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
CEPI in the News
Photo Gallery: General Assembly (4th photo) 
Richmond Times Dispatch
February 24, 2015
Articles of Interest
State & Local Policy

McAuliffe announces higher education agreement
CBS 7 (WDBJ)
February 24, 2015

Virginia's public institutions of higher education and economic development officials are teaming up to meet the business needs of employers and deliver the jobs graduates seek.

The partnership was announced on Monday by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. He said College and university leaders signed an agreement to carry out the mission of creating a new Virginia economy.

The agreement is with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the Center for Innovative Technology.

The partnership has several elements. They include increased connectivity between higher education and business interests.

The governor's office says the agreement builds on a prior partnership signed in 2012. The new agreement places greater emphasis on working together on economic development issues.

NC community colleges president finalist for Virginia post
News Observer
March 2, 2015

In less than 24 hours, hundreds of people signed the “Better with Bedden” petition, an online petition that parents and supporters created Saturday in hopes of convincing Superintendent Dr. Dana Bedden to stay with Richmond Public Schools.

Susan Elliot, who volunteers in Richmond city schools, is one of the hundreds who signed the petition to keep Bedden.

Elliott said schools are lacking, some students are struggling and Richmond schools need Bedden.

Think school is tough now? Here’s what it was like at the turn of the 20th century.
Washington Post
March 2, 2015

This school year, Arlington schools topped per-pupil spending for the Washington region, spending an estimated $19,040 for every student educated in the suburban Virginia district.

Compare that to 1871. The year after public education was established in Virginia, schools in Arlington spent $1,729 — total. With that budget, local officials ran five schools with about 333 students.

As Arlington weighs historic status for one of the area’s oldest school buildings, county staff have prepared a compelling report that details not just the start of the Wilson School, but the origins of public education in Virginia.

 
Federal Policy

NCLB heads for House vote
Politico Morning Education
February 27, 2015

The House plans to vote on its proposed No Child Left Behind rewrite today. Lawmakers Thursday adopted a slew of amendments to the bill, including one strongly opposed by many Democrats and education groups that would permit local as well as statewide assessment systems.

LOBBYING UP: Urban public universities operate in a sort of middle ground between community colleges and traditional four-year institutions. They grant bachelor’s degrees and are increasingly residential, but also have a strong focus on workforce training, open access and underrepresented students. Initiatives like the federal college ratings system have a unique impact on urban publics — but lawmakers may not know it. A new lobbying group aims to change that. The Urban Publics Coalition, which currently has just four members but is likely to expand, was spearheaded by the president of Metropolitan State University of Denver and is being represented by the firm Squire Patton Boggs.

Why the FCC’s Decisions This Week Matter for Ed Tech
Ed Central

February 25, 2015

In a city plagued by bureaucratic gridlock, during a week when it looks like we could be running into yet another government shutdown (just the Department of Homeland Security this time, though), it seems that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working double-time in Washington D.C.

Each month the FCC’s five commissioners convene, and tomorrow’s meeting will cover a lot of ground. The Commission will be voting on two significant issues—net neutrality and community broadband—both of which have considerable implications for schools and libraries.

As New America’s Learning Technologies Project has emphasized, this decision is critical for enabling innovation in the burgeoning field of education technology. It’s not hard to imagine an environment where the current dominant companies producing online educational materials could afford to pay ISPs for faster access to customers, leaving behind innovative new start-ups. Under such an arrangement, emerging new content providers would be at an extreme disadvantage. To keep the Internet a level playing field, where new start-ups stand or fall on the merit of their content alone, it’s worth promoting and protecting a strong, open Internet.
What is the potential (and limits) of online schools?

Among the legislation passed in the now concluded General Assembly session was HB 324, which establishes the Board of the Virginia Virtual School as a policy agency in the executive branch of state government for the purpose of governing the online educational programs and services offered to students enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School.  (For a run-down on what legislation made it through in the final week of the session, check out David Blount's General Assembly update excerpt below.)

The use of online or virtual school options is a newer frontier in education but Virginia is certainly not the only state experimenting with virtual schooling initiatives.  As demonstrated in the chart below (posted by Education News), numerous states have some level of virtual school, with North Carolina and Florida leading in terms of the number of students enrolled via that option.


As with any newer option, there are significant questions, both for and against such experimentation.  In Louisiana, rapid growth in virtual learning is seen by some to be increasing choices for students and parents.  In other places like Indiana, state mandates for every student to take at least one course online have raised concerns about the cost of implementation.  Others point out the possibility that an increased number of students can learn from the very best teachers.

A number of questions remain.  Will student achievement be different between virtual and in-person settings?  How does virtual schooling affect socialization of children - the learning of "soft-skill" abilities that are also crucial in the working world?  How much demand is there for these types of schools?

While we don't have answers to the first two, we can provide some insight on public support for online education in Virginia based on the results of two questions from our annual poll.  We break that information down in this week's Poll Snapshot.

Finally, Compass Point (and VCU in general) will also be on spring break next week.  We'll be back in your inbox on March 18th. 

Sincerely,
CEPI
Poll Snapshot - Perceptions of Online Education
With the rapid evolution of communications technology, more and more options exist for students to learn through virtual or online platforms. Such virtual classrooms are increasingly being examined as an option for high school students who want to earn credit in subjects that their schools may not otherwise be able to provide. We asked respondents whether they favored or opposed this practice. Almost two-thirds of respondents (63%) favored allowing students to earn high school credits online while 33% opposed the practice.


There were significant differences in support by age cohort with younger respondents more in favor of online credit options. Fully 72% of those aged 18-34 supported the practice while only 47% of those aged 65 or older did the same. Those with some college education (71%) were more likely to favor the practice than either those with a college degree (65%) or a high school diploma or less (55%). Minority respondents were also more likely than whites to favor the practice (69% vs. 60%).

A majority of respondents (58%) were also willing to have their own child earn some of their high school credits online, while 33% would not want their children to earn any credits online. Only 8% of respondents would be willing to have their child earn all of their high school credits online.

Respondents from the Tidewater region (66%) were most likely to be willing to have their children earn some of their high school diploma online, compared to Northern Virginia (61%), Northwest (54%), West (53%) and South Central (50%). Likewise, those with higher education levels and higher household income were more likely to favor some credits being earned online (see chart above for breakdown.)

So what can we say about the potential for virtual schools?  On one hand, there is strong support for high schoolers being able to take some credits online and for the overall practice of online or virtual courses.  But only 8% of respondents were willing to have their child spend their entire high school career online.  We don't know what drives that, but it is clear that the vast majority of respondents want their own kids to have some in-person experiences during their schooling.  This could suggest a ceiling in the demand for virtual schools.

To read the full poll, visit our website.  The questions reported above are numbered 11 and 12.  Topline results are on pages 27-28 and crosstabs can be found on pages 49-50. 

General Assembly Update - Week 5

Excerpted from CEPI's weekly General Assembly Update

"State Budget Issues

For the first time in about 15 years, the General Assembly concluded its work early, adjourning late Friday, one day ahead of schedule. This was made possible by expedited work on the State’s biennial budget for the remainder of FY15 and for FY16. Senior lawmakers crafting changes to the current, two-year state budget reached a compromise last weekend and the amendments were released on Tuesday, thus setting the stage for floor votes on the spending plan amendments on Thursday. Both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve over 430 changes to the plan that Governor McAuliffe introduced in December. With no discussion in the Senate, the plan was approved 38 to 1. After about 30 minutes of discussion in the House, the plan was passed on a 94 to 5 vote.

The compromise spending package includes additional projected revenues, balances and transfers totaling over $530 million. It contains $1.9 million in new fees, reduced from the nearly $13 million in higher fees contained in the introduced budget. On the expenditure side, and of particular note for public education, the budget provides a $153.5 million package that includes raises for state and local employees, school teachers and college faculty, and is contingent on revenues meeting expectations. Nearly $53 million of that is targeted for public school instructional and support personnel to receive the state share of a 1.5 percent pay raise, effective August 16, with flexibility for school divisions to receive all the state funding if raises are provided by January 1. The compromise budget also eliminates the nearly $30 million reduction in aid to localities planned for FY16, which is good news for local education budgets.

The budget also provides nearly $193 million from the sale of unclaimed property stock to pay down part of the unfunded teacher retirement liability. The remaining pension balance is re-amortized, thus reducing the retirement contribution rate for teachers from the 14.50 percent planned for FY16, to 14.06 percent, which produces savings for localities and the State as well. The budget also provides an additional $32.3 million to accelerate funding to 90% of Virginia Retirement System (VRS) certified rates for the state employee retirement plan.

Education Legislation

In action on bills from this past week, a tie vote broken by the Lieutenant Governor resulted in the defeat of HB 2238 on the Senate floor. The bill would have allowed parents of disabled students to establish an educational savings account for use at a private school, with the fund consisting of the student's state per pupil funds and certain special education funds.

The Senate General Laws Committee turned back, on a close 8 to 7 vote, HB 1437, which would have permitted “deliberative” public bodies in state or local government, including local governing bodies and school boards, by ordinance, resolution or written policy statement, to adopt a policy to permit a public invocation before each meeting of the public body, for the benefit of the public body.

The Senate rejected the House version (HJ 577) of a proposed Constitutional amendment that would authorize the BOE to approve applications to establish charter schools. The proposal failed on a 20 to 20 vote, but needs 21 votes by sitting members to apply. However, the Senate counterpart, SJ 256, was adopted. The proposal will be back before the legislature next year, as it must pass two sessions of the General Assembly, with an election in between, and in the same form before being put to the voters.

The House Appropriations Committee took no action on SB 866, which would have allowed local school boards and local governing bodies to elect to have all their employees and retirees, as well as the dependents of employees and retirees, eligible to participate in the state employee health insurance plan."

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