Last week Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell called for a two percent raise for Virginia teachers in exchange for lengthening the probation period for tenure from three years to five, adding incompetence (defined as receiving “one or more unsatisfactory performance evaluations”) as cause for termination, and streamlining the grievance process. McDonnell put forward a similar proposal a year ago thContinue Reading »

Defining school down. Virginia has a lot of work to do as it revises its new standards. “Setting passing rates for black and Hispanic students far below the cutoff scores for white and Asian students is deplorable.” (Richmond Times Dispatch)

Persistence, and the lack of. Only 9 percent of low-income students get a bachelor’s degree by age 24. Why? (American RadioWorks)

Delinquent Continue Reading »

Earlier today, the Virginia Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education agreed that Virginia’s NCLB waiver needed to be redone. Instead of annual measurable objectives that would essentially perpetuate the achievement gaps, Virginia will develop a new methodology to close the gap, reports Michele McNeil on Politics K-12.

This issue has created a firestorm in VirgiContinue Reading »

Ranking colleges on factors that matter. Washington Monthly is out with its annual college rankings again, but this time, editors include college tuition prices in the mix. University of California at San Diego comes out on top, giving students the biggest bang for their buck. (Washington Monthly)

Excitement over a snow day? No more. Some Ohio school districts will offer lessons and assiContinue Reading »

UPDATED JULY 6

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced five more waiver winning states – Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia - bringing the total number of states operating their own school accountability systems in lieu of NCLB to twenty four.

With nearly half of states on the waiver train, it’s a good time to pause and take stock ofContinue Reading »

We’re not all winners anymore. Last week, Iowa became the first state to be turned down by the U.S. Department of Education for an ESEA waiver. While the news is a blow for Iowans – and policymakers like Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who supported the request – it really isn’t a surprise or a bold political statement from the Obama administration (Iowa is a swing stateContinue Reading »

Raising the bar. Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad released a plan Monday for overhauling education from student achievement to teacher preparation. Among the long list of reforms, Brandstad proposes setting a grade point average requirement for teachers, as well as changing teacher pay based on a “career ladder.” (Des Moines Register)

Speaking of #teacherprep reform … We hosted the big annoContinue Reading »

It’s too bad the Washington Post reporter covering a new piece of higher education legislation in Virginia didn’t read the bill’s fiscal impact statement. If she had, she might not have portrayed the it as evenhandedly as she did. The legislation, which would force Virginia institutions to enroll at least 80 percent of their undergraduates from in-state, would impose almost $2Continue Reading »

If you’re a policymaker looking at how long it takes college students to graduate these days and you know that educating upperclassmen costs more than educating freshmen and sophomores (the former take smaller classes and use more campus resources), you might think it would be a good idea to penalize students who take more than four years to graduate. Unfortunately, it’s not that siContinue Reading »

Public education costs a lot of money — over $500 billion per year. Over the last century, there have been huge changes in where that money comes from and how it’s spent. In 1930, only 17 percent of school funding came from state sources, and virtually none came from the federal government. Today, the state / local / federal split is roughly 50/40/10 (individual states vary). PeopleContinue Reading »