Category: Education (K-12)
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School Discipline, Part III: Reframing Discipline in Virginia and Considerations for Making New Policy
by Matthew Hurt and Kathleen Smith Reframing School Discipline The Student Behavior and Administrative Response (SBAR) data collection was implemented in response to reframing school discipline from that of criminal, punishment, and exclusionary practices from 1991-2020 to that of restorative, intervention, and inclusionary practices in 2021 and beyond. The SBAR reports on behaviors that impede…
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Spotsylvania Pandemonium
Posted for the benefit of readers who are still in denial about the meltdown in discipline and the epidemic of violence in Virginia schools: There have always been fights in schools. It’s never been like this.
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Part II: School Discipline, Virginia Data and Virginia’s Disproportionality Concerns
This is the second of a three-part series on school discipline. The authors present information and provide discussion questions for the audience to respond. We hope the discussion will further an understanding of the complexity of school discipline and safe and orderly schools within the context of the presented data. by Matthew Hurt and Kathleen…
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School Discipline, Part I: Framing School Discipline and National Data
by Matthew Hurt and Kathleen Smith This is the first of a three-part series on school discipline. The authors present the information and then provide discussion questions. We hope the discussion will further an understanding of the complexity of school discipline and safe and orderly schools. Part I of this series frames school discipline and…
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“We Have Failed Our Students Under the Guise of Grace”
by James A. Bacon The breakdown of discipline in some of Virginia’s public schools is so stark that it has penetrated the ideological filters of the The Washington Post news staff. The lede to the WaPo’s article about last night’s Newport News School Board meeting sums up the picture nicely: Dozens of teachers and parents…
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Have Virginia Republican Elected Officials Given Up on Charter Schools?
by James C. Sherlock Two things we know: There is absolutely no question that charter schools run by successful charter management organizations (CMOS) are proven to be the most efficient and effective American public schools in instructing poor urban kids. There is also no question that many Democratic politicians, having eliminated any doubt about their…
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Newport News Schools Making Changes After Shooting – But Not Enough Yet
by James C. Sherlock Better late than never. Truly. The Daily Press reported today that the Newport News school board has secured funding for state-of-the-art metal detectors. State-of-the-art means systems that can detect weapons without the long lines and delays we associate with such systems. As an example, a 125-year-old company, Kenton Brothers, offers Evolve…
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Fairfax County Public Schools and “Equal Outcomes”
by Emilio Jaksetic According to an article by Asra Q. Nomani and Heather Zwicker, Fairfax County Public Schools has signed a sole-source contract with Performance Fact, Inc., which explicitly advocates the following: “To have an equity-centered organization, we have to have the courage and the willingness to be purposefully unequal when it comes to opportunities…
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A Subsidy and Benefit for the Few
by Dick Hall-Sizemore With the advent of another General Assembly session comes the annual school voucher bill. This version is HB 1508, introduced by Delegate Glenn Davis (R-Virginia Beach). Touted as a way to enhance “the right of parents to decide the educational opportunity for their child,” the legislation has a tweak that makes it…
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Teaching History the Right Way
by James A. Bacon Broadly speaking, there are two interpretive frameworks for viewing the history of the United States. The traditional framework sees the glass as half full: the U.S. was founded on the ideal that all men were entitled to equal rights that provided for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although those…
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Anti-Capitalism Packaged as Antiracism Teaches Failure in Virginia Schools
by James C. Sherlock I have spent the last 15 years or so studying and reporting on the decline of scholarship and the rise of censorship at the University of Virginia and other state institutions of “higher learning.” The enforced closing of minds has been targeted to resurrect an economic system that failed everywhere in…
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6-Year-Old Shooter
by Kerry Dougherty We’re not in the business of making predictions in this space. But with the police releasing precious few details about the near-fatal shooting of a Newport News first-grade school teacher on Friday, BY A SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY, we have a few guesses about what we will learn eventually: This is complete speculation, but…
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After Arrest at Loudoun School Board Meeting, Court Finds Man Not Guilty
by The Republican Standard staff After a two-day trial, Judge Fleming of the Loudoun County Circuit Court acquitted Jon Tigges of a criminal misdemeanor charge of trespassing when he was arrested at the June 22, 2021 Loudoun School Board meeting for remaining in the meeting room to exercise his First Amendment rights after the former…
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RVA’ s Chronic Absenteeism (Formerly Known As Truancy)
by Jon Baliles It’s hard for young students to learn if they are not in class, and Richmond Public Schools revealed some “unacceptably high” numbers regarding “chronic absenteeism” (aka truancy) at their meeting this week. Tannock Blair and Rolynn Wilson at WRIC filed a report in which Shadae Harris, RPS’ Chief Engagement Officer, presented the…
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The Shooting at Richneck Elementary – Part 2 – the School
By James C. Sherlock The shooting at Richneck Elementary was a tragedy by every measure. I am not going to discuss the shooting itself here. I will instead offer a summary of the school’s state quality data so we can get a sense of the environment in that school. It is located across I-64 from…