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| State & Local Education News |
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Central High School teacher honored as Virginia's Outstanding Agriculture Education Teacher
WHSV
October 24, 2016
WOODSTOCK, Va. (WHSV) -- Sherry Heishman, Agricultural Education teacher and FFA advisor at Central High School since 1985, is no stranger to awards for her teaching of science and agriculture.
She's been recognized several times by the Virginia Association of Agriculture Educators (VAAE) as the state's Agriscience Teacher of the Year - an award given for her inclusion of science in the agriculture curriculum - and in 2014, she was named one of six National Agriscience Teachers of the Year by the National Association of Agricultural Educators.
Now, in 2016, the VAAE has named Sherry Heishman Virginia's Outstanding Agricultural Education Teacher.
Virginia's education department wants to hear from the public on new federal rules
Richmond Times Dispatch
October 21, 2016
The Virginia Department of Education is asking for the public’s input as it works to implement new federal accountability standards.
To get feedback, the department has posted a four-question survey on its website. The answers “will help inform the development of the commonwealth’s plan to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act.”
The survey, which is anonymous, gauges the academic measures important to respondents and what other factors should be considered when creating a new accountability system.
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National & Federal Education News
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The Higher-Education Crisis Beneath a Civil War
The Atlantic
October 25, 2016
Thousands of Syrian students’ schooling is on pause, and though many would like to continue their learning in America, immigration policies make that all but impossible.
Zed Al Aas dreams of someday being awarded a Nobel Prize.
If there was one for coping with bureaucracy, he would have already won it.
Al Aas left his native Syria at the outset of the civil war there. He completed the equivalent of high school in Lebanon. He eventually made his way here, to Germany, two years ago. But to study in his preferred major, bioinformatics, he is determined to go to a university in the United States, which has the top programs in the field.
Impact and Nonimpact of Online Competition
Inside Higher Ed
October 25, 2016
A federal rule change that opened the door to more fully online degree programs has not made college tuition more affordable, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, but at some place-based institutions, enrollment has declined and instructional spending has increased as a result.
The paper, written by David J. Deming, Michael Lovenheim and Richard W. Patterson, explores what has happened in the postsecondary education sector in the years following the removal of the 50 percent rule. The rule change, which occurred in February 2006, meant colleges that enrolled more than half of their students in fully online programs could participate in federal financial aid programs.
The U.S. Education Department had attempted to do this several years ago, but that effort was notable for several controversies, one of them a suggestion that teacher-preparation programs be evaluated in part by the standardized test scores of the students being taught by program graduates. Now we have the final regulations — and critics of the original draft remain unsatisfied.
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How does teacher turnover relate to Virginia's critical teaching shortage areas?
Teacher turnover is an ever present challenge in most schools and across all states.
NYU Steinhardt published an article stating that underserved schools lose 20% of their faculty each year. In New York, it is reported that two thirds (66%) of educators leave within their first five years.
All states experience the turnover of teachers. For example, within Richmond Public Schools there is an added frustration for their teachers over the cutting of the 2% annual raise. A recent article in the
Richmond Times Dispatch featured a Richmond Public Schools educator, who has not recieved a pay raise in the nine years he has worked in the school system. Even though he has yet to see a pay increase from his $45,000 salary, he loves what he does. But other teachers have chosen to change jobs or careers. Richmond Public Schools saw a teacher turnover rate of 12.76% from July 2014 through June 2015, higher than Henrico County at 5.7% and Chesterfield at 9.8%.
In addition to salary, the high emphasis placed on standarized tests throughout the country affects not only students but teachers as well. The
National Education Association notes that the stakes are high for teachers in terms of student performance on their standarized tests. Students' performance can potentially be linked to a teacher's salary and their job security and can dictate their curriculum. Stress and anxiety from these tests may be linked to why teachers are choosing different careers.
The turnover of teachers truly hits school districts in some of the most crucial areas of teaching as well. The
Virginia Deparment of Education reports annually on Virginia's critical teaching areas. The below graphic displays the overall top ten critical shortage areas in Virginia from 2006 through 2016. These concurrently are the top ten critical shortage teaching areas from 2015-2016 as well. The change in shortage areas has been minimal through the past years with Special Education always being the number one shortage area. Elementary Education PreK-6, Middle Education Grades 6-8 and Career and Technical Education have held the second, third and fourth shortage area positions for the past ten years.
*The larger the size of the circle, the more critical the shortage area is. Special Education is ranked number one for most critical shortage area from the Virginia Department of Education reports, following Elementary Education PreK-6, Middle Education Grades 6-8, Career and Technical Education, Mathematics Grades 6-12, School Counselor PreK-12, Foreign Languages PreK-12, English (Secondary), Heath and Physican Education PreK-12, and History and Social Science (Secondary).
Since the topic of standardized testing is currently such an interesting one, please refer to the 2015-2016 Education Poll on
SOL testing below.
Have a great week!
Sincerely,
CEPI
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CEPI Poll Snapshot - How the public feels about SOL testing
A short data insight from our
Commonwealth Education Poll.
As national efforts increased to cap the time spent taking tests or reduce the number of standardized tests required of students, the public continues to register strong concerns about the impacts that testing has on students and teachers. They also agree that Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs) and the testing to assess progress against them hold schools accountable and lead to equal standards for all students.
Narrow majorities of respondents see the SOLs as a positive in promoting accountability and equity across educational institutions. Fifty-five percent (55%) see a benefit in accountability, agreeing that the SOLs hold schools accountable for student achievement. Only 41% disagree. A slightly smaller majority, 53%, see an equity benefit, saying that the SOLs make sure that all students in Virginia meet the same academic standards. Minority respondents are more likely to agree that SOLs hold schools accountable (63%) and ensure that all students meet the same standards (61%) when compared to whites where only 52% and 51% agreed with the same respective statements.
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Though part of the argument for standardized testing has been its potential use as a tool for assessing and improving student achievement, a majority of Virginians (58%) disagree with the statement that SOLs help improve student achievement. Women (65%) were more likely to disagree than were Men (51%). Likewise, those with household incomes above $100,000 (66%) were more likely to disagree than those with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 (60%) or those with incomes below $50,000 (54%).
(To read the full poll, visit our
website.)
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