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Recent State and Local Education News
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A team of investigators will look at records, data, and interview staff, parents, and students.
Parents concerned with the district's special education program went to Senator Bill Stanley last month. Senator Stanley brought it to the attention of the Department of Education. . .
Hampton's, Newport News' low graduation rates reflect common challenge: poverty
The Daily Press
October 23, 2015
Students in Hampton and Newport News graduate at a lower rate than the state and surrounding area, and experts and educators in Virginia point to one main contributing factor: poverty.
For the 2014-15 school year, 90.5 percent of all Virginia seniors graduated four years after entering high school. In Hampton, that rate was 88 percent, and in Newport News it was 89.5.
All other Peninsula-area school divisions — Gloucester, Isle of Wight, Mathews, Poquoson, Williamsburg-James City and York — boasted rates higher than the state average, and did in 2014, too. Newport News and Hampton have not exceeded the average Virginia rate in the eight years since a new system was put in place that tracks students entering ninth grade for the first time.. . .
McAuliffe emphasizes importance of STEM education at Loudoun schools’ challenge
Loudoun Times-Mirror
October 23, 2015
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said he wants Virginia to be the cyber capital of the world in his keynote speech at the Loudoun County Public Schools Challenge Thursday at the National Conference Center in Leesburg.
He told the Times-Mirror that STEM education is the key.
Virginia possesses a number of federal assets within cybersecurity realm. The FBI cyber headquarters is in Virginia, the state has 27 military installations, the largest Naval base in the world, the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters and Quantico, the governor said. The commonwealth also hosts more data centers than any other state in the county.. . .
Salem High School researching ways to make education more personalized
NBC 10 (WSLS)
October 22, 2015
Salem High School is researching ways to make education more personalized.
They’ve been presenting data to the Virginia Department of Education this week and making the case for education waivers.
Salem Schools got one of five $50,000 Virginia High School Innovation Planning Grants in the Commonwealth. They are working to help middle school students pinpoint a career pathway and design the high school experience around it.
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Recent National Education News
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Obama administration announces new testing guidelines
YourState.com
October 24, 2015
Stressed-out students nationwide, take note. Relief is on the way.
After years of complaints from teachers, parents and students alike, the Obama administration on Saturday announced new guidelines toward standardized tests, saying kids spend too much time taking "unnecessary" exams in schools.
In a Facebook video message, President Barack Obama said he hears from parents who worry about "too much testing, and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning."
"I want to fix that," he said.
The Department of Education said "the Administration bears some of the responsibility for" the issue, releasing a "Testing Action Plan" outlining new principles for measuring student aptitude. The plan says current policies have led to "unnecessary testing" with "not enough clarity of purpose."
The guidelines are recommendations for school districts to follow but are not binding regulations.
With Switch From Pencils To Computers, GED Gets Tougher For Inmates
NPR
October 25, 2015
High school graduation rates are on the rise across the country, except for one segment of the population: They've dropped dramatically for people in prison or jail who need to get their GED diplomas.
Since a new version of the General Education Development test came out last year, the pass rate for inmates has plummeted. Formerly, it was a multiple-choice test taken with a pencil. Not any longer: The test has joined the computer age, abandoning handwritten essays and instead requiring computer skills some inmates simply don't have.
At the Montgomery County jail in southwestern Virginia, a number of inmates have been having a hard time with the updated version.
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Where do Virginia students want to go to college?
This week, one Virginia paper published its School and College Guide, signaling that we've reached the time of year when many high school students are spending a stressful Saturday taking the SAT or ACT, both key college entrance exams that are looked at by many admissions departments.
A couple months ago when the ACT released its profile of 2015 graduates who had taken the ACT, we were intrigued by Table 4.3 in their
Virginia state profile. The table provides a breakdown of the universities and colleges to which students taking the test wanted their scores reported. Of the 40,875 score report requests, many were directed toward schools within the commonwealth. Virginia located schools made up the top 15 schools before the University of South Carolina - Columbia shows up. While students taking the ACT test and requesting to have their score sent to a university is not representative of students in general, we thought it might be interesting to map out which schools got the most requests. Follow
this link or click on the graphic below to check out the results.
One of the interesting results of this mapping is that the highest nationally ranked schools in Virginia (UVA and College of William and Mary) are not the ones receiving the most score reports. James Madison University and Virginia Tech top both the list of schools who were sent a score with any level preference (students can denote up to 6) and the list of schools who were sent the score as that student's 1st preference.
Part of this high-ranking is likely due to the size of Tech and JMU compared to schools we might assume students would be most interested in attending. However, if you look at either the map of schools or the box chart, the shades allow us to see another story. The darker the tone, the higher the percentage of students who sent their scores who also scored a 24 or higher on the ACT (this aligns to about the top quartile). Virginia Tech had 61% of students fall in this category but UVA and William and Mary had 77% and 76% respectively. Some level of self-selection seems to be in play where students with lower scores don't even ask for them to be sent to top ranked schools.
Likewise, some schools receive very few score reports from top quartile students. Hampton, Virginia State and Norfolk State all have less than 10% of their score reports coming from top quartile students. Since all three of these schools are historically black institutions, part of this phenomenon may be due to
reported cultural bias in college entrance exams.
Another interesting insight can be gained by looking at the bar chart that shows the number of first choice score reports a college received and is shaded based on the percentage of the total reports received that were first choice reports (essentially, is the school a "safety" or lower priority choice for a lot of students or do a high percentage that send their scores see that school as their first choice). On this measure, Liberty University stands out for having the highest percentage of first choice score reports (nearly 60%).
For those applying to college this fall, certainly one of the questions is the quality of schools to which they are applying. Our 2014-15 Commonwealth Education poll asked Virginians whether they think colleges and universities in the commonwealth are doing a good job and the general consensus is yes. The results are summarized in
this week's poll snapshot.
Also this week, we share a final
compilation of news stories about candidates running for General Assembly seats and their comments on education.
Sincerely,
CEPI
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Poll Snapshot - Performance in Higher Education
Students considering colleges in Virginia can draw information from a diverse range of rankings, websites and guides. But public evaluation of the quality of universities in Virginia are probably also relevant, both in type of college (four-year vs. community vs. internet-based) and in relation to specific schools.
This past year in our poll, we asked the public about the quality offered by those three types of higher education institutions. Strong majorities of Virginians think both four-year colleges and universities and community colleges are offering a quality education. Eighty percent say the quality of education at a four-year institution is good or excellent. Likewise, 78% say the same about community colleges.
Internet-based programs, where the degree is completed entirely online, received more mixed reviews. A narrow plurality of respondents, 44%, rated the educational quality of internet-based programs as either fair or poor, while 43% rated them as either excellent or good. Thirteen percent said they don’t know or declined to respond, potentially indicating that internet-based programs are still a less known option. Among different demographic groups, those with a H.S. diploma or less (48%) or some college (46%), as well as minority respondents (52%), more frequently evaluated online higher-education programs as being good or excellent.
When it comes to specific outcomes, strong majorities say Virginia colleges and universities are doing a good job in all four areas examined. Seventy-two percent of Virginians say colleges and universities are doing a good job in producing graduates in scientific fields and 69% said the same about providing the skills that will be useful in obtaining a job. Sixty-five percent say the state schools do a good job preparing students for the workforce needs for the future. A slightly smaller majority (62%) thinks they are doing a good job developing students’ writing and communication skills.
Different age groups evaluated higher education outcomes somewhat differently. Respondents in the 18-34 year-old group were significantly more positive about the performance of colleges and universities in the areas of producing graduates in the scientific fields (81% said good job) and in developing students’ writing and communication skills (76% said good job). This was different from other age groups, with the gap in perception being greatest when compared to respondents 65 or older where only 47% felt colleges were doing a good job at developing students’ writing and communication skills.
To read the full poll, visit our
website.
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Education and the 2015 Election
As we near the 2015 General Assembly elections, we once again compile excerpts of stories and op eds that report on and/or feature the voices of General Assembly candidates and that connect to their views on, or experience with, the education sector. CEPI does not endorse candidates and provides this compilation as a public service.
NEWS STORIES
Will the Peninsula's yo-yo seat swing again?
Daily Press
October 24, 2015
The only Virginia legislator in modern times to be jailed on federal corruption charges once had a lock on the 93rd House of Delegates district, but it has since been the General Assembly's yo-yo seat.
Now, Del. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, hopes his high-energy style on issues ranging from seniors to pre-school to transit will break that pattern and win him re-election.
His challenger, Republican Lara Overy, has a life story she thinks will resonate. She worked her way through college as a single mom when her oldest daughter's father died shortly before her birth.
Mason's community college bill was sidelined by Republican legislators who enacted a nearly identical bill sponsored by Del. David Ramadan, R-Loudoun. Mason was on the conference committee that negotiated the compromise that both House and Senate approved.
On education, he wants to see an expansion of preschool programs, and he successfully worked to get a representative of Colonial Williamsburg on the Standards of Learning Commission.
Overy would like to see Virginia push forward on virtual schools, charter schools and merit pay for teachers, all measures she says Mason has opposed.
10th district senate race heats up at VCU debate
CBS 6 (WTVR)
October 23, 2015
The race for the 10th district seat in Virginia’s state senate stopped by VCU’s University Commons Theater this week, featuring a town hall debate with Democratic candidate Dan Gecker, Republican Glen Sturtevant, Independent Marlene Durfee and Libertarian Carl Loser.
The candidates fielded many questions on topics ranging from college debt and sexual assault on campus to gun laws and minimum wage.
Black-McCabe Senate Race Tops Local General Assembly Contests
Leesburg Today
October 22, 2015
The battle for the state Senate’s 13th District almost certainly has been the bitterest legislative race in Loudoun this year, but it’s also arguably the marquee contest of the nine in the county.
The duel between Democratic challenger Jill McCabe and Republican incumbent Richard H. Black has drawn national attention, generated lots of campaign funds and is being closely watched, at least partially because the GOP controls the Senate by a margin of 21-19. . .
. . .However, in an interview, McCabe also decried the tolls, which would be levied on I-66 drivers inside the Beltway. And she did so even though they’re part of a plan by the administration of her party mate, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, that’s advertised as helping reduce gridlock in the corridor.
She also agreed with Black on concerns about the Common Core educational standards in place in Washington, DC, and in many states.
Black sponsored legislation this year that would have prohibited Virginia’s Board of Education from replacing the Standards of Learning school regulations with Common Core. It was approved by the House and Senate but vetoed successfully by McAuliffe.
Common Core, a program backed and bankrolled by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has been challenged by a broad-based group that includes conservatives and teachers’ unions, and McCabe said her worries about the standardized program have to do with the fact that not all children learn in the same way.
Common ground between the 13th District contenders seems harder to find on other issues.
1st Senate District race contrasts candidate views on education
Daily Press
October 17, 2015
Different approaches to education mark the two men seeking to represent voters in the state Senate's 1st District — along with agreement on an issue long associated with Newport News politicians: tighter regulation of high-interest loans that target the poor.
State Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News, has worked to boost public schools, with a years-long effort to reduce what he's successfully argued are an excessive number of Standards of Learning tests for elementary school pupils. Miller also argued successfully for bills to erase two key measures former Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed: an A-to-F grading system for schools and a state agency to take over failing schools, an agency that a Norfolk court ruled was unconstitutional.
"When you say a school is a C or a D or an F, kids will start saying I'm just a C kid or I'm just a D kid," Miller said. "What's important is to ensure we have strong and vibrant public schools."
Republican challenger Mark Matney, a Newport News lawyer making his first run for office, thinks state policy should shift, either by trying for a state takeover of failing schools or by encouraging school choice — basically, providing public support for families who send children to private schools or who home-school.
"If you don't do one or the other, what you're saying is some kids are just going to be stuck in bad schools," he said.
Mason holds meeting with college students
Virginia Gazette
October 16, 2015
Del. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, had a meet and greet Thursday evening with the Virginia 21 chapter at the College of William & Mary.
Virginia 21 is a non-partisan group that advocates on issues affecting students.
The appearance was originally planned as a debate, but Mason's opponent Lara Overy declined the invitation.
Thursday there were about 30 students present to listen to remarks from Mason and ask questions.
Among the issues discussed were sexual assault on campus legislation which came up as the result of the abduction and slaying of a University of Virginia student last year.
Gary McCollum's jab about leadership draws Frank Wagner's ire during debate
The Virginian-Pilot
October 2, 2015
The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce debate was moderated by Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
It included a discussion of education, the economy, transportation, McCollum's military record and a remark Wagner recently made that was described as divisive by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.
McCollum called for more spending for education and said good teachers are leaving because pay is too low.
The 7th District is one of a handful of competitive Senate races that Gov. Terry McAuliffe hopes will shift control back to Democrats.
Wagner offered a warning about that possibility.
"You're going to have deja vu," he said. "I'll take you back to the last two-year budget. Held up by the Democrats.... Localities now couldn't plan their budgets because they didn't know how much they were going to get. School boards couldn't plan their budgets."
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