Compass Point
A Weekly Collection of Data, Articles and Insights from the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
A project of the Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Public Policy
L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs
Articles of Interest
State & Local Policy

Virginia's Financial Literacy Law Has First Graduates
Education Week
July 9, 2015

Students in Virginia's class of 2015 are the first in that state to graduate under a mandate that they take a full credit of personal finance and economics.

They were the guinea pigs for the 2009 law that made the stand-alone class a graduation requirement. More than 90,000 graduates are now going out into the world with those classes under their belts. It is unclear for now, however, how the state will measure the success of its program. That accountability will be important as more states look to add similar measures to their law books.

The state of education in Virginia, according to Anne Holton

RVA News
July 7, 2015

Little piece of advice: When Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton asks if she can get coffee with you to discuss some of the commonwealth’s education initiatives, you say, “It would be my pleasure, Secretary Holton.” With dignity. Which is what I should have done, instead of gushing about how she is an inspiring individual and how her TEDx talk was so great and how she should run for president.


Secretary Holton is graciously disinterested in speaking about herself as an individual. She would much rather we all focus on how education is changing and what we can do to help Virginia solve a lot of its problems. The Governor’s Cabinet is, lately, very interested in identifying those challenges and addressing them in both the short and the long-term. From preschool to higher ed, the state has a lot on its plate. Here’s where you can expect to see some real change, very shortly.

VPI EXPANSION

As you may have heard, Virginia received a federal grant of $17 million per year for four years to expand its extremely popular Virginia Preschool Initiative.

What this means, according to Holton, is more access (the new improved VPI would serve up to 18,000 kids) with higher quality. And it all begins this fall. “To get us to that scale would be a significant expansion, and we’ve got to figure out how to do a public/private partnership,” says Holton, regarding the interest that private preschools have shown in becoming partners in the program. “It’s allowed under the current structure, but it’s rare.”

Twelve jurisdictions are part of the grant’s expansion–including Richmond and Henrico. “Richmond is already working to find private partners. The K-12 systems don’t have the physical capacity to expand to meet the Pre-K need. We’ve got the private partners out there, if we can figure out how to get them plugged in.”

Virginia Cooperative Extension offers environmental education training for teachers

Kingsport Times News
July 7, 2015

The Virginia Cooperative Extension in collaboration with the Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Society of American Foresters and other members of the forest industry will offer an environmental education opportunity for teachers July 13-16.

The Trees to Products program is designed to correlate with the Virginia Standards of Learning for grades K - 12. It awards 30 hours of professional development credits for participants, along with Project Learning Tree certification.


“We are pleased to offer this program for teachers again this year,” said Bill Worrell, extension agent for forestry and natural resources in Southwest Virginia. “This is an excellent opportunity for teachers to get an in-the-field tour of sustainable forest-management techniques, as well as professional development credits, at a very low cost.”

 

Federal Policy

Common-Core Materials Penetrate Every State
Education Week
July 7, 2015

As states continue to draw lines in the sand about whether or not they have adopted the Common Core State Standards, there's some evidence the new benchmarks have crept into classrooms in all states—mainly through instructional materials.

Four states—Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia—have firmly refused to adopt the standards since they were unveiled five years ago, and yet there are examples in each place of schools and districts using common-core-aligned curricula.


In fact, some curriculum providers say as many as 1 in 12 users of their common-core-aligned materials hail from states that either never adopted or have repealed adoption of the standards.

Educators' reasons for using common-core-aligned materials vary: Some say such materials are simply the most well-vetted and widely available at this point, and that they line up nicely with their own states' standards. "From the classroom perspective, you're not thinking about is this a common-core lesson or is this not, you're thinking about is this a good example of what I want my kids to know and be able to do," said Sarah Maffei, who teaches at KIPP Shine Prep in Houston. "So you're reaching out for resources anywhere, and there are more [common-core] resources available because it's been so widely adopted."

Some teachers, including those in Omaha, Neb., are using common-core materials because that's what their district provided. And for some educators, it's a matter of advocacy—a way of getting the standards they'd hoped their state would adopt in front of their students.

House and Senate Taking Up NCLB Rewrite This Week Could Result In Leftover Fireworks for Federal Education Policy
Huffington Post

July 7, 2015

This could be the most momentous week in federal education policy in the thirteen years since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) became law. The fact that the U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up a major rewrite of NCLB is historic in and of it itself. No new version or reauthorization of NCLB has made it through committee to action by the entire membership of the Senate in over a decade. And last week, the House Republican leadership announced that its version of NCLB--the Student Success Act--would also be brought up for a vote.

Two houses with reauthorizations in the same week--that is worth a few leftover Fourth of July fireworks. And we'll see how many fireworks will actually occur on either floor.


Watch for different dynamics. In the Senate, the Republican education committee chair Lamar Alexander has attempted to negotiate a bipartisan compromise with his Democratic counterpart, Patty Murray. The two staved off most divisive amendments in the education committee markup to emerge with a unanimous vote. But the more contentious amendments were delayed until the full Senate considers what could be a 3-5 day process. (Bet on less time since the Senate calendar is packed with other must-do legislation such as renewing the Highway Trust Fund and even possible debate if an Iran nuclear deal is reached.)

 
Is education funding greater now than a decade ago?

Funding is a constant education policy topic, one that has been in the news recently as some of the country's largest schools systems made major financial decisions.   Los Angeles approved a $7.8 billion budget that included both pay raises for most teachers and layoffs for hundreds of staff.  Chicago, facing a cash flow crunch in its education system, approved borrowing more than $200 million in order to make a $600 million payment to teacher's pension funds at the end of June. 

Here in Virginia, teachers received the welcome news that state revenues have rebounded sufficiently from the sudden shortfall of 2014 that the state will fund its portion of a 1.5% pay raise.  But what is the state of education funding in the Commonwealth?  One way to look at this is to compare per pupil spending to other states - Virginia tends to occupy a middle ground on this measure, spending significantly less than many north east states and significantly more than many other southern and mountain west states.

But we were also curious how per pupil spending has changed over the past 10 years here in Viriginia.  Significant funding cuts during the recession impacted many school districts.  Have the resources disbursed for education in the state's 100+ school divisions expanded or contracted from 2004 to 2014? 

Drawing data from the State Superintendents reports for fiscal years ending 2014 and 2004, we compiled a comparison of total disbursements per pupil in inflation adjusted terms (a dollar in 2004 is about equal to $1.25 in 2014).  What we found is summarized in the table below. 
(One significant caveat is in order - our calculations of per pupil spending won't necessarily match those made by the state.  The state typically reports per pupil expenditures on the basis of total spending for regular day school operation (which excludes more volatile cost centers like school food services, facilities and debt service) divided by average daily membership (ADM).  We've chosen to calculate the total disbursements, including those volatile costs, because total spending is what often drives tax rates that are paid by the broader public.)

What can we say from this comparison?  Looking at the entire state, total disbursements in inflation-adjusted terms per pupil have increased slightly from 2004 to 2014, keeping pace with inflation and growth in the student population.  At the same time, the same can't be said for all divisions - 79 disbursed more per pupil in 2014 than in 2004 while the reverse is true for 53 divisions (in one case a change in the reporting of merged divisions made a comparison impossible). 

At the extremes, there were divisions that significantly increased per pupil spending while in others decreased per pupil spending.  (Again, these changes could be influence significantly by capital projects, especially in a smaller school system.)

Our Poll Snapshot this week looks at information from the our 2015 Commonwealth Education Poll that looked at several school funding questions.  Read below for more detail, but here's the headline - a slight majority would be willing to pay more in taxes to have higher K-12 education funding.

We also include an excerpt from Dr. Vacca's recent newsletter looking at teacher contracts - one of the largest chunks in any school system's budget. 

Sincerely,
CEPI
Poll Snapshot:  School Funding
The public is likely pleased with the ability of the state and localities to increase teacher pay and other funding for education.  Virginians remain strongly supportive of funding for the public schools and see it as having a direct impact on school quality. In early 2015, more than two-thirds of Virginians (68%) said that Virginia schools do not have enough funds to meet their needs, while only 26% felt schools have enough funding now.

More than three-quarters of respondents (78%) also said that the amount of funding affects the quality of schools a great deal or quite a lot. School employees/retirees (at 60%) and parents of public school students (at 59%) were more likely to say funding mattered a great deal when compared to non-employee/retiree (50%) and non-parent respondents (49%). Likewise, 58% of minorities said funding mattered a great deal compared to 48% of whites.

Most Virginians are willing to pay more in taxes to support school funding levels. Seven-in-ten respondents (70%) said they would be willing to pay more in taxes to keep public schools funded at the current level and 53% are willing to pay more so that school funding can be increased. Of those willing to pay more to increase funding for public schools, 44% favored a sales tax as the best vehicle for a tax increase while 22% preferred an increased income tax.


Larger proportions of Virginians are willing to pay more in taxes to protect funding for public schools (70%) and mental health services (72%) than would do so to keep programs for aid to low-income families (56%), funding for higher education (48%) and transportation (46%) at current levels. Only about a quarter of state residents (27%) are willing to pay more to keep funding for prisons at current levels.

To read the full results of the poll, visit our website.

Education Law Newsletter - Teacher Contracts

Excerpted from Dr. Vacca's February 2015 Newsletter

"As communities across this country continue to expect and insist that their local school boards do infinite things with a finite (in some cases even shrinking) budget, and as local community demographics rapidly change and student enrollments become more culturally diverse, being creative and flexible regarding personnel (including full-time teachers) is needed. Past solutions for past problems might not work in solving the emerging problems found in today’s rapidly changing, data-driven, social and fiscal environments. One area of close scrutiny by local school boards in dealing with today’s changing scene, where long term fiscal commitments are risky, involves classroom teacher contracts.

Emerging Fiscal Issues and Contractual Flexibility. In today’s public school systems, while the recruitment, selection, and hiring of new classroom teachers remains a critical part of the task, assigning and reassigning existing teachers (including those possessing tenure status), and shifting fiscal resources from one school to another (especially from “high performing schools” to “struggling schools”), and from one subject area to another, are of critical importance and have a direct impact on policy. As local school boards work to bolster student academic progress and performance is it necessary to eliminate extra-curricular activities including sports teams, or reduce the emphasis on some academic areas while building up others? As a need to expand mathematics and computer science courses grows, what is the future of art, drama, music, physical education, culinary arts? Will it be necessary to increase school system budgets to support growing numbers of immigrant and English language learning children entering the schools? How do we continue to adequately fund special education?

Should local school boards pay teachers and other employees strictly on a “pay for performance” model? In an effort to save money on such matters as health care and retirement is it necessary to fill vacant positions with temporary and part-time workers and reduce the number of full-time employees (including classroom teachers)? In a local public school system in the area where I live the superintendent has proposed to his board that to improve student academic performance classroom teacher pay be tied to days worked—i.e., paying teachers for their work. (B2, Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 4, 2015)

Policy Implications

In today’s tight fiscal environment, as local public school boards deal with rapid political, cultural, and social change; work to diligently carry out federal and state legal mandates; and continue to meet the rising expectations of their communities, coming up with creative solutions to budgetary issues has become a daily fact of life. Because of escalating costs (e.g., health care) and limited fiscal (property tax dependent) resources, state-wide student academic requirements, and shifting student enrollments, the one area of school system operation that has and continues to receive the most attention and scrutiny is personnel—the largest single category in the total school system maintenance and operation budget where flexibility, creativity, and change are often trumped by collective bargaining agreements and traditional notions of tenure and seniority.

While recognizing that Mirabilio v Regional School District 16 (2nd Cir 2014) is but one court decision from one jurisdiction, my intent in presenting the case is twofold. First, to offer an example of how one local school board tried to limit the working hours and reduce the salary within a new full-time contract issued to a returning tenured teacher, while not being in violation of the state tenure law. Second, to present the factual analysis and rationale of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as the Court dealt with issues of “termination” and procedural due process. Especially informative in clarifying the potential legal and policy issues in the case is the dissenting opinion written by Judge Calabresi. Potential policy implications gleaned from the Second Circuit Court’s majority and dissenting opinions are as follows:

In matters of teacher employment contracts, local school board policies must make it clear that:

  • The intent of the Board is to honor and implement the substantive and procedural mandates of all collective bargaining agreements, where they exist, and state teacher tenure statutes in jurisdictions where they exist and in situations where they are applicable.
  • Where the Board decides to terminate the contract of a teacher all procedural requirements specified in state law and Board policy will be followed.
  • The Board is vested with discretionary authority to assign and reassign all teachers (full-time and part-time) to schools, teaching positions, combinations of positions, and school-related extra-curricular activities for which they are qualified and where the needs of the school system require such assignments and re-assignments.
  • All contract changes will be communicated to employees as soon as practicable.
  • Teachers (full-time and part-time) are expected to: (a) fulfill all work-related duties and tasks associated with their teaching position, (b) work within the official hourly schedule and (c) carry out all contractual obligations at a salary set by the Board—as specified in the employment contract."
To read the full newsletter, visit our website.