiveness.
- Results of employee evaluations are shared with employees in a timely manner.
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