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









Education Editorial: Sleep and school day
NBC 12 (WWBT)
August 31, 2014

Junking the bad food, introducing new USDA school nutrition standards
CBS 6 (WTVR)
(Aug. 26, 2014)
Articles of Interest
State & Local Policy

Virginia state academic tests show stagnant scores on reading, writing
The Washington Post
August 27, 2014


Virginia students saw modest gains on state-mandated math tests while average scores on reading and writing exams stagnated, according to state results released Tuesday. But nearly half of the state’s districts saw drops in reading scores as many school districts brace for wavering accreditation status this fall.

The state’s annual Standards of Learning tests gauge student academic performance compared with their peers across all grade levels in the commonwealth. The scores help education officials track student achievement in Virginia, which was one of a few states that has not adopted the new national Common Core State Standards touted by the Obama administration.

Of the state’s 132 school districts, 110 divisions improved their average scores on math tests and 13 remained the same last school year compared with the previous year. On state reading tests, students in 64 school divisions saw overall reading scores drop and 76 districts recorded losses on writing exams.

It's in Virginia's budget: $6 million for school security grants

The Daily Press
August 29, 2014

After the 2012 mass elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Virginia created a $6-million-a-year grant program to help local schools beef up security.

State money for school construction had been phased out a few years before, when lottery funds were shifted to ongoing programs.

The $6 million a year in "security equipment payments" is now the only state funding targeted to school security upgrades, according to Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle. It pays for a number of projects, including video cameras, metal detectors, electronic locking systems and communication systems that link schools to law enforcement agencies.

Federal Policy

50-state look at how Common Core playing out in US
The Washington Post
September 2, 2014


A state-by-state look at the Common Core standards:

VIRGINIA

Virginia refused to participate in the national Common Core system, instead deciding in 2010 to strengthen its own Standards of Learning.

The state introduced new standardized math tests in 2012 and more rigorous reading, writing and science assessments in 2013. The state is reducing the number of standardized exams that middle and elementary school students have to take from 22 to 17.

In addition, state Secretary of Education Anne Holton has appointed a 20-member committee to study the Standards of Learning and make recommendations to the Virginia Board of Education and the General Assembly on ways to improve SOL tests and student growth measures, and encourage innovative teaching.
Are We Investing Enough in Schools?

As students across the commonwealth headed back to school this week, much of the focus is on the emotional moments of "first days."  The logistics challenge of transporting, organizing and educating so many young people is rarely the subject of news reports unless something goes wrong, but it's worth remembering what a massive undertaking a system of public education actually is.  With more than 1.2 million students enrolled in Virginia public schools, there are close to as many public students in Virginia as there are active duty members of the U.S. military branches (1.4 million in 2010).

Such an undertaking certainly comes at considerable expense.  But because costs are shared between local, state and federal entities, the total cost of the U.S. public education system (about $809 billion in 2011) isn't as obvious singularly federal expenditures such as military spending (about $718 billion in 2011).  Nevertheless, questions about whether enough is being invested in public schools and when to build new facilities are frequent issues for elected officials and local communities.  This is especially true for future planning as enrollment is expected to continue to increase over the next decade by about 5%.  For example, paying for expected school expenses from increased population growth also can create tension between developers and elected officials.

One way of approaching this question is to look at per student spending.  Here, the U.S. leads other countries handily - about $7,743 per student, compared to $5,834 for the United Kingdom, the second highest spender.  But the U.S. consistently trails many other countries on standardized test scores in math and reading, so another question is what the U.S. gets for its spending.  For an interesting graphic comparing U.S. spending and results to those of 11 other countries, check out this graphic from USC.

Yet another way of approaching the question is a more subjective question about whether current funding is "enough."  This is where polling can get a sense of what the public thinks - and our poll snapshot this week looks at this question in Virginia.  

Keeping with this theme, we also excerpt a run down of successful education-related finance legislation from the 2014 General Assembly session from our final General Assembly Update of 2014, originally shared back in May.   

Finally, we also share Dr. Bosher's weekly editorial.  This week he reflects on the relationship between sleep for teens and the school day schedule.

Sincerely,
CEPI
Poll Snapshot:  Enough funding for schools?
School funding questions are a perenial issue of local, state and federal levels of government.  Property taxes - one of the main ways that localities fund schools - are rarely popular and public officials often strive to lower property tax rates when they can in order to stay competitive with surrounding localities.  But localities also are in competition with each other to offer good schools, leading some to look for other tax revenues such as meals taxes to fund education system improvements.

This past year, as we have for more than ten years, we asked respondents to our Commonwealth Education Poll to say whether funding for public schools in Virginia is enough to meet needs or not.  The results are reported below from 2001-2005 and 2009 to 2014.  The main take away is that a significant majority of Virginians consistently think that public schools need more funding. 

























There were some interesting differences regionally, between genders, age groups and people with direct connections to schools.

Two regions (South Central at 76% and Tidewater at 74%) were more likely to feel current funding was not enough to meet needs than were respondents from the Northwest (61%), Northern VA (56%), and Western Virginia (60%). 

Women (at 73%) were also more likely to feel that there were insuffiicent resources for public education than were men (57%).  Likewise, persons 65 or older were less likely to see insufficient funds (52% said not enough), compared with the other three age groups which had responses of not enough from 68% to 70% of participants.

Finally, retired or current school employees were more likely to feel there was not enough funding (74%) than were respondents who had no employment ties (63%).  Surprisingly, though, opinion among parents of a public school student (67% saying not enough funding) was fairly similar to respondents who didn't have a child in the public school system (64%).

(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 2 is the question cited above on whether funding for public schools in Virginia is enought - topline results are on page 26; crosstabs are on pages 37.)

Successful Finance Legislation 2014
Excerpted from CEPI's General Assembly Update

"FINANCE
HB 1110 (Toscano) requires a school division to be reimbursed by the school division in which a child's custodial parent or guardian resides for the costs of educating such child, whether disabled or not, who has been placed in foster care, in a licensed child-caring institution or in a group home that is located within the school division to be reimbursed.

SB 87 (Watkins) makes technical amendments to the programs administered by the Virginia Retirement System (VRS).

SB 269 (Stanley) allows taxpayers to claim the Education Improvement Scholarships tax credit for the taxable year in which they made donations to qualifying scholarship foundations, beginning with donations made in 2014; under current law, such credits first may be claimed for the taxable year following the year of the donation.

SB 562 (Locke) authorizes any local school board that partners with a college partnership laboratory school to charge tuition to students enrolled in the laboratory school and who do not reside within the partnering school division.

SB 563 (Stosch) increases by $500,000 in each of the next two fiscal years the amount of tax credits that may be issued under the Neighborhood Assistance Act Tax Credit program for both donations supporting education and other programs."

To read the full brief, visit our website.