| CEPI in the News |
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Poll Finds Most High School Students Aren’t Ready for Workplace
NPR (WCVE)
(January 18, 2015)
Poll finds support for restructuring high school for job training
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
(January 18, 2015)
Most in Virginia would back coursework focusing on jobs
The Roanoke Times
(January 18, 2015)
Poll finds support for sex assault reporting laws
CBS 6 (WTVR)
(January 18, 2015)
Poll finds support for sex assault reporting laws
ABC 8 (WRIC)
(January 18, 2015)
VCU poll finds high school students ready for college, not work
CBS 7 (WDBJ)
(January 18, 2015)
Statewide poll by VCU finds support for restructuring high school for job training
The Daily Progress
(January 18, 2015)
What’s News Today: Monday, January 18
NBC 10 (WSLS)
(January 18, 2015)
Poll: Most Virginians support higher taxes for schools
The Progress-Index
(January 15, 2015)
Editorial: A bipartisan accord needed on education
The Free Lance-Star
(January 15, 2015)
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| State & Local Education News |
Virginia Governor Wants Overhaul of High School System
NBC 4 (WRC)
January 12, 2016
Gov. Terry McAuliffe wants an overhaul of Virginia's high schools so they are geared toward hands-on learning and helping students get jobs in advanced fields, like cyber security and biotechnology.
McAuliffe outlined a series of education and workforce development legislative proposals at the Capitol Tuesday, a day before lawmakers return for the 2016 legislative session.
Fearing anger from Trump voters, Va. officials want to close schools for primary
Washington Post
January 12, 2016
Officials in Virginia’s largest jurisdiction want to close public schools during the Super Tuesday presidential primaries, saying they fear that supporters of Republican front-runner Donald Trump could cause mayhem at the polls.
The concerns stem mainly from a state Republican Party decision — which Trump opposes — to require voters to affirm that they are Republicans before casting a ballot in the March 1 Republican presidential primary.
Stafford may take bite out of school nutrition rules regarding fundraisers
The Free Lance-Star
January 19, 2016
High school students in Stafford County may soon be able to buy their favorite snacks from the Muffin Cart once again.
The School Board plans at its next meeting to revise its student fundraising and wellness policies to allow exceptions to the USDA’s Smart Snack guidelines.
Those standards followed passage of the national Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010—part of an initiative widely promoted by first lady Michelle Obama—which aimed to get schools to offer more nutritional foods to students.
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National & Federal Education News
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A $2 billion Pell boost?
Politico
January 19, 2016
The Obama administration is proposing that Congress approve a $2 billion-a-year expansion of Pell Grants to finance year-round awards and a bonus for students who stay on track to graduation. Calling the $30 billion grant program for low-income students “the cornerstone of college affordability,” officials said today that two new Pell proposals “will help students to accelerate progress towards their degrees … increasing their likelihood of on-time completion.” The first, “Pell for Accelerated Completion,” would let full-time students earn a third grant award in an academic year. Nearly 700,000 students would receive an average $1,915 in additional aid. Some lawmakers have previously proposed making the Pell program year-round again because many full-time students exhaust their award eligibility after two semesters and can’t afford to take summer courses. (The president and Congress eliminated year-round grants in a 2011 budget bill.)
Has the last apple been thrown in the school lunch fight?
Politico
January 19, 2016
With Monday’s release by the Senate Agriculture Committee of a 200-page bipartisan child nutrition reauthorization bill, the nation’s two-year-long, school cafeteria fight is almost over, reports Pro Agriculture’s Helena Bottemiller Evich.
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Who is ready to join the workforce?
According to the
newly released results of the 2016 Commonwealth Education Poll, conducted by CEPI, in the eyes of the public community college and four-year college graduates are about equally ready to join the workforce, while high school graduates are not.
A strong majority (63%) think that high school graduates are not prepared for the workplace, strongly or somewhat disagreeing with the statement that high school graduates are ready for the world of work. Respondents with a college degree or more are more likely to disagree strongly or somewhat (71%) that high school grads are ready for the workforce, compared to those with some college (63%) and those with a high school diploma or less (53%). Household income levels also mark a difference of opinion on the question. Seventy-six percent (76%) of those with an annual income of $100,000 or more disagreed strongly or somewhat with the suggestion that high schools graduates were ready for the workforce. This compared to 60% among respondents with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 and 54% for respondents with incomes below $50,000.
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Overall, however, Virginians believe that high school graduates are prepared for higher education, which may indicate that public opinion of workforce readiness of high school graduates is less an indictment of the K-12 educational system and more a belief that the current system is geared more towards preparing students for college than it is toward preparing them for a specific career. A majority (64%) agreed that high school graduates are ready for college, with significant differences of opinion based on age, gender and income. Respondents aged 35-44, at 76%, were most likely to agree strongly or somewhat that high school graduates are ready for college, followed by those aged 18-34 (69%), those aged 45-64 (59%) and those 65 or older (57%). Likewise, 70% of women agreed strongly or somewhat with high school graduates being ready for college, compared to only 59% of men. Also, those with an annual household income of less than $50,000 (72%) were most likely to agree compared to those with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 (60%) and those with incomes above $100,000 (61%).
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.
Though a bachelor’s degree is often seen as a gateway credential to many white-collar jobs, overall the difference in perceived workforce readiness was not statistically different between community college graduates (73%) and graduates of four-year colleges and universities (75%). However, 27% of all respondents strongly agreed with the statement that graduates of a four year college or university are ready for the world of work (compared to 21% for community college graduates). For four-year college graduates, women (79%) were again more likely to strongly or somewhat agree that graduates were ready for the workforce than were men (70%).
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Higher education is also a key player in developing a competitive workforce and equipping students for success in a career. When it comes to specific outcomes, strong majorities say Virginia colleges and universities are doing a good job in four critical areas related to workforce development. Seventy-two (72%) percent of Virginians say colleges and universities are doing a good job in producing graduates in scientific fields and 70% said the same about preparing students for the workforce needs for the future. Sixty-eight (68%) percent say the state schools do a good job providing the skills that will be useful in obtaining a job. A slightly smaller majority (65%) thinks they are doing a good job developing students’ writing and communication skills.
Please go to
our website to read the full second release on higher education and workforce development, as well as the results released on January 11th that pertain to K-12 funding and policy issues. We hope you have a great week!
Sincerely,
CEPI
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General Assembly Update - Week 1
Excerpted from CEPI's
General Assembly Update, written by Policy Analyst David Blount. The update will be published weekly during the General Assembly session.
"Overview
Public education received a lot of attention from state policymakers this past week. Governor McAuliffe announced education proposals he hopes to advance during the session. Key among them is to promote redesigning the high school for the 21st century. It has been noted that the high school model being used today was developed in the late 1800’s. The governor’s initiative would require the Board of Education (BOE) to establish new expectations for high school graduates and change the way credits are earned, in order to put a greater emphasis on hands-on learning, early college courses and industry credentials. To further link high school and workforce training, he will look to enable schools to hire current and retired industry experts as temporary or part-time career and technical education teachers, and enable students to receive academic credit for previously-earned industry certifications when pursuing a community college degree. In making these proposals, the governor remarked, “By making smart investments in education, transforming our approach to high school education and strengthening our workforce training pipeline, we can create new opportunities for Virginia students and businesses to thrive.”
Republican leaders, meanwhile, also will be focusing on K-12 education this session and throughout the year. The chairmen of the House and Senate Education Committees have indicated their desire for the two panels to work more closely on education issues. They plan to establish an informal joint subcommittee on the future of education, which would meet during the course of the year to explore issues raised during the session in a more in-depth manner. At the same time, it should be noted that the BOE will be looking at the state’s accountability system and how to better provide oversight of school divisions, in light of the recently-enacted update to the federal education law, dubbed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which should provide states with more flexibility regarding student testing and school accountability.
Finally, recall that new State funding for K-12 education totals over $900 million in the governor’s introduced budget, including nearly $430 million to re-benchmark Standards of Quality (SOQ) costs for the biennium. The initiative proposed by the governor to add $139 million for local school divisions to hire additional instructional positions is getting some scrutiny already, with some lawmakers concerned about how equitable the proposal would be across wealthy and poor schools, large and small schools and those with declining enrollments.
Education Legislation
Just over 2,200 bills and resolutions have been introduced to date, with the final bill introduction deadline a week away. Below is a list of some of the key education legislation introduced so far (by subject areas); additional bills will be listed in next week's report.
FINANCE/FISCAL:
HB 47 establishes a competitive grants fund to make awards for field-testing innovative strategies and evidence-based practices for mixed-delivery preschool services.
HB 69 requires school divisions to provide a health insurance credit of $4 per year of service to all local school division retirees; currently, the $4 per year credit is provided only to teachers. Local costs are estimated at $8.7 million per year.
HB 191 directs the utilization of “use” value of real estate in calculating the local composite index (LCI);
HB 532 calls for considering locality population, as well as the number of at-risk students and English-language learners, in calculating the LCI.
HB 242 removes the requirement for local governing bodies to provide matching funds in order to qualify for grants under the Virginia Preschool Initiative.
HB 389 permits the parent of a public school student to apply to the relevant local school division for a one-year, renewable Parental Choice Education Savings Account, to consist of 90 percent of all applicable state per pupil and sales tax funds applicable to the student, for use at a private or religious school or for various other education expenses.
SB 151 creates a tax credit of up to $500, beginning in 2017, for teachers who paid for materials used in teaching, provided that such payments were not reimbursed or claimed as a deduction on the teacher's federal tax return (which allows for a $250 deduction).
SB 500 requires every locality and school division located within the locality to post on the public government website of the locality a register of all funds expended, showing vendor name, date of payment, amount, and a description of the type of expense, including credit card purchases with the same information."
(To read the full update, visit our
website.)
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