National Sexuality Standards for K -12 for all Public Schools

Yes, you read that correctly.  The National Sexuality Standards for K – 12 have been released.  Under Race To The Top, (RttT),  all states which have signed on to RttT will have to implement instructional materials and programs that meet these Sexuality standards in all of their public schools. {see UPDATE below}

Virginia schools will not have to comply, yet, but the only reason Virginia schools won’t have to comply with RttT is because of Governor McDonnell’s direction.  We may have to implement these standards when Governor McDonnell’s term is over.

Additionally, RttT was originally part of The Stimulus and allowed the Obama Administration to circumvent existing education law by providing funding through a different program, with funding hinging on whether states agree to adopt and implement national standards and assessments, like the National Sexuality Standards.  RttT should have expired when The Stimulus expired, but Congress has continued to fund increases in education spending through RttT, thereby allowing the Obama Administration to continue to circumvent existing education laws while punting on updating or repealing NCLB (which is the current education law).

Click in this link to read the National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12.

UPDATE:

Under Race to the Top states were expected to agree to adopt and implement common K – 12 standards and assessments.  In the last several months, the US Dept of Ed began issuing waivers from NCLB’s accountability requirements to states or school districts which agreed to adopt and implement the national K – 12 standards and assessments. Just about every state in the country has agreed to adopt the common, National standards and assessments.   Virginia is one of the few holdouts.

Common standards, known as the Common Core Standards, have been developed and issued for Math and English.  Common assessments are currently being developed for Math and English.  A framework for common Science Standards has been issued, with work on the grade level / subject specific standards ongoing.

The National Sexuality Education Standards certainly seem to fall under that “common standards and assessments” umbrella, but we have been unable to find anything which specifically states that the US Dept of Ed will require participating states to adopt and implement these standards.

Independent Learning is Out – Group Think is In

On the lists of “What’s in / What’s out” that I saw at the end of the year, education trends seems to be consistently missing. One trend in particular, group learning, was conspicuously absent.

From Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” in her op-ed The Rise of the New Groupthink:

Our schools have also been transformed by the New Groupthink. Today, elementary school classrooms are commonly arranged in pods of desks, the better to foster group learning. Even subjects like math and creative writing are often taught as committee projects. In one fourth-grade classroom I visited in New York City, students engaged in group work were forbidden to ask a question unless every member of the group had the very same question.

I’ve seen this trend in play in my children’s schools – our teachers and administrators even argue that Groupthink provides superior learning results than individual learning.  I beg to differ, as do the researchers , psychologists, and artists cited by Ms Cain in her article.  As Ms Cain states, some of the “most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted”.

In education so often we hear about the desire for balance.  Certainly with today’s workplace people need to be able to work effectively in teams, but they also need to be able to hold up their part of the workload.  But if our children spend most of their day working in groups, how is he / she learning how to work independently? Where’s the balance?

 

NH Legislation Votes to Give Parents Control Over their Child’s Education

In overriding the Governor’s veto, Legislators in New Hampshire voted to give parents control over what their children are taught.

The bill, HB 542, says “Require school districts to adopt a policy allowing an exception to specific course material based on a parent’s or legal guardian’s determination that the material is objectionable. Such policy shall include a provision requiring the parent or legal guardian to notify the school principal or designee in writing of the specific material to which they object and a provision requiring an alternative agreed upon by the school district and the parent, at the parent’s expense, sufficient to enable the child to meet state requirements for education in the particular subject area.”

As is pretty much expected these days, the screaming from both sides of the political spectrum had begun before the ink was dry.

So what’s it mean? If you live in NH, and you find the material your child’s school is using objectionable, you can demand different materials for your child provided those materials meet state standards and you pay for them.

School to Punish Kids For Its Failures

Parents sometimes send us things they receive from their schools that set their teeth on edge.  Sometimes the things are misunderstandings and other times the things make our blood boil.  We received one such letter a few days ago that still has me wishing I’d cut out the caffeine. 

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Could the School Year Start Before Labor Day?

Could the School Year Start Before Labor Day for students in Virginia?  Yes, if the bill repealing the “King’s Dominion” law passes the General Assembly.

In Virginia the schedule a school district follows is established at the district level, which means that each school district selects the schedule its students and teachers follow, with the exception of when classes start.  Currently 77 of the 132 school districts in Virginia have waivers that allow them to start classes before Labor Day.  Prince William, Loudoun, Stafford, Manassas City, Manassas Park, and Fairfax do not have waivers and must start classes the day after Labor Day. Fauquier County does have a waiver and classes there typically start the week before Labor Day.

Teachers and education advocates generally support the repeal, but some businesses that are tourism dependent oppose it because of lost revenues during that last vacation week.

The SOLs are administered based on a schedule set by the VA Department of Education, so what effect this will have on those exams and the dead time at the end of the year is unknown.  It may mean that the SOLs continue to be administered the last couple of weeks in May or that the SOLs are administered a week earlier.  That decision will be made by the VA DOE and will affect how much instructional time we have before the SOLs and how much dead time we have after them for sidewalk chalk day, bubble soap day, movie and pizza day, etc…

This is a General Assembly issue, so if you have an opinion on the subject, you may want to contact your state Delegate and / or Senator.  Here’s a link to the “Who’s My Legislator“ function on the Virginia General Assembly’s web site to help you find your representatives and their contact information.

Parents’ Rights in Prince William County Schools

Can parents review the information the public schools hold about them and their children?  Can they access their child’s locker?  Can the public schools distribute a student’s information outside the local school district without the parents’ consent, for instance to the state or federal Department of Education or other organizations / institutions?

The first, can parents review the information PWCS hoods about their child, is a solid Yes.  As a parent with a minor child in PWCS, you can review the information PWCS has about your child.  Interestingly, parents are asked whether they’ll waive that right when their child applies for entry to any of district’s specialty programs.

Access to lockers is a different issue as there is no formal policy allowing parents to access their minor child’s locker.  That will change if policy # 782 is approved by the school board.  That policy reads, “Any custodial parent or legal guardian of a minor or unemancipated Prince William County Schools student shall have access at reasonable times to their child’s locker and the contents thereof. The Superintendent of Schools shall establish a regulation to implement this policy. Any denial of access to a locker at the building level may be appealed to the Superintendent or designee.” 

Distribution of a child’s information outside of the local school district without parental consent is a nebulous area, one which should receive a bit of attention from our elected school board and governing officials in Richmond.  The US Dept of Education recently passed regulations requiring state departments of Education and local school districts to provide student specific information to them for analysis – analysis that may or may not be conducted by the US Dept of Education.  What information must be provided isn’t specified, but the intent, as described by the US Dept of Education, is that the information will be used to help them ascertain the effectiveness of various instructional programs / approaches both within K – 12 and once school is complete. For instance, the US Dept of Education would like to be able to determine what K – 12 instructional programs a child who obtains a degree in Electrical Engineering followed and how they did in those classes, or what sex ed classes school’s with high teen pregnancy rates use.  There is no limit on the type of data the US Dept of Education would like to use, what the data will be used for, or who will conduct the analysis.

At present PWCS does not have a policy prohibiting the district from sharing student specific information outside the district, nor does it have a policy requiring notification of what information is to be shared and with whom.  Parents’ don’t even have the right to opt out of sharing their child’s data as they don’t know when it’s been shared or what’s been shared.

So, barring legislation at the state level, which has not been submitted, the US Dept of Education can demand any information they want about your child, can share it with anyone they want, can use for any purpose they want, and you have no right to even be notified that the information has been shared.  That’s probably something we should address.

CIP Updates Underway for PWCS

PWCS has announced that they will begin updating the CIP shortly and citizen comments are welcomed.  Here’s the announcement and link:

Capital Improvement Planning Begins; Community Input Opportunities to Come

January 5, 2012

Preliminary work is underway on the ever-evolving Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) Capital Improvements Program (CIP). School Board Members last night (January 4) discussed staff recommendations for updating the program in the face of County growth that continues to add an average of 2,400 students annually. The latest recommendations ensure the School Division can provide a safe, inviting school environment that meets the needs of all children and allows every student to reach his or her full potential.

A formal version of the program will be considered and subject to public comment at the School Board’s official budget session in February. A version approved by the School Board ultimately goes to the Board of County Supervisors for final approval and appropriation.

The 10-year program anticipates and addresses future facilities requirements based on changing housing trends and enrollment projections, maintenance and renovation schedules, and specific educational needs. Suggestions to modify the 2012–21 CIP are meant to meet those requirements while maximizing the value of existing facilities and new investments. Highlights include:

• Completion of dozens of projects currently planned or underway;
• Parkside Middle School addition increased from 15 to 16 rooms to meet needs beyond 2014;
• New Dominion addition delayed to 2015 due to land issues, and planning required for avoiding building disruptions;
• New Elementary School East-Ferlazzo added for 2016 due to area growth trends and resulting program enrollment;
• Rippon Middle School addition increased from eight to nine classrooms for 2016 for expanded programs;
• Henderson Elementary School addition delayed to 2017 due to enrollment projections;
• Construction accelerated to permit Elementary School East opening in 2017 to address  continued population growth in the Neabsco Mills area;
• Elementary School West delayed to 2018 due to growth trends in the Linton Hall area;
• Kilby Elementary School addition changed to full building replacement to double capacity in 2017 and relieve overcrowding across a broad area;
• New five-classroom addition to Springwood ES in 2017 due to Lake Ridge area growth;
• New PACE East replacement building with multi-space added to 2018 to address population growth and changing programmatic needs;
• Haymarket-area Elementary School addition delayed to 2019 due to population trends;
• A new Middle School East scheduled to open in 2020 to accommodate projected growth;
• One new High School (East) and Elementary School (location TBD) slated to open in 2021 to accommodate expected growth;
• McAuliffe Elementary School addition delayed past 2021 due to combined impact of revised enrollment projections and planned acceleration of the opening of another ES serving the area to 2017.

 The combined recommendations align building priorities with student needs—with dollars following enrollment. The CIP also provides for facilities in several buildings specifically designed to allow many special needs students to attend classes closer to home, in the least restrictive environment, where they can enrich and benefit from a diverse school community.    

 Changes in earlier timetables respond to revised enrollment projections and budget availability, while making certain students have the facilities they need when they’re needed. Parental and community input is welcome.

PWCS “Debt” and Budget

Every year about this time the school division begins preparing its budget for next year.  The budget is a little confusing, and with over 100 pages of detail, kind of cumbersome.  We’ll try to keep you aware of things we notice as the budget is released.  Before we get into the details of the budget we wanted to review one item in particular which is the source of much debate and misunderstanding – our debt, debt service costs, and the CIP.  Our source document for the numbers presented here is the 2011 Comprehensive Annual Report of Prince William County Schools, the audit of the financial operations associated with the 2010 – 2011 school year which you can find at the link or on the PWCS web site.

First things first – PWCS is audited every year and has received an unqualified opinion every year for as long as I can remember.  An unqualified opinion is frequently referred to as a “clean opinion” but what it really means is that the auditors did not find  anything in their examination which leads them to believe PWCS’s financial statements are materially misstated.  The audit is an independent examination of the school divisions financial operations over a set period of time by an external auditor.

With regards to The Debt, PWCS does not have any because it does not have the legal authority to tax.  That authority rests with the County through the Board of County Supervisors.  As PWCS does not have the authority to tax, it can not incur or carry long term debt.  The debt issued to pay for things like new school construction, renovations of older schools, and the administrative building was issued by the County through bonds approved by the citizens in bond referendum votes. So you won’t find debt in the PWCS Budget.

However, PWC knows full well how many bonds have been issued for PWCS’s construction efforts.  As of June 30, 2011 PWC was holding approximately $553 million in debt for PWCS.  That’s actually down about $30 million from 2010 because of retirements of old debt.  According to the 2010 Census, there are about 402,000 people living in Prince William County, which means the share of the “school” debt  is roughly $1,400 per resident.

PWCS does pay “debt service” to PWC to reimburse the county for the cost of “servicing” the “school” debt.  Debt service costs for the 2010-2011 school year were $63.8 million – approximately 7.2% of the school district’s total budget.  With enrollment of 81,635 students, that’s a debt service cost of about $782 per student.

This cost is pretty much “fixed” in that it is derived from debt that has been issued and is outstanding.  The only way to reduce the cost is to pay off some of our debt and replace it with debt that costs less or retire it.  Because the debt is not in the school division’s control, decisions regarding retiring or replacing the “school” debt are the responsibility of the Board of County Supervisors.

While you won’t find the debt held by the county for schools on PWCS’s budget, you will find the Capital Improvements Program, or CIP.  The CIP reflects capital improvements the school division expects it will have to undertake in the future.  These improvements include things like building new schools, renovating old schools, buying new buses, and replacing computer systems.

The CIP is a projection of estimated costs.  The costs listed are estimates, not actual costs.  Just because something is listed on the CIP with an estimated or projected cost does not mean bids have been issued on it.  With construction costs fluctuating as they have in recent years, the actual cost to complete a project will likely differ from the estimated or projected cost.   One of the reasons Patriot High School and Piney Branch Elementary opened earlier than expected is because the costs to build those schools once the bids were released were much lower than expected.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to planned construction projects, but it does mean that concerns over differences between cost projections listed on the CIP for projects that have not gone out to bid and actual costs incurred on projects just completed or currently under construction are misplaced.  Comparing cost projections prepared years previously to actual costs incurred today is like comparing apples and oranges.  If your goal is to determine whether a project is cost effective,  you should compare actual costs to actual costs and projected costs to projected costs.

SAT Scores By Ethnicity

PWCS students under perform their peers on the SAT in US, VA, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties in just about every ethnicity.

Various officials in PWCS have asserted that the reason PWCS lags behind the US, VA, and our neighboring jurisdictions on the SAT is our diversity.  PWCS just posted SAT scores for the district by ethnicity to the district web site, and we pulled those scores in an effort to verify that “defense”.  We do not have SAT scores for economic groups, only for ethnic groups.  The financial stability of a student’s family does play a role in their performance on tests like the SAT, and approximately 1/3 of PWC students are defined as “Economically Disadvantaged”, but we don’t have access to SAT scores for students by their families financial standing.

The data show that while PWCS’s ethnic diversity plays a role in our overall SAT scores as we do have a higher percentage of students in lower performing ethnic groups, our SAT scores in every ethnic group in virtually every subject are below those achieved by students in Fairfax, Loudoun, and below average scores in the US, and Virginia in every ethnic group except African Americans.  The spreadsheet is fairly long so I’ve attached it as a pdf here 2011 SAT Scores by Ethnicity.

For Asian students, PWCS under performs in Reading, Math, and Writing when compared with averages for Asian students in the US, VA, and Fairfax.  Reading scores for PWCS’s Asian students are particularly poor when compared with Asian students in the US, VA, Fairfax, and Loudoun.  Asian students in PWCS do slightly out perform Asian students in Loudoun in Writing and Math.

For African American students, PWCS exceeds US and Virginia averages but lags behind Fairfax and Loudoun in Reading, Math, and Writing.

For Hispanic students, PWCS exceeds US averages but lags behind VA, Fairfax, and Loudoun in Reading, Math, and Writing.

For White students, PWCS lags behind US, VA, Fairfax, and Loudon in Reading, lags behind US, Fairfax, and Loudoun in Math and Writing, and is either tied with or below VA averages for Math and Writing.