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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
McAuliffe makes college governing board appointments
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 3, 2014
The previous lieutenant governor, a Richmond prosecutor, former state lawmakers, a sheriff and a mayor are among the familiar names and new faces who will join the governing boards of Virginia’s public colleges and universities.
In the largest bloc of appointments since he took office, Gov. Terry McAuliffe reappointed the six rectors whose terms were expiring but returned few others among the members who were eligible for second four-year terms on boards of visitors.
None of the University of Virginia board members eligible for another term was reappointed.
In his announcement Monday, McAuliffe said he has urged all the appointees to use their positions “to help manage our colleges and universities prudently, to find cost efficiencies in order to keep tuition rates as low as possible and to embrace innovation” to prepare students to compete in a “21 st century economy.”
Schools struggle with first-time drug offense penalty
Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 30, 2014
A public school student in Virginia charged with armed robbery has better access to continuing education than a student caught with trace amounts of marijuana or alcohol, a perplexing disparity that could disappear when a change to the state code goes into effect July 1.
As the law stands today, and as it will continue to stand until individual school divisions change their policies, violators of the state’s zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy are recommended for expulsion no matter the circumstances and are cut off from access to free public education potentially for a year or more, or until their appeal can be heard.
Report: Va. 2nd in six-year graduation rate
Richmond Times Dispatch, May 30, 2014
About 70 percent of students who enrolled at public four-year colleges and universities in Virginia in fall 2007 received a degree within six academic years, putting the state second only to Delaware in its graduation rate, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia reported Friday.
However, improvements in graduation rates were accompanied by a parallel increase in student debt.
Federal Policy
Online classrooms resetting education The Hill (blog), June 2, 2014
Lawmakers are singing the praises of new online courses that are reducing costs and freeing students from the constraints of the classroom.
The increase in online courses has been particularly pronounced at colleges and universities, which are using new technology to attract non-traditional students who need the ability to juggle other responsibilities.
“Online coursework provides another flexible alternative to the traditional college classroom setting, something that is particularly beneficial to non-traditional students who have family or career obligations,” said House Education and Workforce Chairman Ron Kline (R-Minn.).
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Budget challenges are front and center in the commonwealth's political deliberation as an approved budget continues to elude lawmakers at the Capitol and the outlines of a revenue shortfall become more clear. But as the political minds look for solutions, many families are focused on celebrating the accomplishment of a much larger number of minds in high school graduations around the state.
This week in Compass Point we're glad to share with you Dr. Bosher's thoughts on what comes after graduation. In keeping with the focus on budgets and their impact on education, this week's poll snapshot looks at which priority Virginians think is more important - education spending or deficit reduction.
Finally, we're pleased to share a first excerpt from Dr. Vacca's annual look ahead at legal issues likely to be relevant for school boards and systems in the next school year - first up: Common Core standards.
Sincerely,
CEPI |
Poll Snapshot: Funding for Public Schools vs. Deficit Reduction
As the state legislature figures out how to deal with a looming revenue shortfall, one of the key questions will be how much to draw from the state's rainy day fund (assuming a budget gets passed which would allow lawmakers to access the fund). While at the state level the government is required to adopt a balanced budget, the ability to dip into the rainy day fund surfaces some of the same questions that the federal government faces in determining which is a greater priority - continuing/expanding a service or reducing a budget deficit.
The recent CEPI Commonwealth Education Poll asked Virginians to imagine themselves setting government budget priorities and ask which they would give a higher priority - spending more on public education or reducing the budget deficit. Though it's not a direct comparison, looking at the responses alongside the rainy day fund question may provide some indication of public support or opposition to tapping that fund to preserve educational programming.
The responses are summarized in the pie chart below with a majority (57%) supporting spending to improve public education over deficit reduction. That number was similar to responses in the two prior years we asked the question.
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The breakdown between different demographic groups holds several interesting gaps. Unsurprisingly, self-identified Democrats are much stronger supporters of increased spending to improve education (72%) compared to Independents (50%) and Republicans (44%). In fact, Republican identifiers have close to a majority for deficit reduction (49%).
Women are also more likely to support increased education funding compared to men (62% vs. 53%) while minorities also support education funding in greater numbers compared to whites (69% vs. 53%). In both cases however, a majority exists in both demographic categories.
Perhaps surprisingly, there is no significant difference in perspective between school employee/retirees (60% support for increased spending) and the rest of the population (57% support).
To read the full results of our poll, visit our website.
The question pertaining to the education funding vs. deficit reduction is #4 (topline on page 26-27, crosstab on page 39).
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Potential Issues to Watch in 2014-2015
Each June I devote the final commentary in the series to the identification of topics where a potential exists to produce legal and policy issues facing local boards of education and school administrators next school year. Following in that tradition this final commentary for the 2013-2014 school year is not intended as a research piece or to argue one side or another, but rather it is an “issue spotting” exercise—a risky task to say the least.
Potential Issue Producers
Based on my review of this year’s court decisions, a tracking of stories reported in the popular media, and a review of current literature in education law, I have identified for brief and general discussion the following seven topics where potential legal and policy issues are likely to emerge during the 2014-2015 school year:
common core, school finance, special education, charter and non-traditional programs, school prayer, cyber bullying, and
privacy.
Common Core State Standards. While no case law exists at this point in time, the literature in public education is filled with a diverse array of articles (pro and con) and announcements for professional development training devoted to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (
e.g., English, language arts and literacy, Mathematics, common assessments of student progress by grade level, etc.). Initiated in 2009, with voluntary standards published in 2010, by 2012 at least 37 states had adopted plans to fully implement the Common Core Standards. Here in Virginia the Common Core Standards have not been adopted. In states where Common Core Standards have been adopted, will implementation of the Common Core, and resulting standardization, cause conflicts of law and policy between the federal government and state governments?
In my view the fact that local school systems have spent recent years working to implement, be in compliance with, and fund both state academic standards and the federal government’s requirements of
No Child Left Behind (especially the AYP mandate), puts local school boards, school principals, and classroom teachers in a precarious position as next school year plays out. Issues will emerge as educators at the local level ask: What do we do next? What will happen to current efforts to implement existing state standards and statewide testing (as measures of student mastery and achievement)? How do we integrate the new Common Core Standards into the classroom curriculum and into classroom teaching? What will be the impact on administrator and teacher evaluation of productivity (data-driven measures)? What about the continued push for some form of outcome-based merit pay? Will standardized student test scores dominate? How do we motivate and assess student mastery—especially at-risk students (sometimes referred to as “struggling learners”) to successfully respond to new teaching and learning strategies? What will be the impact on students covered by IDEA 2004—which, after a decade, has not been reauthorized by Congress? As next school year unfolds the bottom line question remains: Who pays the lion’s share of the bill?"
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