Author: sherlockj
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The School Soon to be Formerly Known as Curry
by James C. Sherlock University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences 1966 Robert Pianta is Dean of the Curry School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. He has a great CV. Dean Pianta on March 20, 2020 sent a lengthy letter to the University of Virginia Committee on Names (UVACON)…
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A Crisis in Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock I urge those readers with experience as teachers and anyone else with expertise in education to review a March 2020 presentation by Patty S. Pitts, Assistant Superintendent Teacher Education and Licensure Virginia Department of Education March 9, 2020. She discusses both reasons for teachers leaving Virginia public schools and the shortfalls…
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Albemarle County’s Draft Grading Policy – Part 2
by James C. Sherlock After I posted yesterday on Albemarle County’s Draft Grading Policy, I wrote each of the members of that school board. Still troubled, I wrote them again this morning. That board is a very distinguished group . I thus have reason to hope the messages have some effect before the vote…
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The Albemarle County School Board “Didn’t Ask Many Questions.”
by James C. Sherlock As sure as the sun rises in the east, the coming woke fix for achievement gaps in schools will be modified grading standards as part of antiracism policies. Albemarle County is already there. The School Board is poised to approve a new grading policy at its meeting September 24. “During the…
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Teaching African American History in Virginia
By James C. Sherlock I fully support integrating African American history into the broad sweep of history taught in the nation’s primary and secondary schools. On September 17, there will be a Virginia Board of Education meeting with an agenda item titled “Report from the Governor’s African American History Education Commission, August 2020” (the…
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Systemic Inequity on the Virginia Beach Schools Equity Council
by James C. Sherlock The Superintendent of Virginia Beach Schools has some work to do now that the Equity Policy he signed off on has been approved. The policy was developed with the assistance of the Virginia Beach Schools Equity Council. I have recommended today to the School Board and the Superintendent that they make…
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The Virginia Beach School Board Throws a Fit
by James C. Sherlock Virginia Beach boasts the fourth largest school district in the state with 87 schools and 69,000 students. Those kids, their teachers and their parents deserve better than what happened last night. Horror and embarrassment were the most common reactions of the public to last night’s televised meeting of the Virginia Beach…
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Educational Equity in Virginia Beach Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock I publish below the Educational Equity Policy to be voted on by the Virginia Beach School Board at a 4 p.m. meeting today. My overarching comment is that the policy, as written in draft, defines equity to include both equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes. Teachers are specifically charged to…
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“A People’s History” and its Role in Progressive Rage
by James C. Sherlock A People’s History of the United States In pursuit of an understanding of the sources of so much nihilistic rage by some of America’s young people in the streets, I recently read Howard Zinn’s book, ‘A People’s History of the United States’, originally published in 1980. It has sold more than…
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Maybe We Can Sue
by James C. Sherlock Updated August 30, 3:30 pm I wrote yesterday about a House of Delegates bill that ultimately was passed by the House Committee for Courts of Justice as House Bill No. 5074 Amendment In the Nature of A Substitute (the bill). I wrote of its effects on public officials and owners…
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Just A Bill in the Virginia House of Delegates
by James C. Sherlock Remember the educational cartoon video “I’m Just a Bill”? Well this is different. This is the Virginia General Assembly in emergency session 2020. I offer here an example captured in the brief history of a single bill in the House of Delegates that is very illustrative of the vast differences between…
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For Virginia, Nobody’s Home in the Congressional Infrastructure and Appropriations Committees
by James C. Sherlock Incredible and statistically unlikely as it sounds, the Commonwealth of Virginia has not a single member on either of the Congressional House or Senate Committees that decide what infrastructure projects are authorized, or on either Appropriations Committee that decides what is spent on such projects and on everything else. Those projects…
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If You Pay Full Price for Flood Insurance, Ask our City/County Manager Why
by James C. Sherlock There were lots of comments in my last post about government programs to mitigate flooding damage in flood plains, specifically about buying and tearing down houses that repeatedly flood. One of the carrots to do so is Community Rating System (CRS) discounts to flood insurance in communities that take an active…
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Virginia’s Return on Investment in Corps of Engineers Civil Works Projects
by James C. Sherlock In response to my suggestion to use the Corps of Engineers to assess Virginia’s needs for hurricane and flood control, libertarian commenters on this blog used the argument that only oceanfront landowners will benefit. That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the process works. I ran into that same level of…
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Virginia Has a Prayer
by James C. Sherlock Updated Aug 27 at 9:46 AM From the latest weather forecast: Hurricane Laura is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 as it heads for a destructive landfall near the Texas and Louisiana border Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. A catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds will batter the region…