Virginia Tomorrow

Bob, with all due respect: 

McDonnell would get more traction proposing that watching paint dry be made an Olympic sport than he will flogging charter schools as a campaign issue.  There is simply no demand, none to amount to anything, for them.  He mentions four schools.  What he doesn’t mention is that they collectively enroll a total of 284 students statewide. 

Virginians in this part of the world-and I think everywhere-love their local community schools with passion and they express that with un-ending support and involvement.

What’s the reason for that?  There are lots of them, performance being at the top of the list.. 

Consider the 2008 Annual Report on the Condition and Needs of Public Schools in Virginia, presented to Governor Kaine and members of the Virginia General Assembly on Nov. 20^th of last year.

 Among the findings:  

•  Ninety-five percent of Virginia’s public schools are fully accredited and meeting state standards for student achievement in English, mathematics, history and science  based on 2007-2008 assessment results. This is the highest percentage of schools reaching full accreditation since the commonwealth began statewide testing ten years  ago.
• Black and Hispanic students continued to narrow achievement gaps with White students in mathematics on state tests administered during 2007-2008. During the last three years, the gaps have narrowed by four points for Black students and two points for Hispanic students even though the achievement of White students increased by seven points.
• During the last three years, the achievement gap between Black and White students in reading has narrowed by three points, despite a two-point increase in reading for White students. Hispanic students also have narrowed the achievement gap with White students by three points during the last three years.
• More than 81 percent of the students in the class of 2008 graduated on time with a diploma. The graduation rates for the state, school divisions, and high schools were calculated for the first time this year by tracking individual students from year to year using Virginia’s longitudinal student data system.
• The performance of Virginia public school graduates on the SAT improved significantly in 2008. Although the total number of Virginia public school students taking the SAT dropped by 2.3 percent, the number of minority students taking the tests increased, with minority students now making up one-third of all test takers.
• Virginia boasts the nation’s third-highest percentage of high school seniors earning a grade of 3 or better on Advanced Placement (AP) examinations. Only two states, New York and Maryland, had higher percentages of seniors earning grades of 3 or better on AP tests during 2007.
• For a fourth consecutive year, the percentage of Virginia students graduating with an Advanced Studies Diploma increased and the number of advanced diplomas awarded was greater than the number of Standard Diplomas.
• Virginia was the only state to receive a perfect score for academic standards from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in the union’s Sizing Up Standards 2008 report.
• The influential Thomas B. Fordham Institute last year awarded Virginia an “A” for its coverage of world history in the History and Social Science Standards of Learning and praised the standards as “a model of clarity.”
• Results from the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that the reading and mathematics skills of Virginia students continue to improve and that Virginia’s students remain among the nation’s highest achievers in these subjects.
• NAEP results also show that in no state did Black fourth and eighth graders perform at a statistically higher level in reading and mathematics than Black students in Virginia. Virginia also was the only state where Black students improved their performance in mathematics at grade levels four and eight from 2005 to 2007.
• Virginia students outperformed students nationwide on the 2007 NAEP writing test. Virginia students scored significantly higher than students in 20 other states. Test takers in only seven states achieved significantly higher average scores.