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While looking through the governor's education policy, it seems as though higher education is more of his focus than public K-12 education. This brief, from the governor's websites, outlines his view of higher education needs of the state.

Report Awards State Grades for Education Performance, Policy; Nation Earns a D-plus on Achievement, Some Movement Seen On Reform Initiatives Despite Recession

Virginia's public education system's fourth place ranking in Education Week's annual Quality Counts report. The rankings are based on four critical areas: the chance for success, K-12 achievement, school finance, and policies related to transitions and alignment.

Sadly... none of the states got an A or A-. Alas, MS is no longer dead last. Granted they have the lowest C- possible. I know we say that grades are not everything but it is sad that there are no "A" states and our national average is mediocre at best. And, this is not a comparison to other developed countries....

From the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, a think tank, a group of researchers review the accessibility of data on charter schools and the federal government's recent push towards this growing trend.

Articles and information for parents, educative and advocates re: Sped law, Ed law & advocacy for students with disabilities

Advisory group helps create state benchmarks and compare US academic success with other countries

"Given the experience to date with an overwhelming focus on student achievement scores as a basis for high-stakes decisions, policymakers would do well to pause and carefully examine the issues that make teacher assessment so complex before implementing an assessment plan. To facilitate such examination, this brief reviews credible research exploring: the feasibility of combining formative assessment (a basis for professional growth) and summative assessment (a basis for high-stakes decisions like dismissal); the various tools that might be used to gather evidence of teacher effectiveness; and the various stakeholders who might play a role in a teacher assessment system. It also offers a brief overview of successful exemplars."

Teacher evaluation is a big topic of our upcoming negotiations. What concerns me most is that some administrators don't complete the triennial evaluations now; how are they going to complete annual evaluations on all staff? So many questions...

Title 22.1 - Education - State laws regarding education policy.

What we can learn from England - Findings of a longitudinal study that explored the impact of recent educational reforms in England on the nature of the relationship between headteachers and lay school governors. Recent legislation has increased governors' and consumers' power and reduced the power of the "producers" of education. Governors are members of school governing bodies who have volunteered to work with headteachers in school administration. Findings indicate that the governor/headteacher relationship is not a consensual one. Factors inhibiting the development of a partnership include the micropolitical nature of school governance; the emerging organizational cultures of governing bodies; the loose coupling of governing bodies to schools; the differences between heads and governors about power; the complex and ambiguous nature of reform legislation; and cultural factors, such as race, gender, and ethnicity. The question is raised whether community involvement should extend to nonprofessionals taking a key role in educational decision making and policy formation.

The source must be considered (Secular News Daily) - but whoa! Ten Commandments posted?!?! I am shocked to see the 5-0 ruling on this one...I wonder if Giles County has elected or appointed board members.

If I had to guess, this policy will have an extremely short shelf life.

Well, yeah. :-)

An interesting, an extreme, point of view in the historical creation of school boards and the current desire to federalize programs for greater consistency in standards alleviating the need for school boards altogether.

Extreme in every sense of the word, but especially after thinking about this issue over the week, I am not sure I disagree!

Did you read the article on how the Germans form policy? Check out Professionalism & Receptivity to change?

Details about research on the impact school performance has on how people vote for school board members. The authors conclude "If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement."

DC is expanding the use of the data from value-added evaluation models. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."

These new guidelines from the Virginia Board of Education are a perfect example of passing the buck....when the board initially created these guidelines in January, they were very explicit and strict and there was a lot of backlash to it.(http://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/meetings/2011/01_jan/agenda_items/item_j.pdf) Now if you read the March guidelines, you can clearly see that the board is now asking local boards to define and create policies regarding social networking interactions between students and staff. Seems similar to feds asking states to define mandates, doesn't it?

Scary...

"Class struggle goes on in other realms. In goes on in K-12 education, for example, when business tries to influence what students are taught about everything from nutrition to the virtues of free enterprise; when U.S. labor history is excluded from the required curriculum; and when teachers' unions are blamed for problems of student achievement that are in fact consequences of the maldistribution of income and wealth in U.S. society. It goes on in higher education when corporations lavish funds on commercially viable research; when capitalist-backed pundits attack professors for teaching students to think critically about capitalism; and when they give money in exchange for putting their names on buildings and schools. Class struggle also goes on in higher education when pro-capitalist business schools are exempted from criticism for being ideological and free-market economists are lauded as objective scientists."

The author questions if this is the rise of a new labor movement or simply the death of the old one.

"Like Gates, we feel the US must address the inadequacies in our education system, specifically those that propagate inequalities in our society. However, we caution using global competitiveness as an impetus for education reform - not because we do not believe in maintaining our forward thinking leadership role on the world stage. But rather because such language edges education dangerously close to being about the production of a marketable workforce serving corporate interests instead of about the cultivation of a critically thinking global citizenry serving the advancement of humanity. In place of the language of competition, we would suggest a language of equal opportunity and cooperation."

"Judge Maryann Sumi delayed the implementation of the anti-union law in Wisconsin that would strip most collective bargaining rights from public employees. Sumi is ruling on whether the conference committee for the bill violated state open meetings requirements. In addition, Madison-area unions have filed suit over whether or not the bill passed had fiscal elements, meaning it would require a quorum of state Senators to consider it, which it did not receive. And a third lawsuit, filed late last week, alleges that the legislation is unconstitutional, "infringing on employees' equal protection rights and their rights to freedom of speech and association."