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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
Terry McAuliffe slams Rolling Stone's 'abject failure of accountability'
Politico
April 6, 2015
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday slammed Rolling Stone magazine for the “abject failure of accountability” that led to the discredited story “A Rape on Campus.”
Columbia Journalism School published a 12,000-word report on Sunday that detailed numerous reporting, editing and fact-checking errors that led to the publication in November 2014 of an erroneous account of a 2012 gang rape at a UVA fraternity house. Upon publication of the Columbia report, the magazine retracted the article and Managing Editor Will Dana offered an apology on behalf of the publication.
The Virginia Board of Education approved at its March 26 meeting a resolution allowing so-called "expedited" retakes of SOL tests immediately, according to a statement from the Virginia Department of Education. So the retakes can be taken this semester, before the end of the school year.
Virginia, N.C. and 3 others receive education waivers
The Virginia Pilot
April 1, 2015
Five states will remain exempt from the key parts of No Child Left Behind for up to four years, freeing them from the most onerous requirements of the main federal education law that left many schools facing sanctions.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Tuesday that the states - Virginia, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico and North Carolina - were approved for waivers under a fast-track process. The states were eligible for expedited treatment because federal education officials said they were meeting their commitments under their respective waivers.
Defenders of excessive and high-stakes testing rely on two major arguments: frequent testing is good for children and schools, and too many refusals will lead to a loss of federal funds for the students’ district.
The first claim is increasingly ineffective. Growing numbers of parents recognize that standardized exam overkill does not improve educational quality or equity. On the contrary, it pushes schools into incessant test prep mode and emotionally damages many children. Each week, more and more parents choose to protect their children and schools by refusing the tests. They don’t buy the argument that a small reduction in testing volume will solve the problem. Instead, they demand a fundamental overhaul of federal, state and district policies.
Nation’s largest teachers union launches ad campaign as Congress debates No Child Left Behind
The Washington Post
April 6, 2015
As Congress debates how to rewrite No Child Left Behind, the nation’s largest teachers union is launching a $500,000 ad campaign urging lawmakers to reach a deal that reduces the focus on standardized testing.
The National Education Association says its 3 million members instead want to see lawmakers find ways to highlight and address disparities in resources among schools.
“Testing cannot close the gap between wealthy schools and poor schools,” a teacher’s aide says in the ad.
“We need to lower the class sizes so that each student can get that one-on-one attention that they need,” says a second-grade teacher.
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How do we teach the difficult parts of history?
This past week marked the Sesquicentennial anniversary of Union troops entering Richmond, an event that was followed quickly by Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomatox. As an event that touched on the bloodiest military conflict in U.S. history, the original sin of slavery and emancipation, as well as the questions of the role of the Confederate states as they re-entered the Union, commemorating it also touches on some of the most pronounced scars in our history.
For teachers, knowing how best to teach about such times in history can be difficult and requires a good bit of thought about how to teach about them, as is evidenced by this blog from one teacher in Illinois. While controversies over how to teach the Civil War are less pronounced in recent years, the controversy this past year about approaches to teaching the events of 9/11 are a case in point.
The commemorations in Richmond over the weekend came about after a significant public dialogue about how to best commemorate the Sesquicentennial, an effort gathered under the banner of The Future of Richmond's Past.
Christy Coleman, co-CEO of the American Civil War Museum, saluted the wide-ranging group that worked to plan the anniversary events in a recent article.
“It’s about time that we found a way to tell our stories in truth, in wholeness and in togetherness,” she said. “We did that under a banner called the future of Richmond’s past because we believed that such a thing was important to the future of a city that we love. ...
On the heels of the commemoration, a major international conference is also taking place in Richmond this week with participants from multiple parts of the U.S., South Africa, Mali, England and many others. Focused on how to best engage the difficult periods of history in order to work toward a better society, the conference includes sessions on "Museums and public history sites for education and healing" and "overcoming implicit bias in education." CEPI is pleased to be among the local sponsors for the conference.
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John Franklin, Director of Partnerships and International Programs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian, shared with the conference the changes and challenges that the city of Tulsa, OK has confronted in retelling the history of the long ignored race riots where whites burned the economically black section of Tulsa in 1921. In order to bring the gravity of those events home to students, some local teachers have asked students to construct models of that neighborhood as it was in 1921, labeling the streets and painting small model buildings over many hours. The models are then burned and time is taken with the students to process what it felt like to have such careful effort destroyed.
While part of the focus of the conference is how to honestly engage challenging parts of history, there is also an emphasis on how conversations and actions can move future history in positive directions. Addressing the opening of the conference on Monday evening, Senator Tim Kaine reflected on how the choices of General Grant in agreeing that surrendering Confederate soldiers should keep horses and sidearms to better restart life after the war exemplified a daring trust in former enemies, one that can be an inspiration for believing that "whatever the pain or enmity of today need not be the pain and enmity of tomorrow."
If you'd like to follow the conference, which meets today on VCU's campus and Thursday at the University of Richmond, please feel free to visit the conference website.
As is our custom, in our poll snapshot, we look at some related poll questions about whether teaching skills for working with diverse cultures or about global society is seen as important by the general public in the commonwealth.
We also share a very short list of links to resources for teachers around the Civil War.
Sincerely,
CEPI
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Poll Snapshot: Working with diverse communities - a top priority?
Though public schools are often called upon to be a place where children learn about diverse histories and working with people from backgrounds different from one’s own, what does the general public think about this school purpose? In 2011, our poll asked respondents the following:
“In thinking about the skills taught in the public schools in Virginia, which of these do you think is the MOST IMPORTANT for preparing student for the workforce needs of the future . . .”
The chart below summarizes the responses:
Relative to math/science/tech skills, reasoning or communication skills, working with diverse cultures lagged far behind in respondent’s estimations of importance.
A more dated question from our 2000 poll asked a similar question about which of several educational purposes were “very important” for public schools to provide. Fully 98% agreed that “teaching the basics such as reading, writing and mathematics” were very important. Between 80 and 90% of respondents felt that “providing job skills,” “teaching basic values,” teaching “reasoning skills for advanced learning,” “teaching citizenship/responsibility,” and “providing skills for new computer technologies” were all very important. In contrast, only 59% of respondents felt that “teaching about global society/economy” was very important.
(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Questions 30 and 31 are cited above on the most important priorities for workforce development in public education - topline results are on page 34 of the 2010-2011 poll.
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Teaching with Historic Places from the National Park Service
Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom.
Lesson plans from the Museum of the Confederacy
Utilizing the Museum’s unparalleled collection, our education staff has developed tools to assist teachers in presenting the American Civil War. (Resources available to teachers for a fee.)
Collection of teacher resource sites from Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial commission.
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