Category: Education (K-12)
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Moving the Goalposts (for Banning Books)
by Joe Fitzgerald Everybody probably already knew what moving the goalposts meant, but with Taylor bringing in a new set of football fans, the sports-related metaphors can probably be used more widely. Moving the goalposts is of course a reference to changing the standards in the middle of a process. Latest example: the Rockingham County…
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The General Assembly’s Gift to Virginia’s Students
by Matt Hurt During the 2024 General Assembly session, two bills were introduced which have the potential to provide two additional weeks of uninterrupted learning that Virginia’s students in grades three through eight haven’t had in a few years. Specifically, HB 1076 and SB 435 are two very concise sister bills which simply intend to…
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2023 School Success Stories
by Matt Hurt According to the SOL data from the end of the 2022-2023 school year, thirty-four Virginia schools (of three hundred seventy-seven) in the Comprehensive Instructional Program (CIP) consortium achieved the highest level (Level I) for all academic indicators the state uses for accreditation. The intended purpose of these performance benchmarks is to ensure…
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RVA HISTORY: Strides of Strength
by Jon Baliles Richmond unveiled a new sculpture last week on the site of the old Westhampton School (near St. Mary’s Hospital) that marked the desegregation of the West-End school in 1961. The 12-foot piece, entitled “Strides,” marks that day when 12-year old student Daisy Jane Cooper (now Jane Cooper Johnson) arrived as the first…
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Failure Is Not an Option with Proposed SOL Revisions: Part Two
by Charles Pyle Last month, we examined two items on the agendas for the Board of Education’s January 24-25 meetings that seemed to fly in the face of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 campaign promises to raise expectations for students and schools and increase transparency in how the commonwealth reports on the performance of both. Under…
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The Most Improved Virginia School Division in 2023
by Matt Hurt In a previous paper (Tales of Student Success in 2023) the successes of four of the top five divisions that realized the greatest improvement in SOL pass rates in 2023 were highlighted. Since then, I was afforded the opportunity to visit Greensville County, the division that realized the greatest improvement in Virginia.…
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Competition for Schools
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the good bills introduced in the General Assembly this year would bring a measure of competition in public schools. Put in by Sen. Mark Peake (R-Lynchburg), SB 552 would require school districts to allow students to attend any school in the district. Currently, districts are allowed to adopt such open…
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Whose Rights?
by Joe Fitzgerald One thing you have to give the parental rights authoritarians. At least they’re more honest about their goals than some of their thematic ancestors. Slave codes were not slave codes. They were master codes. Leftists in the 1950s weren’t involved in unamerican activities. The House committee harassing them was. Dissent and disagreement…
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Failure is not an Option with Proposed SOL Revisions
by Charles Pyle During summer and fall 2021, Glenn Youngkin tapped into rising parent frustration over prolonged school closures and a general unease about falling student achievement in Virginia’s public schools. Although a newcomer to state politics, Youngkin had the data and evidence to show the correlation between the lowering of expectations for students and…
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Loudoun County Schools Defy FOIA Requests
by Kerry Dougherty Luke Rosiak is the best investigative reporter in Virginia. There isn’t a close second. Several years ago, The Daily Wire reporter uncovered Loudoun County Public Schools’ attempts to hide serial bathroom sexual assaults from the public. Rosiak’s reporting ultimately resulted in the firing of former school superintendent Scott Ziegler. And the election…
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Birth Dearth Portends Continued Public School Enrollment Losses
The Demographics Research Group at the University of Virginia Projects significant erosion in public school enrollment in Virginia through 2030 — the effect of a seemingly permanent Covid-prompted loss of some 40,000 students to private schools and home schooling, combined with a shrinking birthrate that was evident before the Covid epidemic. Hamilton Lombard has the…
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Why Is Anne Holton Claiming the Length of Virginia’s School Closures Didn’t Matter? (Part 2)
(Editors’ note” Part 1 of this series ran yesterday on Bacon’s Rebellion.) by Vernon Taylor (a pseudonym) Let’s take a look at Anne Holton’s claims about Virginia’s prolonged school closures and learning loss, which were made at a Dec. 12, 2023, meeting of the Virginia Board of Education, of which she is a member. …
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Why Is Anne Holton Claiming the Length of Virginia’s School Closures Didn’t Matter? (Part 1)
by Vernon Taylor (a pseudonym) The Virginia Board of Education meeting on December 12th, 2023 had a rare moment of must-see TV (22:50 – 29:27). In an attempt to gaslight parents, students and educators everywhere as she ignored the preponderance of data from COVID-era and post-pandemic studies, Board Member Anne Holton proposed an amendment striking…
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Virginia Bill Could Define Student Bullies by Race
by Hans Bader Should students be defined as bullies partly based on race? A confusingly-worded bill just introduced in Virginia’s legislature seemingly classifies students as bullies partly based on racial differences between “the aggressor” and the victim, such as a “real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim, including on the…
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Not Every Teacher’s Salary Can Be Above Average
by Hans Bader In the mythical Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average. But in real life, half of all people have to be below average, by definition. Half of all people are paid below average, especially in counties with very low living costs, where the vast majority of people are paid below the…