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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
Petersburg begins year-round schedule for 2 schools
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
August 4, 2014
Petersburg opened A.P. Hill Elementary and Peabody Middle schools Monday, a month ahead of other schools in the city, as part of an effort to save the two failing schools by getting student about 20 extra days of classroom time.
In all, about 1,000 students at the two schools will have 200 days of instruction beginning in the 2014-15 school year, 20 more than the state requires. The schedule will include mandatory five- or 10-day intercessions between quarters, with the extra time being used for instruction in such courses as math and science.
Manassas principal fired after investigation found he fabricated resume
Fox 5
August 11, 2014
A Manassas city school principal is out of a job after it turns out he fabricated his resume. His firing is raising more questions about how he got the job in the first place.
Robin Toogood was the principal at the Jennie Dean Elementary School up until last month.
State Puts Schools on Notice: Undocumented Children Entitled to Free Public Education
The Daily Signal
August 7, 2014
The Virginia Department of Education is echoing the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education in saying that schools “may not deny a free public education to undocumented school-age children who reside within their jurisdiction because they do not hold valid United States citizenship or a student visa.”
Last month, the state’s Department of Education sent memos to school superintendents reiterating the Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which said children have equal access to basic education, regardless of citizenship status.
And this week, the department clarified in another email to school superintendents that undocumented minors, if unaccompanied and unsupervised, should be treated as homeless students and thus granted an education without requiring proof of residing in the district.
Federal Policy
All Policy is Local: Education in the midterm congressional races
Politico, July 28 2014
Smiling kids make for a good photo-op, but student loans have overtaken K-12 education as a campaign issue this cycle. Democrats see an opportunity to appeal to young voters and hit on key themes like upward mobility and inequality with student debt; other debates raging in education over issues including budget caps and college ratings don't have that effect.
Some education policy experts say they aren't focused on the outcome of this year's midterms because they expect important education bills to remain stalled in the next Congress. But with several high-profile members of Congress retiring and others in competitive races the House and Senate committees are bound to look very different come spring, and some elections will be important to that changing of the guard (or are just downright interesting to watch). Let's have a look:
SENATE DEMOCRATS WORK THE STUDENT LOAN ANGLE: Senate Democrats are reviving the same campaign issue that helped Democrats win back seats in 2006 and catalyzed the "Occupy" movement - or at least, they're trying to.
New NEA leader to nation’s educators: Revolt, ignore ‘stupid’ reforms
The Washington Post
August 11, 2014
To call the woman who is about to take the helm of the National Education Association “outspoken” would be something of an understatement. Lily Eskelsen García, who will take over next month as president of the largest teachers union in the country (and, for that matter, the largest union of any kind in the country), is nauseatingly sick of what she calls “factory school reform” and she doesn’t mind telling everybody about it in clear, challenging words. “Stop doing stupid,” she says.
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Most families with school age children in Virginia are finishing up vacations and gearing up for the start of another school year. Some parents, no doubt, have a long checklist like this one from School Family.com to make sure everything is ready and their child has the best opportunity to start the school out well.
For families from two academically struggling schools in Petersburg, VA the latest effort to give their students the best education opportunities has taken the form of moving to a year-round school calendar, a decision that will add 20 instructional days to the school year. For those students, August 4th marked the first day of classes. They'll get another "first day" of school on Sept. 2nd when the rest of the city's schools open, alongside the vast majority of schools in the state. Some will certainly watch the efforts in Petersburg to see if extending the school year is beneficial for student achievement.
In light of this, our poll snapshot this week takes a look at public support for pre-Labor Day school starts and we also share an excerpt from Dr. Vacca's 2010 Ed Law newsletter that looks at the legal evolution and impact of the concept of equal educational opportunity. Educational opportunity is often believed to be a powerful tool in alleviating poverty and providing other more equal opportunities for employment and earnings.
Also this week, Dr. Bosher's editorial examines changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that would prohibit the sale of student technology use meta-data from being sold to third parties like marketers.
Sincerely,
CEPI |
Poll Snapshot: Support for a Pre-Labor Day start for schools
For more than a generation, Virginia has typically started school after Labor Day. While the school calendar in the U.S. still hearkens to a time when summer for children were often spent laboring on family farms (and schools didn't start until harvests were in), the post-Labor Day start is the result of legislative advocacy by various branches of the tourism industry that hire lots of high school students at cheap rates over the summer and still want them on duty for the final long weekend of the summer vacation season. Hence, the law mandating a post-Labor Day start are sometimes refered to as the Kings Dominion law, after one of the main amusement parks near the state capital.
Numerous efforts to change the law have failed, though according to CEPI's annual Education Poll, not because doing so lacks public support. In the last two years, we asked respondents whether they would support changing the law to give local school systems the ability to decide whether to start their school year before Labor Day. In both years, more than 60% said they would (see the breakout below).
Unlike many issues that have a well defined partisan difference, there is no real difference between Democrats (66% favor) and Republicans (65% favor) on this issue. Nor is their much difference across income lines. Parents of public school students (those most affected by a change) actually show lower support (54%) than those who don't have a child in public schools.
But perhaps the most striking difference in the demographic breakdown is that across education levels. Only 47% of those with a high school education or less favor giving the localities the power to decide whether to start before Labor Day. Those with some college (72%) and those with a college degree or more (70% favor) are much more supportive.
(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 14 is the question cited above on school type choice - topline results are on page 32; crosstabs are on page 59.)
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Equal Educational Opportunity
Excerpted from CEPI's December 2010 Ed Law Newsletter on the same topic by Dr. Richard Vacca
In keeping with our focus on efforts to attain more equally positive student achievement by adjusting the school calendar, here is an excerpt from our 2010 newsletter on recent issues surrounding Equal Educational Opportunities:
" Equal Educational Opportunities: Emerging Issues: 2010-2011
Several important lessons were learned during the post-Brown (1954) era one of which is that equal educational opportunity is not synonymous with same educational opportunity. To put it another way, local school officials, administrators, classroom teachers, and other school system personnel discovered that curricular offerings, programs, and related services must be tailored to meet the diverse and unique needs of students and their parents. To provide every student with “the same” was not the key to establishing access to meaningful educational opportunities. The path was moving public education forward in an individual child (student) oriented direction.
As my colleague Professor Bosher and I have concluded, based on our research, today’s goal is for states and their local school districts to provide an appropriate educational opportunity for all children of school age (based on a unique needs model)—an opportunity that “ensures basic, minimal quality education for each child.” (Vacca and Bosher, 2008) At the same time, however, we are beginning to see new legal and policy issues replace old ones as evidenced by a growing demand for special purpose (alternative) schools and curricular programs—schools and programs that place some children of school age outside the mainstream of the school system’s general student population.
As local school systems work to redesign existing academic and extra-curricular offerings and, at the same time, establish, implement, and support alternative schools and programs to meet student needs, legal challenges are inevitable—especially challenges where allegations of resegregation are put forth. Thus, it is critical that local school boards (with input from principals, staff, parents, and community leaders) work closely with legal counsel to reexamine existing school system policies and formulate new policies designed to widen access to appropriate and meaningful educational opportunities for all children. While Mumid v. Abraham Lincoln High School (8th Cir. 2010) is but one case in one jurisdiction it is nonetheless instructive. What follow are some implications for policy gleaned from that decision. Local school system policies must make it clear that:
- All students have equal access to appropriate, adequate, and meaningful educational opportunities.
- All curricular offerings and non-curricular offerings (social, cultural, athletic) are established, designed, implemented, and maintained with the specific purpose of creating an educational environment in every school conducive to effective teaching and learning.
- School administrators, classroom teachers, and other staff members work to identify, accommodate, and provide for the individual needs and learning styles of each student.
- While a principal goal of the school system is to keep each student on pace and together with his/her age-appropriate peers in the mainstream of the school environment, special and alternative schools, program settings, and services are established, designed, implemented, and maintained for the specific purpose of providing for the unique interests and needs of individual students—especially those students who are at risk of failure and dropping out of school, and/or students who need intensive remediation and special help.
- Sustained efforts are made to keep parents and guardians fully informed of their child’s progress in school, and parents and guardians are actively involved in all major decisions involving their child’s education."
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