Compass Point
A Weekly Collection of Data, Articles and Insights from the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
A project of the Center for Public Policy
State & Local Education News
Virginia education secretary studies Moneta personalized learning program
CBS 7 - WDBJ
May 6, 2016

Bedford County's method of tailoring education for individual students has grabbed the attention of Virginia's Education Secretary.

Anne Holton toured Moneta Elementary School Friday morning to see its personalized learning program.

WDBJ7 first told you about the program last fall, which gives students more control over what they learn. Teachers craft the assignments, but it's up to the child to decide which tasks to complete and how long they want to spend on each project.


Public School Teacher Joins Virginia Board of Education
Community Idea Stations
May 4, 2016

The newest member of Virginia’s State Board of Education is a 29-year-old public school teacher and the Vice Mayor of Charlottesville. “I believe in making sure that we give the kids everything we can to be successful. That’s my job as a teacher,” says Bellamy. “I’m literally getting paid a salary to do something that I love to do and in the meantime, while I’m loving doing my job, I’m getting to help people, what’s better than that?”

For Learning Curve, Catherine Komp sat down with Wes Bellamy at the James Monroe building in downtown Richmond before his first meeting with the Virginia Board of Education. Bellamy talks about his experiences working with young people, inside and outside the classroom; what he sees as the biggest challenges in education today; and his views on addressing the achievement gap.


Teacher-Performance Scores Primed for Release in Virginia
Education Week
May 4, 2016

The Old Dominion state is the latest to turn over data on teacher performance as measured by student achievement, this time to a parent who requested it under an open-records law.

Loudoun Now reports that a state judge ruled last month that the state must turn over growth data on Loudoun County, Va., schools and teachers to a parent, Brian Davison, who has sought the information for several years.

A state law in 2013 made "teacher performance indicators and other data" used to evaluate teachers confidential, except persuant to a court order. Davison has published some teacher data from the state in the past, but teachers' names were redacted. The judge ruled that the district didn't show enough evidence as to why teachers' names should be withheld under the state's freedom of information laws.

 

National & Federal Education News

Charlotte News & Observer
May 10, 2016


North Carolina’s Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have given the Department of Education until Friday to say whether officials will punish the state for its controversial HB2 law by withholding federal funds from public schools and universities.

All 10 GOP representatives from the Tar Heel state signed a letter Monday to U.S. Secretary of Education John King, saying they are “troubled by the threat . . . (to) withhold federal funding from North Carolina in response to the enforcement of House Bill 2.”


North Carolina receives about $4.5 billion from the federal government annually in education funding.

Their letter asserts that North Carolina’s new law – which, among other things, prohibits transgender people from using bathrooms that don’t correspond to their birth sex – does not violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Title IX regulations, which aim to ensure equality in public schools.

 

Federal government urges colleges to limit inquiries about criminal records
Washington Post
May 9, 2016

Colleges should limit their use of questions about criminal records in the admissions process because the inquiries may unfairly deter many disadvantaged students from pursuing higher education, the federal government said in a new report.

Education Secretary John B. King Jr. discussed the report Monday in Los Angeles.

“We believe in second chances and we believe in fairness,” King said in a statement. “The college admissions process shouldn’t serve as a roadblock to opportunity, but should serve as a gateway to unlocking untapped potential of students.”

 

 

Are community college graduates workforce ready?

This week we continue a series of newsletters looking at workforce preparation and education.   Last week we looked at how people viewed focused career preparation in the final two years of high school and noted that much of the public in Viriginia (72%) favor a high school structure where 11th and 12th grades allow students to focus on their desired career.  

Part of this support for a curriculum shift may be due to the fact that many respondents don't currently see a high school graduate as being ready for the world of work.  This week we wanted to look more closely at these numbers in our Poll Snapshot, for high school, college and community college.  (This past year marked the first time we specifically asked about the workforce readiness of community college graduates.)  

To explain why this is an important issue, several factors should be considered. As we noted last week, a college degree is associated with increased earnings later in life.  But so to is earning an associates degree, a credential that is often associated with community college.  Alongside the increasing costs of college, concern over the rising burden of student loans and a shrinking ability of some parents to be able to cover the costs for four years of college, an associates degree or spending two years at a community college prior to finishing a bachelors degree at a four-year school both may be attractive options.  


Check out our Poll Snapshot to see how community college graduates are viewed by the public, in terms of how ready they are for the world of work and how ready they are for a four-year school.  A number of news outlets recently reflected on the 50th anniversary of the community college system here in Virginia, including the Roanoke Times, and the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal.  

Also check out our second excerpt from our final General Assembly wrap-up issue.  

We hope you have a great week!


Sincerely,
CEPI
Poll Snapshot - Career Focus in Grades 11, 12
Workforce readiness is a key area for policymakers because of its connection to attracting business to the commonwealth and long-term economic growth. Workforce development, though often thought of in terms of higher education, is also a topic in K-12 discussions both in terms of immediate readiness to join the workforce and preparation to pursue further training in college. To get a sense of public perception on how ready graduates of high school, community college and four-year colleges are, we asked respondents about how prepared graduates of each level are to move into the next phase. The responses suggest that the public generally thinks high school graduates are not ready to join the workforce, but have been prepared to go to college. College graduates, whether from a community college or a four-year institution, are perceived as ready for the working world.


Increasingly, workforce development policy-makers have seen community colleges as a key catalyst for workforce readiness. Based on the responses to the poll, almost 3 in 4 members of the public (73%) see community college graduates as ready to join the workforce. Women (77%) were more likely to agree than men (69%) with the readiness of community college graduates. Likewise, 77% of those with an education level of a college degree or more were more likely to agree with the statement, compared to 73% of those with some college and 68% of those with a high school diploma or less.

In addition to seeing community college graduates as workforce ready, the public overwhelmingly sees them as being “ready for a four-year college or university.” Eighty-eight percent (88%) agreed strongly or somewhat with that statement, with 38% agreeing strongly. The rate of agreement was 24% higher than what was registered for high school graduates, suggesting that community college is seen as a useful stepping stone to a four-year degree. Parents of Virginia college students (at 43%) were more likely to strongly agree than were non-parents (35%). Additionally, 42% of Democrats strongly agreed, compared to 36% of Independents and 32% of Republicans.

Read the full poll results, including breakdowns for all categories on  our website
General Assembly Update - Final Wrap Up
Excerpted from CEPI's General Assembly Update, written by Policy Analyst David Blount.  The update was published weekly during the General Assembly session.  This comes from the final issue summarizing legislation that was adopted and signed into law by the Governor.  

"Instruction, Assessment and Accountability

HB 36 (R.P. Bell) requires instruction in high school government courses to include all information and concepts contained in the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test.

HB 241 (Lingamfelter) and SB 538 (Surovell) require the Board of Education (BOE) to consider assessments aligned to the Standards of Learning (SOL) that are structured in a way that measures the content knowledge of students who are English language learners and that may be administered to such students as BOE-approved alternatives to SOL end-of-course English reading assessments.

HB 381 (Greason) requires the BOE to prescribe alternative methods of assessment administration for children with disabilities who meet criteria established by the Board to demonstrate achievement on the SOL; an eligible student's Individual Education Program team shall decide whether such alternative method is appropriate for the student.

HB 436 (Austin) requires the Department of Education (DOE) to award recovery credit to any student in grades three through eight who fails an English reading or mathematics SOL test, receives remediation, and subsequently retakes and passes such an assessment.

HB 525 (LeMunyon) requires the SOL Innovation Committee to review and make recommendations to the BOE and the General Assembly on the number, subjects and question composition of standardized tests administered to high school students.

HB 659 (Filler-Corn) requires high school family life education curricula to incorporate age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs on the prevention of dating violence, domestic abuse, sexual harassment and sexual violence.

HB 831 (Greason) requires the SOL and the K-12 program of instruction in public schools to include computer science and computational thinking, including computer coding.

HB 895 (Greason) and SB 336 (Miller) require the BOE to utilize stakeholders in developing and implementing a “Profile of a Virginia Graduate” that identifies the knowledge and skills students should attain during high school, with consideration given to critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication and citizenship. Such profile also will emphasize the development of core skill sets in the early years of high school and establish multiple paths toward college and career readiness for students in the later years of high school. Each pathway shall include opportunities for internships, externships, and credentialing. New graduation requirements, which will remove existing provisions related to standard and advanced studies diplomas and standard and verified units of credit, will apply to students who enroll in high school as freshmen after July 1, 2018.

SB 427 (Miller) prohibits the BOE from including in its calculation of the passage rate of an SOL assessment for the purposes of state accountability, any student whose parent has decided not to have his child take such test, unless such exclusion would result in the school not meeting any required state or federal participation rate."


(To read the full update, visit our website.)