Category: Education (K-12)
-
Will Fredericksburg Revert to Being a Town?
by James C. Sherlock There are two major reasons that Virginians organize themselves into local governments: public safety; and public schools for their children. Fredericksburg has proven unable to provide either competently. It’s record is unapproachably bad given its assets. We have documented its deplorable schools. When I wrote in that piece that they need…
-
Aftermath…The Midterm Elections
by Kerry Dougherty In the aftermath of the midterms there is gnashing of teeth among Republican voters who wanted a red wave. But, hey, we did our part in southeastern Virginia. We flipped the 2nd District congressional seat and some of the woke Virginia Beach School Board. Well done, neighbors! On Tuesday I met Mike…
-
Parental-Rights Candidates Fared Well Tuesday
by James A. Bacon It has been the conventional wisdom for some time now that Governor Glenn Youngkin’s winning gambit in his race against Terry McAuliffe was tapping into the parental rights movement. Parents furious about the injection of wokism into public schools were emerging as a new political dynamic, and Youngkin was the first…
-
School System in Meltdown Approves $1,000 Employee Bonuses
by James A. Bacon Two months ago, citing a 71% rate of chronic absenteeism in Fredericksburg public schools, Bacon’s Rebellion columnist Jim Sherlock called for the resignation of the city’s superintendent, Marci Catlett. Looks as though she’ll be getting a bonus instead. The Fredericksburg School Board approved Monday drawing from federal COVID-relief funds to pay $1,000…
-
“The Fortune in the Book”
Fortune in the Book from Pacific Legal Foundation on Vimeo. by James A. Bacon A new Pacific Legal Foundation video tells the story of parents who fought changes to the meritocratic admissions policy at Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, rated the best public high school in the country, in…
-
What If They Threw a Party and the Wrong People Came?
by James A. Bacon In an effort to overcome “catastrophic learning loss” among Virginia school kids over the past five years, Governor Glenn Youngkin has ramped up efforts to recruit more tutors. This morning, for instance, he announced a tutoring partnership between the Urban Leagues of Hampton Roads and Greater Richmond, and the state’s four…
-
Team Youngkin Allocates $7.7 Million for “Extended-Year” School Programs
by James A. Bacon It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed, but it’s the right priority. The Youngkin administration is awarding $7.7 million in state grants to support year-round and extended-year instructional programs in 44 schools in five school divisions. “Extended-year and year-round school programs provide consistent and structured learning environments for…
-
Surveying the Damage in K-12 Schools
by James A. Bacon Last month the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released its Nation’s Report Card, which showed that the average math test scores declined by eight points nationally. It was difficult for most Americans to know what to make of the loss. The scores were an abstraction. How bad was the loss of…
-
Teachers Are Critical to Student Success
by Matt Hurt Twenty five years ago, the demand for teaching positions was not sufficient to supply the employment needs of newly-minted teachers. It was common in many divisions for teachers to serve for at least a year or two in an hourly instructional aide position before finally earning the coveted teaching contract. For whatever…
-
“A Right Wing Group that Despises Public Education”
by James C. Sherlock A commenter hiding behind the screen name “democracy” crawled out from under some rock to excoriate distinguished public servants and a philanthropic organization as “a right wing group that despises public education.” That comment is now removed. I expect Jim Bacon did it. But it was there too long to let…
-
Clarification and Additional Information
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In a recent article, I discussed the progress that the Department of Education (DOE) and the Board of Education have made toward fulfilling two of the top educational priorities of the administration—increasing the SOL “cut scores” and revamping the school accreditation process. In my research for the article, I overlooked, and thus…
-
The Size of the VDOE Rock
by James C. Sherlock We postulate that elections have consequences. And they do. Mostly. But Sisyphus, sentenced by Hades to try and fail for eternity, never got the rock to the top of the mountain. Yesterday Dick Hall-Sizemore provided an excellent deep dive into the last couple of months of Board of Education meetings. He…
-
Election’s Over; Time to Govern
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The fall in the NAEP test scores of Virginia fourth-graders is alarming. A decrease itself is not surprising; in fact, it was expected in the wake of the disruption in schools caused by the pandemic. It is the magnitude of the decrease that is surprising and alarming. That it was the largest…
-
Dem Talking Points Emerge for Virginia’s Educational Meltdown
by James A. Bacon Democrats and the mainstream media were blindsided by the release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data last week showing that 4th graders in Virginia experienced the greatest decline in learning between 2017 and 2022 of any state in the union. I conjectured that the evidence was so conclusive that…
-
Consider Wisconsin’s Successful and Popular Parental Choice Options For Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Heard enough about the decline of Virginia public schools to want to examine options? Wisconsin is decades ahead of Virginia in parental choice. Their first law on public school open enrollment dates to 1975. In 1993, Wisconsin completely overhauled its public school system to provide broad choices for those parents whose…