Author: sherlockj
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A Far Better Option for Public Education of Poor Urban Minority Students in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock We are going to discuss here — it will be a series — Virginia’s urban majority-minority school divisions. School boards, superintendents and teachers in those divisions want their students to learn. They are especially frustrated that far too many of their minority students fail to do so. For those divisions, an…
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Virginia Child Victims in the Left’s War on the Enlightenment and Science
by James C. Sherlock Modern progressivism is religion, defined by Webster as “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” The critical theory progressive, that is to say the modern American progressive, rejects proudly and publicly, root and branch, both the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolutions of the 16th through…
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Standards of Learning, Educational Reform and the Blob
by James C. Sherlock Readers opine that I am throwing ideas into institutional quicksand when advocating for education reforms. But I hope not. For example, in my most recent series I have suggested that Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) process needs fundamental reform with the integration of learning and teaching standards. Critics have written with…
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The Institute of Educational Sciences and its Missing Role in Virginia Standards of Learning
By James C. Sherlock In investigative reporting on education in Virginia, I regularly refer to the federal Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES) and its What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA; amended in 2004) Part A established the Institute of Education Sciences. Section 111 establishes IES as a research…
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A Proposal for a Broad Trial of Single Sex and Co-ed Virginia Classrooms on the Woodbridge Middle School Model
by James C. Sherlock This is an expanded version of an article originally published on Dec. 16 of this year. To avoid confusion, the original has been removed. This update contains important information about the multi-year experience of Woodbridge Middle School in Prince William County with the approaches recommended here for broader testing in Virginia.…
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Teacher Vacancies in Virginia Cities with a Majority of Black Students Continue to be Very High
by James C. Sherlock The statewide performance of Black kids on Virginia’s SOLs was horrible. Chronic absenteeism is a primary reason. But I continue to look for underlying reasons and solutions for both. This morning I checked the Staffing and Vacancy Dashboard. The teacher vacancy rate for Region 2, Tidewater and the Eastern Shore, is…
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Boys Left Behind Academically – Yet Another Crisis in Virginia Schools
by James C. Sherlock Girls significantly outperform boys in English Language Arts (ELA) (reading and writing) in public schools and perform about as well in math and science, both across the nation and in Virginia. Virginia statewide SOL performance statistics give the details here. Across the state, girl students are better readers and far better…
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Insufferable and Dangerous Nonsense in Academia – Antisemitism Sector
by James C. Sherlock I read this morning in the latest issue of Chronicle of Higher Education a particularly smarmy article by a Keith E. Whittington. He is, among other things, “professor of politics at Princeton University and founding chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance”. Good to know. He addressed in…
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Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force – Part Three – Vital New State Roles
By James C. Sherlock I have found in 18 years of reporting on education in the Commonwealth that each school, each school division and each region is to some degree its own ecosystem. Taking the example of chronic absenteeism, an individualized assessment of causes could be attempted: if a single school‘s chronic absenteeism can be…
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Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force – Part Two – Restructure for Balanced Debates
By James C. Sherlock I have watched the public sessions of the Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force. The structure of the task force, and its proceedings, have been fatally flawed. That panel has been dominated by the progressive worldviews of Attendance Works and FutureEd. I offer as evidence the “resources” for the first meeting on…
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The Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force – Part One – Failed Advice
by James C. Sherlock Governor Youngkin, in response to the real crisis in our schools, has established a Chronic Absenteeism Task Force led by the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Task Force is supported by the non-profit Attendance Works. Attendance Works so dominates VDOE’s Attendance & School Engagement page that it can be deemed…
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Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part Four – Chronic Absenteeism, Social Promotion, VTSS and UVa’s Ed School
by James C. Sherlock There is a rule: nothing else schools do will matter much for kids who are chronically absent. In Charlottesville, it is the Black children who dominate the chronic absenteeism statistics. Their SOL performance validates the rule. The process for preventing and dealing with chronic absenteeism within the school system is so…
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Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part Three – CCS Abandons Truancy Filings, Absenteeism Soars
by James C. Sherlock The effects of public policies can be murky. Not this one. The subject in this Part 3 is alarming chronic absenteeism of Charlottesville City Schools (CCS). At issue is the virtual abandonment by that division of the use truancy filings with the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, removing parental consequences. …
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Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part Two – Black Students
by James C. Sherlock What drew me to this story is the fact that Black students in Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) have suffered to a degree unequaled elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Keeping in mind the domination of Charlottesville and its schools by the University of Virginia and its School of Education and Human Development discussed…
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Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part One – Bad things Happen
by James C. Sherlock In the relationship between Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, very bad things have happened to Charlottesville and continue to do so. I have developed a working thesis on that relationship. The city is at the mercy of the University by virtue of the latter’s wealth, influence, and power in Charlottesville…