Category: Education (K-12)
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Questions and Doubts (About the Nature of Some Politicians)
by Joe Fitzgerald When I had a meeting set up with (JMU President) Ron Carrier soon after I was elected to (Harrisonburg) City Council in 2000, someone warned me that he would change the time at the last minute just to show he was more important than me. He did, and maybe he was. But…
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Data to Ponder
According to the websites of the State Compensation Board and the Department of Corrections, the starting salary for a correctional officer or deputy sheriff is $44,100. Based on information submitted to the Department of Education by local school divisions, the starting salary for teachers in 34 school divisions in school year 2022-2023 was lower than…
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DOE Response to Average Teacher Salary Issues
by Dick Hall-Sizemore My article on average teacher salaries must have struck a nerve. This morning I received an answer to my inquiry from the Department of Education (DOE). In short, DOE disavows any responsibility for the accuracy of the data in the report it submitted to the General Assembly. The Office of Communications declares,…
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Doesn’t Anyone Read These Things To See If They Make Sense?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In preparing my recent article on tax cuts, I was going to include a section on the need for increases in teacher salaries. In researching the issue, I discovered that the Department of Education (DOE) submits to the General Assembly a survey of teacher salaries in Virginia. I was delighted because that…
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Charts of the Day: Teacher Vacancies
by James A. Bacon The teacher shortage at Virginia’s public schools is getting worse. School divisions report 4,304 unfilled positions in the 2023-24 school year, according to a recent report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). Out of a teacher workforce of about 87,000, the creates an average statewide vacancy rate of…
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Want to Save the World? Teach a Kid to Read.
Reading skills among Virginia’s public-school children as measured by Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores are dropping through the floor. Among the remedies that Governor Glenn Youngkin proposes to address the threat of mass illiteracy is requiring under-performing students to receive three to five hours of tutoring per week. Good luck finding the tutors, warns…
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Virginia’s Top and Bottom Local School Divisions, 2023
by John Butcher Professor Excel is glad to sort the Division test results so let’s look at the top and bottom performers. But first: On average, Virginia’s economically disadvantaged (ED) students pass at about 20% lower rates than their more affluent peers (Not ED). Thus, the overall division averages are affected by the relative percentages…
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Fairfax School Board Ignores the Rule of Law
by Emilio Jaksetic On July 18, 2023, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) issued “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for all Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools” (Revised Model Policy). A copy of that policy is accessible at https://www.doe.virginia.gov/Home/Components/News/News/308/ On August 15, 2023, Michelle Reid, Ed.D, Superintendent of the Fairfax County…
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Petersburg: Paradigm of VBOE Fecklessness, the 2023 Update
by John Butcher Despite nineteen years of “supervision” by the Board and Department of Education, the Petersburg schools marinate in failure. Va. Code § 22.1-8 provides: “The general supervision of the public school system shall be vested in the Board of Education.” Va. Code § 22.1-253.13:8 provides: The Board of Education shall have authority to…
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In Loco Parentis, Part II
by A.L. Schuhart My last essay here engendered a bunch of predictable comment, as I hoped it would. The fact is, however, that my argument is sound, and my purpose is to reacquaint the public with the principle of in loco parentis as it informs the grand discussion of Education in Virginia and America. Those…
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Teach for America in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock One commenter on my last article was highly critical of Teach for America (TFA). I cannot let that go without refutation. Look at the map of TFA places to work. You will see that in Virginia only the inner suburbs of the D.C. area have access to those highly motivated young…
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Petersburg School Board Folds on Union Bargaining
by James C. Sherlock The Petersburg Education Association has a plan for collective bargaining. So, once, did the school board. Unanimously. We have been looking for signs of strength in the Petersburg School Board so we can believe it will take strong and innovative measures to improve the city’s dreadful schools. It is the wrong…
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The SOL Disaster
by John Butcher The 2023 test results (generally called “SOLs” but including results of other tests) are up on the VDOE Web page. Those numbers are not pretty. First, some background. 2020 was the first year without statewide SOL testing since 1997. Then came 2021, when participation in the testing was voluntary. The VDOE press…
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An Inspiring Story about Public School Reformation, Beautifully Written
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes it is fun to acknowledge great work. For a wonderful story about schools and kids transformed for the better by local action, see “The Rutters of Athens County” from New York Magazine reprinted in the Intelligencer. It is beautifully written by Dan Xin Huang, an investigative journalist who lived in…