Category: Education (K-12)
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Area Principals Admit to Withholding National Merit Awards From Students
by Asra Q. Nomani While Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid claims the principal at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) withheld National Merit awards from students in a “one-time human error,” parents at two local high schools got a Friday and Saturday night surprise. The revelations are emerging after school…
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R.I.P. Virginia Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock I have crafted and will share what I believe to be an epitaph for public education in Virginia. All of the evidence we see is that Virginia’s public school system, counseled and cheered on by its disgraceful publicly funded schools of education, is crumbling at its foundations. We start children in…
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The Shooting at Richneck Elementary – Part One
by James C. Sherlock There is trauma everywhere you look. A six-year-old boy shoots his teacher in school and we first consider the trauma. Then we look for ways to minimize its effects. And we simultaneously ask questions about the event itself. What happened and why? Unless we are personally involved, and even if we…
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As TJHSST is Investigated, an Email from 2020 Reveals a ‘Pattern and Practice’ of Hiding Awards
by Asra Q. Nomani This week, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares walked through the glass doors of the Korean Community Center off Little River Turnpike, the dome of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology visible through the window, and with him stood five parents of current and former students at TJ, as the…
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Democrats Want to Raise Youngkin-Proposed Mental Health Budget Increase
by James C. Sherlock There is fundamental agreement in Richmond over mental health services. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia’s forecasts of long-term budget surpluses mean this year’s General Assembly has a chance to catch up with years of under-funding Virginia schools and the state’s behavioral health system, General Assembly Democrats say. To govern is to…
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Preparing for the Costs to Government of Virginia’s Generation COVID
by James C. Sherlock To justify her insistence on keeping schools closed, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in February of 2021, “kids are resilient and kids will recover.” She brought that same message to Virginia. In one of the strangest choices in Virginia political history, Terry McAuliffe brought Weingarten…
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Virginia’s Largest School System Pays $455,000 for ‘Equal Outcomes’ Consultant
by Hans Spader Students vary widely in intelligence and willingness to work hard. Why would anyone expect “equal outcomes for every student, without exception”? But that’s what educational consultants paid for by Virginia’s largest school district expect. The consultants were hired by Fairfax County Public Schools, which have 180,000 students. Their goal is to “produce…
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Projected $312 Billion Cost of Lost Earnings of Virginia K-12 Students due to Pandemic School Closures
by James C. Sherlock Over $312 billion in present value. That is the estimate published by Stanford’s Eric A. Hanushek of expected economic losses attributable to Virginia’s pandemic school closures. Virginia students in the COVID cohort can expect on average 5.5 percent lower lifetime earnings. History indicates that the economic losses will be permanent unless the schools…
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Just-in-Time Remediation for Kids Who Fall Behind
by Matt Hurt There have always been students who have evidenced a year or more delay in their independent working ability. Unfortunately, our educational response to the pandemic of closing schools and offering virtual instruction has made this problem significantly worse (more on that here). Today there are significantly more students who are a year…
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Poverty and Performance in Virginia Schools
by John Butcher A recent study out of Stanford looked at 11 years of district-level National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data by race and economic disadvantage from all public school districts and concluded that racial segregation is strongly associated with the magnitude of achievement gaps in third grade and the rate at which gaps…
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When the Pursuit of “Equity” Cheats High Achievers
by Kerry Dougherty Imagine for a moment that you’re a top student in a highly competitive science and technology high school. In your junior year you take the PSATs and enter the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program competing against the elite students in high schools from coast to coast. Imagine that in mid-October of your…
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The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn
by Asra Q. Nomani For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has…
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Authority of Virginia Principals to Keep Schools Safe is Dangerously Undermined
by James C. Sherlock At St. Anthony school when I was a student, Sister Mary Adria was the final decision authority. The only one, really. Sister Adria was the principal. There was no division staff, for the simple reason that there was no division. I guess parents could have appealed to the pastor, but we…
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Another Takeaway from the Special Grand Jury Report in the Circuit Court of Loudoun County
by Kathleen Smith Earlier this month, the special grand jury’s findings in the Circuit Court of Loudoun County were released to the public. The special grand jury had been impaneled by Commonwealth’s Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate accusations regarding Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and its handling of a student disciplinary case. After reading…