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
State & Local News

McAuliffe talks education, jobs with Stafford parents, administrators
Stafford Local

September 7, 2015

Governor Terry McAuliffe met with parents, teachers and administrators at an ‘education roundtable’ at Brooke Point High School in Stafford last week.


Meeting in the newly completed library facility at the high school, the roundtable, which was run by Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton, gave time for parents to speak to McAuliffe about education.

A lot of the usual topics were discussed – reducing class size, investing more money into education, supporting teachers and adding programs.

SAT score averages lag in Hampton, Newport News
Daily Press
September 3, 2015

The Peninsula's two largest school districts lagged both the state and national averages for SAT scores, according to numbers released Thursday by the Virginia Department of Education.

On average, recent test takers from public high schools in both Newport News and Hampton scored below their counterparts across the state and nation in all three of the test's categories — critical reading, math and writing.

The SAT averages in those cites trailed the state and national numbers by more than 100 points, according to the numbers for 2015 graduates. While Hampton's average SAT score fell by 10 points compared to the year before, Newport News' score rose 6 points.

Public high school test takers from Gloucester, Mathews and Isle of Wight counties performed slightly better than the national SAT average, though not as well as the average score statewide.

Virginia Tech renovations come at a cost to students

Collegiate Times
September 6, 2015

New renovations, improvements and the reconstructing of some of Virginia Tech’s learning and resident facilities are exciting and necessary changes taking place, but the finances for these campus projects can be considered premium. One can argue that some renovations are necessary now, but others might be able to wait. As the state budget for higher education funding has decreased, the building at Virginia Tech appears to increase.

The building of a new residence hall, the renovations being done on Torgersen Bridge and the many other renovations are evaluated to have a few million dollars put into these projects.

If these projects are costing millions, it is easy to assume that the funding for them is coming from contributions such as the minimal state funding received, but surprisingly this does not include the increased tuition for Virginia Tech students.

National News
Washington Supreme Court Rules Charter Schools Unconstitutional

Education Week
September 5, 2015

After almost a year of deliberation, Washington State's highest court has ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional.

This is the first time in the country that a state Supreme Court has struck down a charter school law, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The decision leaves hundreds of families in limbo whose children have already started school at one of the state's nine charter schools.

Voters approved the state's charter school law by a small margin in 2012. The state's first charter school opened last year, and another eight started up last month.

Rep. John Kline Won't Seek Re-Election; Adds Pressure on ESEA Rewrite
Education Week
September 3, 2015
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House education committee, announced Thursday that he will not be seeking re-election in 2016.

"Strengthening our nation's classrooms and workplaces has been at the forefront of the committee's agenda since I was first selected to serve as chairman, and it will continue to be my leading priority in the months ahead," he said in a press release. "Whether it's replacing No Child Left Behind, holding the Obama administration accountable for its harmful policies, or strengthening higher education, there is a lot of work to do over the next 16 months."


Study: American primary education is trending back toward segregation
The Week
September 7, 2015

As American children prepare to head back to school tomorrow, many of them will return to racially homogenous classrooms. A 2014 report found that 60 years after the landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), segregation in American primary education — though certainly not at pre-Brown levels — has significantly increased since the 1980s, which generally marked the peak of integration.

Gary Orfield, a UCLA law professor who co-authored the study, says the findings of his report still hold true in 2015, and the long-term consequences of sub-par education at majority-minority schools could be dire. "Let’s say your family’s poor, and then your chances of going to a really great state university are basically nonexistent," he explains. "If this is sustainable then it’s incompatible with democracy, and spells disaster for the long run."

Who starts school before and after Labor Day?

Legally, Virginia public schools are restricted from starting the school year until after Labor Day.  So one might expect that most schools just started school yesterday.  Despite the legislative mandate, sometimes referred to as the "Kings Dominion rule," many school systems receive waivers from the state in order to start earlier.  Below is the map from the Virginia Dept. of Education (VDOE) showing which school systems started earlier in 2014-15 (data on school start dates for the current year aren't available yet).  Obviously, there is a strong pattern of schools receiving a waiver the farther you move west (where one might expect more snowfall in winter months). 


But we were interested in seeing how far in advance of labor day different systems started.  So we pulled the underlying data from the VDOE website and developed our own map that is shaded based on how many days before or after Labor Day the schools got started in a particular system (the exact date is noted in text - remember Labor Day was on Sept. 1 last year.)


Most systems that opened before Labor Day, it seems, started about two or 3 weeks before.  Alexandria City had the earliest start, 32 days before Labor Day (to see a ranking of systems on that, check out the second tab in the visualization.) 

In addition to start dates, the state also collects and publishes the planned start and end dates for winter and spring breaks (some systems eliminate some of those planned days when inclement weather closes the system other days.)  So, from the third and fourth maps you can also get a sense of which systems have the shortest and longest breaks.  For winter break, Carroll County had the longest at 20 days (number is based on total days between start of break and the end, not just school days) while Charles City, Dinwiddie and Madison only took 9 days off.  With spring break, Shenandoah and Brunswick county led with 10 days and a number of counties planned for just three total days off. 

In this weeks poll snapshot we take a look at public support for pre-Labor Day school starts and we also share an excerpt from Dr. Vacca's 2010 Ed Law newsletter that looks at the legal evolution and impact of the concept of equal educational opportunity (the right to attend school in the first place).

Finally, we recognize that not everyone likes maps as much as we do - we thought we'd wrap up by sharing these recommendations from Frontline for five documentaries to watch about education.

Whether you're two days or two weeks in, we hope your school year is off to a great start!

Sincerely,
CEPI
Poll Snapshot:  Support for a Pre-Labor Day start for schools
While the school calendar in the U.S. still hearkens to a time when summers for children were often spent laboring on family farms (and schools didn't start until harvests were in), the post-Labor Day start is the result of legislative advocacy by various branches of the tourism industry that hire lots of high school students at cheap rates over the summer and still want them on duty for the final long weekend of the summer vacation season.  Hence, the law mandating a post-Labor Day start is sometimes refered to as the "Kings Dominion law", after one of the main amusement parks near the state capital. 

Numerous efforts to change the law have failed, though according to CEPI's annual Education Poll, not because doing so lacks public support.  In 2014 we asked respondents whether they would support changing the law to give local school systems the ability to decide whether to start their school year before Labor Day.  In both years, more than 60% said they would (see the breakout below). 
























Unlike many issues that have a well defined partisan difference, there is no real difference between Democrats (66% favor) and Republicans (65% favor) on this issue.  Nor is there much difference across income lines.  Parents of public school students (those most affected by a change) actually show lower support (54%) than those who don't have a child in public schools. 

But perhaps the most striking difference in the demographic breakdown is that across education levels.  Only 47% of those with a high school education or less favor giving the localities the power to decide whether to start before Labor Day.  Those with some college (72%) and those with a college degree or more (70% favor) are much more supportive.

(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 14 is the question cited above on school type choice - topline results are on page 32; crosstabs are on page 59.)

Equal Educational Opportunity
Excerpted from CEPI's December 2010 Ed Law Newsletter on the same topic by Dr. Richard Vacca

In keeping with our focus on efforts to attain more equally positive student achievement by adjusting the school calendar, here is an excerpt from our 2010 newsletter on recent issues surrounding Equal Educational Opportunities:

"Equal Educational Opportunities: Emerging Issues: 2010-2011
Several important lessons were learned during the post-Brown (1954) era one of which is that equal educational opportunity is not synonymous with same educational opportunity. To put it another way, local school officials, administrators, classroom teachers, and other school system personnel discovered that curricular offerings, programs, and related services must be tailored to meet the diverse and unique needs of students and their parents. To provide every student with “the same” was not the key to establishing access to meaningful educational opportunities. The path was moving public education forward in an individual child (student) oriented direction.

As my colleague Professor Bosher and I have concluded, based on our research, today’s goal is for states and their local school districts to provide an appropriate educational opportunity for all children of school age (based on a unique needs model)—an opportunity that “ensures basic, minimal quality education for each child.” (Vacca and Bosher, 2008) At the same time, however, we are beginning to see new legal and policy issues replace old ones as evidenced by a growing demand for special purpose (alternative) schools and curricular programs—schools and programs that place some children of school age outside the mainstream of the school system’s general student population.

As local school systems work to redesign existing academic and extra-curricular offerings and, at the same time, establish, implement, and support alternative schools and programs to meet student needs, legal challenges are inevitable—especially challenges where allegations of resegregation are put forth. Thus, it is critical that local school boards (with input from principals, staff, parents, and community leaders) work closely with legal counsel to reexamine existing school system policies and formulate new policies designed to widen access to appropriate and meaningful educational opportunities for all children. While Mumid v. Abraham Lincoln High School (8th Cir. 2010) is but one case in one jurisdiction it is nonetheless instructive. What follow are some implications for policy gleaned from that decision. Local school system policies must make it clear that:
  • All students have equal access to appropriate, adequate, and meaningful educational opportunities.
  • All curricular offerings and non-curricular offerings (social, cultural, athletic) are established, designed, implemented, and maintained with the specific purpose of creating an educational environment in every school conducive to effective teaching and learning.
  • School administrators, classroom teachers, and other staff members work to identify, accommodate, and provide for the individual needs and learning styles of each student.
  • While a principal goal of the school system is to keep each student on pace and together with his/her age-appropriate peers in the mainstream of the school environment, special and alternative schools, program settings, and services are established, designed, implemented, and maintained for the specific purpose of providing for the unique interests and needs of individual students—especially those students who are at risk of failure and dropping out of school, and/or students who need intensive remediation and special help.
  • Sustained efforts are made to keep parents and guardians fully informed of their child’s progress in school, and parents and guardians are actively involved in all major decisions involving their child’s education."

To read the full brief, visit our website.