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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
All Montgomery high schools to have police on campus for new school year
The Washington Post, May 26, 2014
Police will be posted in all 25 Montgomery County high schools next fall as county leaders bolstered the schools’ security force in a final budget approved last week.The budget for the year that begins July 1 includes 10 new school resource officers (SROs), who will join 12 school police officers in place and three supported by the cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg and the county sheriff’s department.
An inventor takes the helm at Virginia Tech
The Washington Post, May 25, 2014
The incoming president of Virginia Tech, a public university that seeks to be known as an engine of innovation, holds 17 patents and was co-inventor of a laser process crucial for making white-light-emitting diodes.
When Timothy D. Sands takes office June 1 as the 16th president of what is formally known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, he will bring an inventor’s eye for unexpected breakthroughs to his job at a moment when higher education itself is being reinvented.
As a professor of materials science and engineering, first at the University of California at Berkeley and then at Purdue University in Indiana, Sands exhorted his students to keep careful notes and exploit “things that happen by the wayside” in a laboratory.
The Sacramento Bee, May 27, 2014
As he hosts the annual White House Science Fair on Tuesday, President Barack Obama plans to announce some new efforts to encourage American young people to train for jobs related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“When students excel in math and science, they’re laying the groundwork for helping America compete for the jobs and industries of the future,” Obama said in a statement. “That’s why I’m proud to celebrate outstanding students at the White House Science Fair, and to announce new steps my administration and its partners are taking to help more young people succeed in these critical subjects."
Part of the effort brings more employees from more private companies around the country into STEM mentoring. North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and Wichita, Kan., are two of seven urban areas starting new mentoring programs for students, particularly for girls, minority students and low-income students.
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This week in Compass Point we're glad to share with you Dr. Bosher's thoughts on some recent research regarding teacher evaluations. His editorial references recent research by Polikoff (USC) and Porter (Univ. of Pennsylvania). If you don't want to read the whole article, Ed Week provides a run down on that and another recent research article on teacher evaluation.
In light of the recent California mass shooting tragedy, this week's poll snapshot looks at Virginian's preferences on what tactics to use to improve school safety.
Finally, we're happy to share excerpts from the final Virginia General Assembly update, which reviews the list of approved legislation that impact education from this year's assembly sessions.
Sincerely,
CEPI |
Poll Snapshot: Approaches to School Safety
In the wake of another mass shooting tragedy in a university setting, the search for potential policy changes to prevent other tragedies is again front and center in the public consciousness. Though not connected to the recent shooting, Montgomery County (Maryland) schools this week announced that posting a police officer on high school campuses will be standard in the coming school year.
In our 2014 Education Poll, CEPI asked respondents which approach to school safety they preferred - additional security measures or improvements to mental health systems. As can be seen below, a majority (54%) across the state preferred additional security measures. Geographically, a preference for security measures was highest, at 64% in the Northwest and Western Virginia areas while preferences were more evenly divided in Northern Virginia (42% security measures, 37% mental health).
The education level of the respondent seems to make a difference in the expressed preference - 69% of persons with a high school diploma or less preferred security measures while only 41% of persons with a college diploma said the same. 37% of college grads preferred a mental health approach while 11% volunteered that both should be utilized.
To read the full results of our poll, visit our website.
The question pertaining to the impact of funding on education quality is #17 (topline on page 33, crosstab on page 62).
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Final Update for 2014 - Approved Legislation Review
Excerpted from our General Assembly Update - prepared by CEPI Policy Associate David Blount
"INSTRUCTION/ACCOUNTABILITY
HB 197 (Landes) requires teachers to ensure that all supplementary, written materials used to teach certain historical documents contain accurate restatements of the principles contained therein. In addition, the Department of Education (DOE) is directed to develop guidelines for such materials used by teachers.
HB 886 (Peace)requires the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) to provide high schools and institutions of higher education a link on its website to published data, to the extent available, assessing rates of enrollment in remedial coursework, individual student credit accumulation and postsecondary degree completion rates. Local school boards are required to post an annual notice to high school students and their parents of the availability of such data on their websites.
HB 887 (Peace) requires the Board of Education (BOE) to develop model criteria and procedures for establishing a jointly operated high school with a career and technical education focus, to be recommended to the Governor and General Assembly for funding as a Governor's Career and Technical Education School.
HB 930 (Greason) and SB 306 (Deeds) stipulate that Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments administered in grades three through eight not exceed (a) reading and mathematics in grades three and four; (b) reading, mathematics and science in grade five; (c) reading and mathematics in grades six and seven; (d) reading, writing, mathematics and science in grade eight; and (e) Virginia Studies and Civics and Economics once each at the grade levels deemed appropriate by each local school board. Each school board shall annually certify that it has provided instruction and administered an alternative assessment, consistent with Board of Education (BOE) guidelines, to students in SOL subject areas in which an SOL test was not administered. The bills also include provisions for an SOL Innovation Committee, consisting of legislators and education stakeholders, to periodically make recommendations to the BOE and General Assembly on the SOL tests; student growth measures; alignment between the SOL, assessments and the School Performance Report Card; and ideas on innovative classroom teaching.
HB 1007 (Byron) replaces references throughout the Code of Virginia to a General Education Development (GED) program or test with "a high school equivalency examination approved by the Board of Education."
HB 1054 (Loupassi) allows the BOE, in establishing course and credit requirements for a high school diploma, to consider all computer science course credits earned by students to be science course credits, mathematics course credits, or career and technical education credits; the bill requires the Board to develop guidelines addressing how such courses can satisfy graduation requirements."
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