Tag: James A. Bacon
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Where Black Students Outperform Whites
by James A. Bacon A major concern arising from the latest Standards of Learning (SOL) data is the fact that the racial divide between Asians and Whites on the one hand and Blacks and Hispanics on the other has gotten wider over the past three years. This disturbing trend has occurred despite unprecedented efforts to…
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COVID and the Racial Achievement Gap
by James A. Bacon Two weeks ago, before I so rudely interrupted myself by taking a vacation in North Carolina, I was engaged in an analysis of the latest Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores. As measured by pass rates, Virginia students statewide recovered much, but not all, of the ground they had lost during…
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Woke Limbo: How Low Can You Go?
by James A. Bacon The bar for triggering Virginia Democrats gets lower by the day. The latest limbo contortion is a call by the Democratic Party of Virginia and the University Democrats at the University of Virginia for the resignation of Bert Ellis, a recently appointed member of the UVa Board of Visitors, who has…
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As Anti-Jefferson Rhetoric Swells, Ryan Stands Silent
by James A. Bacon Here is what passes for logic at The Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper of the University of Virginia, a university once reputed for the excellence of its education: We reject how the University’s physical environment — one that glorifies racists, slaveholders and eugenicists with statues and buildings named in their honor…
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The Newest Entitlement for a Morally Bankrupt Nation
by James A. Bacon This is it: the final straw. I’ve had it. I’m ready to (figuratively) burn the place down. President Joe Biden has moved to cancel student-loan debt for 43 million borrowers in an initiative that the Wharton School of Business estimates could cost taxpayers $300 billion over the next ten years. Students…
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The Death of Common Sense and the Child-Care Shortage
by James A. Bacon Simone Martinez began searching for child care four months into her pregnancy. When her baby Zelaina was born, she still hadn’t found a provider, Cardinal News tells us. “I was debating quitting my job even though we really can’t afford it,” she said. Hundreds of families are on waiting lists in…
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Why the Enrollment Decline at VMI? Look to White Males for an Explanation.
by James A. Bacon When the Virginia Military Institute re-opened for its fall semester Monday with its usual parade-ground pageantry, it counted only 375 cadets in the 1st-year class. That’s down 24% from 494 the previous year. “We believe there are a number of contributing factors,” says VMI spokesman Bill Wyatt. “Schools throughout the commonwealth…
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School Districts’ COVID Recovery Varied Widely
by James A. Bacon Statewide student performance in the Standards of Learning (SOL) exams regained some ground lost earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to recently published Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) data. But not all school districts were equally resilient. In 2018-19, the year before the disruptive pandemic, 77.6% of Virginia public school students…
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Bhattacharya Case Dismissed
by James A. Bacon A federal judge has dismissed a case against the University of Virginia by a medical student who charged that university officials had retaliated against him for disputing the speaker’s logic in a panel discussion about microaggressions. The plaintiff, Kieren Bhattacharya, “has nothing more than speculation to support his claim,” wrote Judge…
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Free Speech Discredited Racism Better Than Cancel Culture Ever Could
by James A. Bacon The attacks on Bert Ellis, newly appointed member of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, continue without letup. The Cavalier Daily, the UVa student newspaper, has published an article resurrecting an event from the 1974-75 academic year in which Ellis, who led the University Union at the time, invited IQ…
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SOL Winners and Losers
by James A. Bacon There are hundreds of ways to slice and dice the recently released Standards of Learning (SOL) data measuring the academic achievement of Virginia’s public school children in the 2021-22 school year. Let’s start with the simplest: which school districts performed the best and which performed the worst? Here are the 15…
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The Latest SOL Results: Virginia Schools Still Playing Catch-Up
by James A. Bacon School closures during the COVID-19 epidemic have had a prolonged negative impact on Virginia students’ Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores. Pass rates for English, math and other subjects took a hard fall during the 2020-21 school year when many schools switched to remote learning. Scores climbed part-way out of the…
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Is There Any Limit on School Kids’ “Right to Read”?
by James A. Bacon Tell us, Hannah Natanson and Lori Rozsa, are you OK with the graphic novel Gender Queer, shown above, being allowed in public school libraries, as it is (or was) in Fairfax County? My sense from your article in The Washington Post today is that you would have no objection to stocking…
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More Money for Schools, More Parent Protections. Where Are the Higher Expectations?
by James A. Bacon The Youngkin administration has been relatively quiet on the subject of K-12 education since May when it released a blistering report on the perilous condition of Virginia’s public schools. Then Friday, a week before the scheduled release of the latest Standards of Learning test scores, Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera provided…