Tag: John Butcher
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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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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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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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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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Secret SOLs
by John Butcher The Superintendent of Public Instruction’s May 10, 2023, memo scheduled posting of the 2022-2023 student performance results to the Build-A-Table tool on August 17. Those data have not been posted. It’s not that they don’t have the information. The SOL data, in particular, are collected as they are produced by the online…
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NAEP Before and After COVID
by John Butcher We’ve been hearing about the post-COVID declines in scores on the National Assessment of Educational Process (NAEP) tests. The NAEP database offers some (in fact, an abundance of) details. Here, as a small sample, are the 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics data for the nation and Virginia. First, reading:
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Dollars and Scholars
by John Butcher Table 15 in the 2022 Superintendent’s Annual Report includes the division expenditures per student for operations. Let’s juxtapose those data with the 2022 division Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates. But first: Economically Disadvantaged (ED) students (those eligible for Free/Reduced Meals, receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF], eligible for Medicaid, or…
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Graduates. And Not.
by John Butcher The U.S. Department of Education requires every state to annually report high school graduation rates. Those data, along with students’ performances on state assessments in subjects such as mathematics, English, and science, along with other measures, are also used to determine annual accreditation ratings. The VDOE’s website includes the Superintendent’s Annual Report…
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Poverty and Performance in Virginia Schools
by John Butcher A recent study out of Stanford looked at 11 years of district-level National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data by race and economic disadvantage from all public school districts and concluded that racial segregation is strongly associated with the magnitude of achievement gaps in third grade and the rate at which gaps…
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Truancy Morass
by John Butcher In a follow-up to his post on chronic truancy in Virginia, Capt. Sherlock writes, “We have decided, with laws reflecting our decisions, that children must attend school.” (Emphasis in original). If only it were that simple. Va. Code § 22.1-254 provides: Except as otherwise provided in this article, every parent, guardian, or…
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2022 SOL Data: Economically Disadvantaged Gap Widens
by John Butcher 2020 was the first spring since 1998 without SOL tests in Virginia. Then came 2021, when participation in the testing was voluntary. The VDOE press release said, “In a typical school year, participation in federally required tests is usually around 99%. In tested grades in 2021, 75.5% of students took the reading assessment, 78.7% took…
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Counting Parents
In this post John Butcher, author of CrankysBlog, explores the relationship between K-12 academic outcomes, as measured by Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores and single-parent households. His conclusion: the data imply “a strong relationship” between the two. — JAB by John Butcher The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Web site includes Virginia household single-parent percentages by race…
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Where Have All the Students Gone?
by John Butcher The estimable Jim Bacon recently posted on declining enrollments in many public schools. He used VDOE data comparing the fall division enrollments (aka division “memberships”) in 2021 with those in 2019. Those data showed the largest drops in “rural, non-metropolitan” areas. Of course, most Virginia school divisions are in such areas. Highland County, with the smallest enrollment in…
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2021 SOLs Don’t Tell Us Much of Anything
by John Butcher 2020 was the first spring since 1998 without SOL tests in Virginia. Then came 2021, when participation in the testing was voluntary. The VDOE press release says, “[2020-21] was not a normal school year for students and teachers, in Virginia or elsewhere, so making comparisons with prior years would be inappropriate.” The first line of…
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2020 Teacher Salaries
by John Butcher It’s Spring and the data in the lower half of the 2020 Superintendent’s Annual Report have sprouted. Table 19 reports on salaries in some detail. As well, it provides an overview report of division average salaries of “All Instructional Positions” (classroom teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, technology instructors, principals, and assistant principals). Here…