Category: Education (K-12)
-
The Youngkin Plan for Reversing Learning Loss
by James A. Bacon Now that the National Assessment for Educational Progress has provided irrefutable proof of the collapse in learning in Virginia schools over the past four years, the Youngkin administration can move on from the task of persuading Virginians that they have a problem to actually working the problem. The initiatives that caught…
-
VDOE Foray into Full-Time Virtual Education During COVID — Well Intentioned Sabotage?
by James C. Sherlock Governor Youngkin called out remote learning as a culprit in the dreadful SOL results released this summer. He had a point. He did not note that the remote learning in question was actively led, not just overseen, by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) he inherited. Let’s call that VDOE program…
-
The Virginia Media’s Astonishing Response to the NAEP Scores
by James A. Bacon The release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores has hit Virginia’s mainstream media outlets like a backhand across the face. Presented undeniable evidence of a catastrophic decline in the educational performance of Virginia’s 4th- and 8th-graders by an impeccable and unbiased source, The Washington Post, Virginian-Pilot, Richmond Times-Dispatch and…
-
Virginia’s Test Scores at The Bottom of the Nation’s Steaming Heap
by Kerry Dougherty Geez. Who could have predicted this: Only one thing wrong with The New York Times reporting on yesterday’s horrifying report that showed the sharpest drop in national test scores in three decades. It’s this: the devastating failure of American education isn’t due to the pandemic.
-
A “Catastrophic” Collapse in Virginia Test Scores
by James A. Bacon The big news today from the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), which administers a common test for all 50 states, is that student test scores nationally saw stunning declines in math and reading over the past two years. The drop in math scores was the biggest decline ever recorded for…
-
At Last, an Educational Success Story!
by James A. Bacon A major theme of Bacon’s Rebellion is that governors and lawmakers should cease chasing chimera like “equity” and “social justice” and focus on programs that demonstrably improve peoples’ lives. The question we should be asking is, “What works?” One program that works, we are told by no less a left-of-center authority…
-
Don’t California Our Virginia
by Kerry Dougherty Whatever you do at the ballot box in Virginia, do not return Democrats to power in Richmond. Or anywhere else. You’ve been warned. Leftist Northern Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman (D-Dale City), announced Thursday that she’s re-introducing legislation this year that would protect LGBTQ children from their parents. Chew on that for a…
-
The Petersburg – VDOE MOU, a New Petersburg Superintendent and the Limits of State Oversight of Failing Schools
by James C. Sherlock Petersburg City Public Schools (PCPS) has hired Dr. Tamara Sterling as its new superintendent. She signed her contract in a September 28 ceremony and will start Dec. 1. Progress-Index reporting brings us the story. The School Board voted 6-0 to hire her with Virginia Department of Education support because Dr. Sterling: turn(ed)…
-
Parents Taking Their Children Out of Poor Performing Virginia Public Schools by the Tens of Thousands
by James C. Sherlock Would you send your kid to this school? No? Someone else’s kid is attending it — or skipping school. Virginia public sch0ols lost 4% of their fall student memberships, a total of 46,165 students, between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2021, while their budgets from the state went…
-
Graduation Inflation
by John Butcher The estimable Jim Bacon points out that the (already inflated: see below) graduation rate this year was higher than the pre-COVID 2019 rate, despite the effect of the pandemic and the government’s response to it. The Virginia Department of Education’s excellent new Cohort Graduation Build-A-Table provides a more nuanced look. The reports we see in the press…
-
No Grades, No Discipline, No Structure, No Learning
by James A. Bacon Albemarle High School opened the 2021-22 school year in a state of chaos after a year of COVID closings, and it never recovered, according to The Crozet Gazette. To ease students back into the rigors of a regular school day, the school stopped imposing penalties on students for skipping or being…
-
Coming Soon to a School Near You: “Equitable Grading”
by James A. Bacon The inexorable logic of “equity” has come to the dispensing of grades in Virginia public schools. Having effectively abandoned the hard work of raising the educational achievement of minority students, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is lowering standards — implementing “equitable grading” practices in order to combat “institutional bias” and eliminate…
-
Disabilities and Discipline
by James A. Bacon The American Institutes for Research has published a review of the Fairfax County Public Schools special-education programs for students with disabilities. Here’s the lead paragraph of The Washington Post: “Students with disabilities in Fairfax County Public Schools are more likely than their peers without disabilities to be suspended and to fail…
-
Local Elections Dominated by School Issues – Chesapeake Edition
by James C. Sherlock Check out closely the citizens who are running for city councils, boards of supervisors and the school boards this time of year. The concerns of Virginians are still focused tightly on schools. That is the definition of the stakes in school board elections, which used to be sleepy, low-turnout affairs. But…