Category: Education (K-12)
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To Graduate or Not
by John Butcher The 2023 4-year cohort graduation rates are up on the Virginia Department of Education Web site. VDOE likes to report its “On-Time Graduation Rate” because it inflates the numbers by counting the nonstandard diplomas. The data below are the “Federal Graduation Indicator” that counts only the Standard, Advanced, and IB diplomas. On average,…
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What is Actually Taught about the History of the Jews and the Jewish State in Virginia Schools?
by James C. Sherlock What comes first? Sadism or hatred? Does religious radicalism create sadists or do sadists flock there for approval and opportunity? Some on the radical right and the radical left in the United States share a hatred for Jews. The radical right may not be able to remember why, but pursue it…
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Tales of Student Success in 2023
by Matt Hurt Virginia Standards of Learning test results remained rather flat from 2022 to 2023 (see Table 1). This occurred despite the fact that many considered the pandemic over. There were many contributing factors, such as (but certainly not limited to) worsening teacher shortages and continued high rates of chronic absenteeism. However, among Virginia’s…
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Crime and Punishment in Charlottesville
by James C. Sherlock UVa and Harvard are the two campuses most often cited by the national and world press as homes to the worst actors after October 7. It is easy work. I posted a column on Saturday making a series of recommendations for actions by the University of Virginia to protect its Jewish…
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Voters Will Decide Virginia’s Future Direction
by Derrick Max In two weeks, the people of Virginia will decide on two competing visions for the future of Virginia. Will they elect a General Assembly favoring Governor Glenn Youngkin’s more freedom-oriented policy vision, or will they elect a General Assembly returning the Commonwealth to the statist policy vision of former governors Terry McAuliffe…
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The Proper Understanding of the Importance of Education
by James C. Sherlock Remember the schools being shut down in Richmond for the entire academic year 2020-21 for COVID? Remember the teachers union protestations seeking the same outcome elsewhere in Virginia? Of course you do. Just a note to put that in perspective. The IDF’s Home Front Command announced yesterday that Israeli schools and…
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Transgender Issues — Whose “Centerpiece,” Youngkin’s or the Post’s?
by James A. Bacon The latest Washington Post spin on its recent public-opinion poll about transgender issues in Virginia schools is a window into the unconscious biases of WaPo reporters and editors. Here’s the lead (my emphasis): Education is an important factor for many Virginia voters this fall, but transgender issues, one of Republican Gov.…
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Virginia Beach School Board Adopts Controversial Youngkin Policy
from The Republican Standard The school board for Virginia’s largest city has adopted controversial guidelines announced by the Youngkin administration. Under the new rules, teachers and students have the right to call transgender students by their birth name and the pronouns of their biological sex. The Virginia Beach School Board initially opposed the governor’s order…
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Hatred of Jews at UVa – A Pot Brewed in the Faculty Lounge Boils Over
by James C. Sherlock Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7. On October 8, this letter was issued in Charlottesville. “Events” were “a step towards a free Palestine.” On October 11, President James Ryan issued a strong message condemning the savage Hamas massacre in Israel. He deserves credit for that, but has not gotten…
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The Benefits of School Choice and the Risks in the November Elections
from Liberty Unyielding The debate over school choice has tended to focus on whether students learn more as a result. But learning improvements from school choice are probably smaller than improvements in other dimensions, such as civic participation, law abidingness, and family stability later in life. Jason Bedrick of The Heritage Foundation notes that “School-choice…
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Fairfax School Board Member Opposes Moment of Silence for Israel
from The Republican Standard Fairfax County School Board Member Abrar Omeish put liberal intolerance on full display during a school board meeting Thursday night. The Yale-educated Democrat broke into a minutes-long diatribe following a moment of silence held by her colleagues for the victims of Hamas terrorism and the innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives lost:…
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“Girls with Pearls” in Petersburg
by James C. Sherlock It is important now more than ever to celebrate people doing the right things for the right reasons. Good should be called out where found. First Lady Suzanne Youngkin has taken helping Petersburg to heart and continues to support multiple initiatives to make that happen. She doesn’t have to do…
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Dumb and Getting Dumber
Two years after the COVID school lockdowns, the collapse in K-12 learning still has significant downward momentum. Of the 1.4 million high school seniors who took the ACT college preparedness test in 2023, the percentage meeting all four benchmarks — English, math, reading, and science — was 20.8% — down 1.3 percentage points from the…
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Another Race Institute at UVa
by James C. Sherlock Fund it and they will come. The Daily Progress reports that thanks to a $4.9 million gift from an anonymous philanthropist, a new “Institute” has been launched at UVa’s School of Law. The new organization, the Education Rights Institute, plans to “find ways to improve K-12 education and help educators address…
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Be Careful What You Ask For, You Just Might Get It
by James A. Bacon Welcome to the new normal. In 2020 the General Assembly enacted a law giving local school districts the right to engage in collective bargaining. Our friends at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy warned that much mischief would ensue, an assessment I shared. On November 2022 the Prince William County…