State & Local Policy

At NAACP meeting, McAuliffe announces initiative to address school discipline
Richmond Times Dispatch
October 30, 2015

Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Friday that state officials will soon begin working with local school systems on a new initiative aimed at decreasing student suspensions, expulsions and referrals to law enforcement.

In a speech to the statewide NAACP conference at the Omni Richmond Hotel, the governor said his “Classrooms not Courtrooms” initiative will have a particular focus on reducing the disproportionate police referrals for minority students and students with disabilities.

“The disproportionate use of school discipline on African-Americans and students with disabilities is totally unacceptable here in Virginia,” McAuliffe told the luncheon crowd.

Chesterfield abandons plan for school bus cameras after AG ruling
Richmond Times Dispatch
October 28, 2015

Chesterfield County Public Schools on Thursday officially abandoned a long-running push to install cameras on school buses that would catch drivers who pass illegally while children are loading and unloading from buses.

The decision comes after Attorney General Mark R. Herring issued an opinion saying the programs aren’t authorized under state law.
Previously, Board of Supervisors members voiced concern about the prospect of bringing ticket-generating video enforcement cameras into the county.

The board had delayed action on the proposal three times since it first came before the panel a year ago.

Va. schools participating in free lunch/breakfast program up 139 percent
Richmond Times Dispatch
October 28, 2015

The number of Virginia schools that have signed up for a federal program to feed children living in poverty has jumped by 139 percent this school year, giving more than 56,000 kids access to free lunch and breakfast.

In all, 206 schools across 26 divisions statewide have decided to take advantage of the Community Eligibility Provision, a program that uses federal money to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students in qualifying school districts.

That’s up from 86 schools in 11 divisions last school year.
“The impressive gains we’ve seen in adoption of the Community Eligibility Provision over the past year prove that we are addressing a critical issue in our communities,” Secretary of Education Anne Holton said in a statement.

U-Va. waged intense fight to influence federal sexual assault investigation
Washington Post
November 3, 2015

The University of Virginia waged an intense fight over the summer to influence the conclusions of a federal investigation into sexual violence at the school, newly obtained documents show, while the state’s governor personally pressed the nation’s top education official to ensure the elite public flagship would not be unfairly tarnished.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to give U-Va. a chance to review findings from the four-year investigation of the school’s record on sexual assault before they were made public, saying that he feared U-Va. was being denied “very basic requirements of due process.”

Federal Policy

Education Dept., DOJ back Virginia transgender teen in school restroom dispute
Fox News
October 30, 2015

Schools can't prevent transgender students from using the restrooms that correspond with their gender identities without violating federal law, the Obama administration says.

The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice made that argument in a friend-of-the-court brief submitted late Wednesday in support of a Virginia teenager who is suing for access to the boys' restrooms at his high school.

The government's filing says a Gloucester County School Board policy that requires 16-year-old junior Gavin Grimm to use either the girls' restrooms or a unisex bathroom constitutes unlawful bias under Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

The Costs of English-Only Education
The Atlantic
November 2, 2015

In 1998, Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire and former gubernatorial candidate, set out to abolish bilingual education in California. Fueled by an anti-immigrant climate, Unz spearheaded a statewide campaign for Proposition 227, a highly controversial state initiative that required schools to teach language-minority students almost entirely in English. The ballot measure passed with 61 percent of the vote and made California the first state to prohibit bilingual programs in schools, radically altering the education of hundreds of thousands of children. Now almost 17 years later, while the political tensions remain, a reversal is underway, powered largely by findings that bilingual instruction is what’s best for English language learners.

Nationally, bilingual education has been rechristened “dual-language programs” and is gaining fresh appeal. The templates of dual-language instruction vary—some programs transition students into English-only after several years while others emphasize ongoing two-language immersion at different ratios—but the common strand is an attempt to build literacy and proficiency in more than one language.

Bill Gates at Clemson: U.S. education reform 'frustrating'
Greenville Online
November 2, 2015

At Clemson University on Monday afternoon, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates called his foundation’s work to improve the United States education system the most difficult of its many initiatives, but told a crowd of Clemson students that if they get frustrated at the lack of change in American education policy, they should “go into a charter school” to see quality change.

Education reform and global health — two initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — dominated an hour-long question-and-answer session inside Tillman Hall with Gates.

Sen. Lindsey Graham told the crowd Gates was a friend and came to Clemson at his request after Graham spoke with Clemson President Jim Clements. Earlier in the day, Gates met with first generation college students and students who were recipients of Gates Millennium Scholarships, which are funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Through Education, Youth Act to Prevent Violence Against Women
Huffington Post
November 3, 2015

Dina Hossam, 21, from Cairo, Egypt, dreams of a world without violence against women. “It’s a world where I don’t have to take my brother with me for my protection when I go out.”

Dina is the youngest participant in the most recent Training of Trainers workshop for UN Women’s Voices against Violence project, in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and with the support of Zonta International. From 18-22 October in New York, the workshop brought together 45 youth leaders from the girl guiding movement in Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Slovenia, Tunisia and the United States of America, to learn how to deliver a unique non-formal education curriculum that aims to prevent violence against women and girls.

How did school systems do in latest accreditation?

Yesterday was election day, and the balance of the state Senate may have a big impact on membership on the Education and Health committee.  But we wanted to start writing before all the results were in, so we'll leave a discussion of the election until next week.  
 
Possibly more important in the education world, however, are the latest accreditation ratings for Virginia schools.  Last week the Governor announced the headline number for the lastest round of accreditation evaluations by the Virginia Board of Education - a 10% increase in the share of schools across the state that were fully accredited.  The news release that accompanied the announcement noted that "seventy-eight percent (78%), or 1,414, of Virginia’s 1,823 public schools are rated as Fully Accredited for the 2015-2016 school year, based on the performance of students on Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in English, mathematics, science and history during 2014-2015."

Coverage by the Richmond Times Dispatch published detailed tables of schools and their ratings in the next day's physical paper and also created a portal where anyone can look up any school system in the state.  We're big fans of data, but looking through all the numbers can make one a bit cross-eyed.  We wondered what the variation looked like across the state - the details inside that positive headline number.   

First we were interested in what percentage of schools in each school system were fully accredited.  So we mapped that data for each of the systems in the commonwealth and shaded the system based on whether it was above or below the state-wide average of 78%.  (This means if you're school system is shaded light red, don't panic yet - in small school systems, having one school fail to receive full accreditation would put the system below the statewide average.) 


A couple take-aways from this are fairly clear - Northern Virginia and much of the Southwest of the state is above the state average.  Southside school systems as well as many urban school systems face consistent challenges.  But click on the map and you'll be able to see the percent of schools that received full accreditation more clearly.   

Another key question is which systems have the most schools that are not fully accredited.  This graphic sizes school system squares on that basis, making it easier to see that just under 25% of the schools that are not fully accredited are in four school systems - Richmond City, Norfolk City, Newport News and Henrico County. The shading here is done on the same basis as the map above and the percent of schools that are fully accredited in the school system is also listed.  So while Fairfax County has 15 schools that are not fully accredited, that is less than 8% of the total since 92.2% are fully accredited.

The ratings used by the state also changed this year to provide greater nuance on how schools that miss full accreditation are doing.  New designations were created for a school that is within 2% of the required pass rate ("Approaching benchmark") or which has shown significant improvement in the past year ("Improving School").  There are several other designations, but for the full details on definitions, we'll refer you to the VDOE guide. 

The diagram below (aside from making us think about holiday tree ornaments) again shows the share of schools that missed full accreditation by school system but is now shaded (and labled) by what percent of schools that missed the mark were either "approaching" or "improving."  So Chesapeake City and Prince William County had a number of schools (11 and 8 respectively) miss the mark for full accreditation, but more than half of those were either close or showing strong improvement.  


If you look at the underlying presentation on our Tableau gallery, you'll also see maps that show the number and location of those improving and approaching schools.  

With this review of accreditation numbers, we thought we would review how the public feels about the SOLs and their impact on school system accountability in this weeks  Poll Snapshot.  Read below for more detail.

Finally, we're proud to present an excerpt of a special November Education Law newsletter, written by our summer legal research associate, Emily Smith, who recently started her second year at University of Richmond's Law School.  The topic of the brief is the legal limits schools face when managing off-campus communication over social media.  Dr. Vacca, our senior fellow, continues to edit the CEPI Education Law Newsletter. 

We hope you have a great week!

Sincerely,
CEPI

Poll Snapshot:  Are SOLs Worth It?

Excerpted from our November  Ed Law Newsletter
By Emily E. Smith - CEPI Summer Legal Intern
Law Student, University of Richmond School of Law

"Suggestions for School Policies
It seems clear that a majority of circuits believe Tinker can be suitably applied to off-campus student speech. Thus, schools may prohibit off-campus student cyber-speech that “might reasonably [lead] school authorities to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.” Wynar v. Douglas Cnty. Sch. Dist., 728 F.3d 1062 (9th Cir. 2013) (quoting Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506, 89 S. Ct. 733, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731 (1969)). However, there are other considerations school administrators must take into account before disciplining students for off-campus speech.

The Second Circuit’s “Foreseeability” Standard
The Second Circuit’s “foreseeability” standard, also embraced by the Fourth and Eight Circuits, first considers whether the student could reasonably foresee that the speech would reach the school before applying the substantial disruption or material interference test from Tinker.

Under this foreseeability analysis, school administrators should evaluate how the student shared the speech by considering factors such as: (a) whether the speech was posted on a public or private site; (b) whether it was sent to members of the community or the school system; and (c) whether it was accessed on school property. One must remember, however, that the fundamental issue is whether the student could have reasonably expected the speech to remain private, or whether it was reasonably foreseeable that the speech would reach the school’s campus. If the administrator finds that the speech passes the reasonable foreseeability test, the next step is Tinker’s substantial disruption or material interference standard.

Offensive Speech Aimed at School Employees
When evaluating offensive off-campus student cyber-speech aimed at school employees, school administrators should consider: (a) the degree to which the speech was seen by school and community members; (b) the believability of the speech; (c) whether the speech had an impact on the employee’s ability to perform their administrative duties; (d) the actual impact on school activities resulting from the speech; and (e) whether the employee’s fitness as a school administrator was brought into question.
None of these questions are dispositive, however, as seen in the Third Circuit’s Blue Mountain decision. J.S. ex rel. Snyder v. Blue Mountain School District. 650 F.3d 915 (3rd Cir. 2011). Though the student’s fake MySpace profile parodying her middle-school principal created "general rumblings" at the school and disrupted one teacher’s class, the Third Circuit held that the profile was so outrageous in nature that no reasonable person would take it seriously. Id. at 922-23.

Thus, unless administrators can show that a student’s off-campus offensive speech aimed at a school employee actually caused a disruption in the school or would likely do so without administrative action, merely angering or embarrassing an employee is not enough to constitute a substantial or material disruption and warrant disciplinary action.

Offensive Speech Aimed at Students
When evaluating offensive off-campus student cyber-speech aimed at fellow students, school administrators should consider whether the speech: (a) was intended to be accessed by students at the school; (b) caused the targeted student to suffer increased bullying or harassment; (c) affected the targeted student’s school performance or participation in school activities; or (d) caused violent conflicts between students. If school administrators can show that the off-campus speech caused any of the above circumstances to occur, it is likely the school system would have strong grounds to impose disciplinary action."