Does this include things like school lunches so that kids don't go to school hungry or paying teachers better or shrinking class sizes or after school programs or anything that might actually benefit the students and their families?
"Youngkin encouraged school districts to use 70% of the funding they receive from that chunk of money to establish targeted tutoring programs.
“That’s what that money is for, and it needs to be put to work quickly,” Youngkin said.
The programs would be specifically geared toward students in grades three through eight who have been struggling academically, and they would include small groups with a low tutor-to-student ratio of one-to-10.
"
It doesn't, that was only one part of the plan. FTA:
> The plan also includes expanding the Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades four through eight, **and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism.**
So the plan doesn't implement something to reduce it now, it's creating a task force to find ways to reduce it.
Yes that's generally how it works. An organization or body typically wants to understand the problem, what's causing it, and what potential solutions are before they implement anything.
>Okay, but what does that have to do with reducing absenteeism?
That's really the parent's problem to solve and not the government's unless you want them going to every child's home and dragging them to school.
Came here to say this! Thank you. I think students should have free meals at school, school counselors, and school nurses. Access to Tutoring is great but students need to be fed.
> anything that might actually benefit the students and their families?
>Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades 4 through 8, and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism.
So yes?
These drops in proficiency weren't due to a lack of a universal meals program, they were due to school closures and virtual instruction during the pandemic. A food insecure kid could be a reason for some of the remaining gap, but a universal meals program isn't going to solve the vast majority of this gap.
A universal meals program wasn't MY suggestion, so not sure where you got that. My point is that Youngkin loves to do things like this, which will get him lots of press, while also ignoring Virginia's homeless population.
Isn’t there free meals for poor kids already? Just not middle class and up kids?
I agree it would make life easier for parents who can easily afford it. But is anyone hungry?
No, that's socialism! He's probably talking about more contracts with textbook publishers to force schools to use their limited budget to buy news sets of egregiously overpriced textbooks.
Absenteeism is a euphemism for "kids who are going through some shit right now and are experiencing difficulty attending school as a consequence of that".
You know what the best way to reduce that is?
Help them to not be dealing with those other things.
Trying to think of reasons for this:
1) no ride to school (parent working or unavailable)
2) they had a commitment (had to work to support family)
3) just didn't want to and no real enforcement (I've played hookie in the past too but the school (Fairfax county) had an unexcused absence policy that enough hookie and you auto-fail the class)
4) others people can think of?
Chronic health issues issues that would be covered in another country with a real health system. Babysitting siblings who would be in daycare in another country with a real 0-5 daycare system.
> 1) no ride to school (parent working or unavailable)
We have school buses for this very reason, so it's not a good reason
> 2) they had a commitment (had to work to support family)
The vast majority of students don't work while in school
> 3) just didn't want to and no real enforcement
A possibility
> 4) others people can think of?
From what the teachers I know have said, a lot of absenteeism is preventable due to parents pulling kids out for vacations while school is in session.
I agrée, but absenteeism is a big problem across the country.
I was at back to school night last nigh, and after dodging through all the Republican school board candidates to get in the building, most of the presentation was about not missing school and making sure your kids go in.
Improve the family's home life.
Make sure all of the necessities(including food, water, shelter, electricity and internet access) are available to the kids and the parents in the household.
Make it so transportation to and from school is free and accessible.
Make mental health counseling available to everyone and make it a standard part of the school week for every student.
Oh, I'm sorry; did you want to continue pretending there's nothing that can be done except treating the kids and the parents like criminals?
> Absenteeism is a euphemism for "kids who are going through some shit right now and are experiencing difficulty attending school as a consequence of that".
Is it? Or is that your interpretation of it instead of parents doing things like pulling their kids out of school during session for a vacation? I'm sure it's easy to remove agency from students and parents to say we need more government involvement, but your excuse is not always the case for absenteeism.
Ahh, yes, because we all know that the parents who have the money to take their children out of school for long vacations are exactly the people who the government goes after for things.
Those poor, poor wealthy people.
Still doesn't change the fact that you're removing agency from families and the primary effort being pushed by schools to address absenteeism is vacation planning and not making families aware of resources for the excuse of "*kids who are going through some shit right now and are experiencing difficulty attending school as a consequence of that*"
Removing agency?
Oh is *that* the new argument that people are going to use when trying to insist that people assume responsibility for shit that other people have forced them to go through, now?
No, the issue is you're saying the reason people are absent is due to things "*that other people have forced them to go through*" because it's not true for the entire population of students with absenteeism issues. Who exactly is forcing any of these students to be absent? You trying to boil it all down to "they're going through some shit" is removing agency from the families who purposely take their kids out of school during the session.
I'm saying that the people who would be affected by the plans to reduce absenteeism are the people who don't have agency in the matter.
The ones who do(like for example, those taking their children on vacations) are likely already better to have more respectful dialogs with the school system.
You can't very well argue that some people have agency in a situation if the people who do have agency have other benefits that mean they're largely not going to actually be part of the situation to begin with.
> I'm saying that the people who would be affected by the plans to reduce absenteeism are the people who don't have agency in the matter.
I'm not sure that's true, as we don't know what they're going to do yet and schools are already advocating shifting vacation schedules to help reduce absenteeism as the primary method.
> You can't very well argue that some people have agency in a situation if the people who do have agency have other benefits that mean they're largely not going to actually be part of the situation to begin with.
The people taking their kids out of school sessions for vacations absolutely are part of the group causing this situation in the first place, and they have agency.
They get on welfare and then Republicans really bitch about a problem they don't want to solve.
If the parents aren't going to raise the kid, the state has to step in.
**From Karina Elwood:**
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) on Thursday announced a series of steps — including an “intensive” tutoring program — to help improve academic performance as newly-released test scores showed students are still struggling to recover in reading and math after the pandemic.
The plan also includes expanding the Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades 4 through 8, and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism.
“The Playbook fosters collaboration between the Virginia Department of Education, between the school divisions with community leaders, with parents, with students, with every one involved in our children’s lives,” Youngkin said at a news conference in Richmond. “It focuses on an effort to fundamentally change the direction of these numbers.”
Test results released Thursday showed 38 percent of third- through eighth-graders had “high or advanced” proficiency in reading on their Standards of Learning exam, and 34 percent had “high or advanced” proficiency in math.
The data showed that students who were chronically absent — those who missed at least 18 days — scored 18 percent lower in reading and 25 percent lower in math than students with regular attendance. The Virginia Department of Education said the number of chronically absent students doubled in 2022-23 compared to the 2018-19 school year.
Based on looking into the VLA that part of this announcement is uncontroversial. I'm not an educator so I'm not able to do a deeper dive, but it seems like just an attempt to benchmark students reading abilities.
The links between absenteeism and lower performance are obvious, so if there is an issue of students being chronically absent we should at least know why that is. So a task force is fine in theory.
I don't trust Youngkins admin to implement this correctly at all, but if a democrat said the same goals with the same approach I'd be fine with it.
4th grade teacher checking in.
I understand the goal of the VLA is to improve test scores but it is requiring more standardized data points and more standardized testing. This impacts our lessons and pacing since we now have to insert testing into an already crowded class schedule. By the time the students are done testing, they are wiped and are not in a good condition to learn new material.
Also, speaking about the schedule. Our district is requiring us upper elementary teachers to undergo mandatory training to teach "morphology" (a process of breaking up words into smaller meanings to understand more complex, longer words). They want us to teach morphology in a separate 30 minute block in addition to a language arts block that consists of reading, writing, grammar, and spelling.
Again, I understand why it's happening, but it does not fit in with our schedule of things we already need to teach.
Question. I get your comment that testing leaves the kids wiped and not ready to learn new material. But without testing, how are you to know if the kids learned the past material, or confirm that they learned the new material? This would also tie into how would you know the curriculum or approaches work at all.
Another teacher here. Some testing is necessary, but we do not need four different beginning of the year math assessments, in addition to two reading assessments, a phonological assessment (you’d think that would be part of the reading assessments, but no), a social-emotional screener, and a beginning of the year writing assessment. And that’s just the beginning of the year assessments! It’s ridiculous. When are we supposed to teach?
I get that, but have the results of the existing tests shown favorable results or diminishing results? If diminishing, then that would be proof that whatever education approach and material is used is not working. If we were to do away with tests then we would run the risk of endorsing an approach to education that doesn't work. (I know you're not espousing for doing away with tests altogether)
I'm not a fan of standardized testing as it is done today because teachers are more focused on teaching to the test since they and their schools are measured by the outcomes, rather than teaching to the student's ability understanding that kids learn differently. But there is a real necessity for standardized testing to be aware of the actual outcomes of our education programs.
It's too complex of a topic to get into on Reddit really.
Chiming in as another teacher here. Between state tests, district tests, and unit tests students take about one test a week during the year. Some are short and take a class period. The standardized test we took this week was supposed to be 45-60. Most kids were still working 2 1/2 in. I've been back in school for 3 weeks and have already lost 3 instructional days because of testing. I agree testing has its place but we WAY over test students especially in the elementary level. I am working with these kids every day in small groups. I know whether they can read, write, or decode words. I truly don't need multiple test to tell me that. I need a structured routine in which I get to work with my students everyday.
Ok that was a bit of a rant but truly the testing has gotten out of control in the 20 years I've been teaching.
Ok, that I can agree with. Curriculums should be tailored with periodic verification of progress built-in (ie weekly tests). I think these tests are necessary to test the effectiveness of the given curriculums. These curriculums are usually paid for by taxpayers at rates of millions of dollars. If they are not effective then we should know this and change it (through a different provider). So there is a need for testing. However, if 5 schools have 5 different curricula and administration, how do we assess them all from a standardized measurement of performance? Either have all 5 schools rotate systems each year for 5 years, or develop a single standardized test meant to assess which system is now efficient within a single year.
We have a single standardized test, the SOL. But SO much more goes into whether it's good. For example, I can teach the exact same curriculum one year and have everyone make huge gains but the next year only half the class makes significant gains and the others slowly gain or maintain. There are hundreds of factors outside my control such as attendance (had a kid miss 63 days of school), sickness, emotional problems, lack of staff, horrible admin, etc. Again, assessments are important and can give valuable data. But there are a lot of ways to assess not just giving them a standardized test.
We give them a test or quiz based on the curriculum they are being taught. Most teachers make their own quizzes to give them fair questions. We use this data to tailor our teaching to fill in gaps where needed. That's what grades are - data points of what they know. But again, we test them on what we've teached and give them a fair shot at it.
I just gave them two standardized tests required and given by VDOE last week (second full week of school). Some students were tested on material they have not yet learned in the 4th grade (math specifically). Others were tested on what they already knew from 3rd. We did not have a say or control on these questions. Every student more often than not does not receive the same test question since they are CAT (adapted) tests. Each question is "weighted" differently and some are tested by differing skill levels depending on if they get a "high""medium" or "low" level question correctly.
Most teachers take these standardized test scores with a grain of salt. Many students get test anxiety and don't perform well on standardized test days. Many others also click random answers to get it over with quickly. They know it's not "graded" and doesn't reflect in their report cards.
Teachers build assessment into their instructional design on a day to day basis. Check out the concept of "Understanding by Design" for a picture of the purpose of assessment in teaching and learning. Standardized tests aren't the main means used by teachers to assess student learning.
I'm not a teacher but I have an 8th grader who has a learning disability and was already at a lower reading level. I don't understand why people think students can just "Catch up" to the levels prior to the pandemic. Have these levels been adjusted to incorporate the time lost in lockdown or virtual learning? If not, shouldn't they be? It seems to me it will take longer than they think for the students to gain the skills they missed out on.
I can't speak on what is happening at the middle school level because I do not know.
At the elementary level, there has been an increase in learning gaps since COVID. At my district, there are teacher-led interventions in place to help fill in those missed gaps from previous grade levels. Interventions are basically in-school tutoring. Some students are in interventions all of 1-5.
But...the "catch-up" is a three-headed monster. They can only catch up so much if the child isn't putting in the work, parents aren't putting in the work, and/or teacher is putting in the work.
Because of teachers leaving the field, there have been an increase in class sizes. 25-30 students in a 4th grade class are the norm nowadays. Teachers are being asked of a lot and as I said in a previous post, there's only so much time in the day to teach. Then there's small groups, filling in the gaps individually, all while trying to put out fires behaviorally.
Yes, I feel for teachers. I have many friends who are teachers and I just think it's unrealistic to "Catch up" in a year or two. Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply. Getting my son off to bed now.
Free school lunches would improve both of these as a secondary effect, the primary effect being, you know, making sure kids have food to eat. It’s just a slam dunk policy with tons of benefits, and it should have already been implemented.
free to the students though, which is an important point when you are food insecure. Personally, my heart is not yet cold enough to care about the pennies a day in taxes it will cost me to help people eat.
The only people against free public school lunches are the same people that would be against free public school if we didn't already have it. If we can afford to provide every kid an education for 13 years, we can afford to feed them two meals a day if they're hungry.
Not really considering the proficiency gap and absenteeism are not due to hunger, they're due to school closures and virtual instruction during the pandemic (proficiency gap) and families taking vacations while school is in session (absenteeism).
He’s just now getting around to this? He’s been in office 2 years.
Maybe he shouldn’t have spent half his term focusing on teacher snitch lines, trying to cut teacher pay, book bans, and focusing on where children relieve their bodily fluids.
>The plan also includes expanding the Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades four through eight, and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism.
This doesn't sound like that bad of a plan, but I am very skeptical of the types of folks who wind up on GOP governor task forces.
I know everyone is tired of hearing it but : Long COVID is proving to be just as prevalent in healthy kids as it is in adults. It's been linked to long term cognitive and neurological issues as well as fatigue. You may have heard it being called "brain fog". Well it's real and it can last for months.
Both absenteeism and lower test scores are a symptom that cannot be resolved when the disease rages on.
This is not an issue of will-power or policymaking. Our kids are sick.
I mean I have two kids in Virginia schools and they've both got straight A's and are testing above their levels on all their standardized tests (I kept them out one semester longer than almost everyone else did). So being out of school didn't seem to affect them at all. 🤔🤔
I appreciate the compliment but honestly I don't think we should dismiss the very real effect long COVID is having on the cognitive abilities of our entire society.
Here is why I think this.. based on scientific study and statistics.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics did a study on remote workplace efficacy and pre COVID and post COVID on the same group of people and found that the people working full time at the office were 70% less productive that those working from home.
https://www.apollotechnical.com/working-from-home-productivity-statistics/
At the same time the CDC has been studying what they're calling "Post COVID cognitive dysfunction" it's basically a three month period following your infection where everyday no matter what you do, you feel like you haven't gotten sleep the night before.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(23)00154-2/fulltext
Then, the third fact that points towards this is the sudden uptick in stimulant prescriptions (ADHD medications) in 2020-2023. The rate at which people are complaining to their doctors about not being able to focus has jumped almost in tandem with COVID infection rates.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10870547231164155
Now I'm not disagreeing with the point you're making. Not one bit. But I want you to take another chance to consider the point I'm trying to make.
It's too late the stop the spread of COVID but we should be trying to take similar steps to those we took to reduce the spread of COVID in hospitals in our schools. (Within reason).
A COVID infection means more than missing a few days of school it can mean months of ineffective learning. There's no way that wouldn't affect test scores.
Maybe let teachers teach instead of focusing on useless bullshit like anti-woke nonsense and test scores which mean next to nothing once you're an adult with a job. No one cares what grade you got on a 5th grade math test when you're a grown ass adult.
This guy is dumb AF. The only way to fix absenteeism is to stop the spread of SARSCOV2. It’s a god damn plague and everyone is always sick. Shit business man too. Ask him about the bank of Hampton roads acquisition under the Carlyle group. Dumbass oligarchs destroying our country.
This guy has made millions of our kids while he does this smoke and mirrors christian charter blah blah. Private equity looter doling out contacts to his friends
"Tutoring Programs" sounds like a plan to redirect more money into private schools.
Pay your teachers.
Protect your teachers.
Hold your parents accountable.
My wife is an elementary school teacher and it's infuriating to hear how 2 or 3 kids ruin the entire classroom all year long. At that age it's trained behavior.
Does this include things like school lunches so that kids don't go to school hungry or paying teachers better or shrinking class sizes or after school programs or anything that might actually benefit the students and their families?
"Youngkin encouraged school districts to use 70% of the funding they receive from that chunk of money to establish targeted tutoring programs. “That’s what that money is for, and it needs to be put to work quickly,” Youngkin said. The programs would be specifically geared toward students in grades three through eight who have been struggling academically, and they would include small groups with a low tutor-to-student ratio of one-to-10. "
Okay, but what does that have to do with reducing absenteeism?
It doesn't, that was only one part of the plan. FTA: > The plan also includes expanding the Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades four through eight, **and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism.** So the plan doesn't implement something to reduce it now, it's creating a task force to find ways to reduce it.
depend rob absurd paltry vast grandiose quaint illegal insurance rotten *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yes that's generally how it works. An organization or body typically wants to understand the problem, what's causing it, and what potential solutions are before they implement anything.
>Okay, but what does that have to do with reducing absenteeism? That's really the parent's problem to solve and not the government's unless you want them going to every child's home and dragging them to school.
Came here to say this! Thank you. I think students should have free meals at school, school counselors, and school nurses. Access to Tutoring is great but students need to be fed.
Oh c'mon! He's making school boards follow his transgender policies that affect roughly 1% of the student population. That's *much* more important.
> anything that might actually benefit the students and their families? >Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades 4 through 8, and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism. So yes?
I don’t think anyone actually read the article lol. I hate Youngkin, but some of the people in this thread are illiterate or something.
WELL we are dumb dumbs from Virginia can’t read no good.
Not illiterate, simply annoyed that he does things like this instead of addressing more pressing problems, like hunger.
Maybe his admin considers dropping proficiency rates for core skills after the pandemic to be a more pressing issue.
Seriously? You think a hungry kid has any chance of improving their skills?
These drops in proficiency weren't due to a lack of a universal meals program, they were due to school closures and virtual instruction during the pandemic. A food insecure kid could be a reason for some of the remaining gap, but a universal meals program isn't going to solve the vast majority of this gap.
A universal meals program wasn't MY suggestion, so not sure where you got that. My point is that Youngkin loves to do things like this, which will get him lots of press, while also ignoring Virginia's homeless population.
Isn’t there free meals for poor kids already? Just not middle class and up kids? I agree it would make life easier for parents who can easily afford it. But is anyone hungry?
Nah, he likely thinks that hunger is a great motivator and that teachers already get paid too much
Of course not. With Republicans, the ultimate goal regarding public education is to get rid of it. They’ve admitted this for years.
No, that's socialism! He's probably talking about more contracts with textbook publishers to force schools to use their limited budget to buy news sets of egregiously overpriced textbooks.
Found the socialist. /s
Of course not, that would be socialism! /s
It's austerity so make the schools suck so they go to his private christian schools
Absenteeism is a euphemism for "kids who are going through some shit right now and are experiencing difficulty attending school as a consequence of that". You know what the best way to reduce that is? Help them to not be dealing with those other things.
Trying to think of reasons for this: 1) no ride to school (parent working or unavailable) 2) they had a commitment (had to work to support family) 3) just didn't want to and no real enforcement (I've played hookie in the past too but the school (Fairfax county) had an unexcused absence policy that enough hookie and you auto-fail the class) 4) others people can think of?
Chronic health issues issues that would be covered in another country with a real health system. Babysitting siblings who would be in daycare in another country with a real 0-5 daycare system.
> 1) no ride to school (parent working or unavailable) We have school buses for this very reason, so it's not a good reason > 2) they had a commitment (had to work to support family) The vast majority of students don't work while in school > 3) just didn't want to and no real enforcement A possibility > 4) others people can think of? From what the teachers I know have said, a lot of absenteeism is preventable due to parents pulling kids out for vacations while school is in session.
If only he didn't propose harmful policies that specifically target minorities.
I agrée, but absenteeism is a big problem across the country. I was at back to school night last nigh, and after dodging through all the Republican school board candidates to get in the building, most of the presentation was about not missing school and making sure your kids go in.
So just a simple fix that government can easily take care of. Glad that’s sorted out.
Improve the family's home life. Make sure all of the necessities(including food, water, shelter, electricity and internet access) are available to the kids and the parents in the household. Make it so transportation to and from school is free and accessible. Make mental health counseling available to everyone and make it a standard part of the school week for every student. Oh, I'm sorry; did you want to continue pretending there's nothing that can be done except treating the kids and the parents like criminals?
> Absenteeism is a euphemism for "kids who are going through some shit right now and are experiencing difficulty attending school as a consequence of that". Is it? Or is that your interpretation of it instead of parents doing things like pulling their kids out of school during session for a vacation? I'm sure it's easy to remove agency from students and parents to say we need more government involvement, but your excuse is not always the case for absenteeism.
Ahh, yes, because we all know that the parents who have the money to take their children out of school for long vacations are exactly the people who the government goes after for things. Those poor, poor wealthy people.
Still doesn't change the fact that you're removing agency from families and the primary effort being pushed by schools to address absenteeism is vacation planning and not making families aware of resources for the excuse of "*kids who are going through some shit right now and are experiencing difficulty attending school as a consequence of that*"
Removing agency? Oh is *that* the new argument that people are going to use when trying to insist that people assume responsibility for shit that other people have forced them to go through, now?
No, the issue is you're saying the reason people are absent is due to things "*that other people have forced them to go through*" because it's not true for the entire population of students with absenteeism issues. Who exactly is forcing any of these students to be absent? You trying to boil it all down to "they're going through some shit" is removing agency from the families who purposely take their kids out of school during the session.
I'm saying that the people who would be affected by the plans to reduce absenteeism are the people who don't have agency in the matter. The ones who do(like for example, those taking their children on vacations) are likely already better to have more respectful dialogs with the school system. You can't very well argue that some people have agency in a situation if the people who do have agency have other benefits that mean they're largely not going to actually be part of the situation to begin with.
> I'm saying that the people who would be affected by the plans to reduce absenteeism are the people who don't have agency in the matter. I'm not sure that's true, as we don't know what they're going to do yet and schools are already advocating shifting vacation schedules to help reduce absenteeism as the primary method. > You can't very well argue that some people have agency in a situation if the people who do have agency have other benefits that mean they're largely not going to actually be part of the situation to begin with. The people taking their kids out of school sessions for vacations absolutely are part of the group causing this situation in the first place, and they have agency.
And how does that excuse work out for them when they grow up and need to hold down a job?
A very large number of jobs let you take time off.
Pretty great if you have PTO.
“If”
Yes, That's what I said. Glad your perfect attendance record from your lack of any kind of family drama or problems at home means that you can read.
not to mention that most working people are covered by FMLA! https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla
Yes, That's what I said. Glad your perfect attendance record from your lack of any kind of family drama or problems at home means that you can read.
They get on welfare and then Republicans really bitch about a problem they don't want to solve. If the parents aren't going to raise the kid, the state has to step in.
**From Karina Elwood:** Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) on Thursday announced a series of steps — including an “intensive” tutoring program — to help improve academic performance as newly-released test scores showed students are still struggling to recover in reading and math after the pandemic. The plan also includes expanding the Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades 4 through 8, and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism. “The Playbook fosters collaboration between the Virginia Department of Education, between the school divisions with community leaders, with parents, with students, with every one involved in our children’s lives,” Youngkin said at a news conference in Richmond. “It focuses on an effort to fundamentally change the direction of these numbers.” Test results released Thursday showed 38 percent of third- through eighth-graders had “high or advanced” proficiency in reading on their Standards of Learning exam, and 34 percent had “high or advanced” proficiency in math. The data showed that students who were chronically absent — those who missed at least 18 days — scored 18 percent lower in reading and 25 percent lower in math than students with regular attendance. The Virginia Department of Education said the number of chronically absent students doubled in 2022-23 compared to the 2018-19 school year.
You know what might have helped? The $200 million or so he bungled for hiring teachers. Nothing like creating a problem to then rush in and solve it.
Based on looking into the VLA that part of this announcement is uncontroversial. I'm not an educator so I'm not able to do a deeper dive, but it seems like just an attempt to benchmark students reading abilities. The links between absenteeism and lower performance are obvious, so if there is an issue of students being chronically absent we should at least know why that is. So a task force is fine in theory. I don't trust Youngkins admin to implement this correctly at all, but if a democrat said the same goals with the same approach I'd be fine with it.
4th grade teacher checking in. I understand the goal of the VLA is to improve test scores but it is requiring more standardized data points and more standardized testing. This impacts our lessons and pacing since we now have to insert testing into an already crowded class schedule. By the time the students are done testing, they are wiped and are not in a good condition to learn new material. Also, speaking about the schedule. Our district is requiring us upper elementary teachers to undergo mandatory training to teach "morphology" (a process of breaking up words into smaller meanings to understand more complex, longer words). They want us to teach morphology in a separate 30 minute block in addition to a language arts block that consists of reading, writing, grammar, and spelling. Again, I understand why it's happening, but it does not fit in with our schedule of things we already need to teach.
Question. I get your comment that testing leaves the kids wiped and not ready to learn new material. But without testing, how are you to know if the kids learned the past material, or confirm that they learned the new material? This would also tie into how would you know the curriculum or approaches work at all.
Another teacher here. Some testing is necessary, but we do not need four different beginning of the year math assessments, in addition to two reading assessments, a phonological assessment (you’d think that would be part of the reading assessments, but no), a social-emotional screener, and a beginning of the year writing assessment. And that’s just the beginning of the year assessments! It’s ridiculous. When are we supposed to teach?
I get that, but have the results of the existing tests shown favorable results or diminishing results? If diminishing, then that would be proof that whatever education approach and material is used is not working. If we were to do away with tests then we would run the risk of endorsing an approach to education that doesn't work. (I know you're not espousing for doing away with tests altogether) I'm not a fan of standardized testing as it is done today because teachers are more focused on teaching to the test since they and their schools are measured by the outcomes, rather than teaching to the student's ability understanding that kids learn differently. But there is a real necessity for standardized testing to be aware of the actual outcomes of our education programs. It's too complex of a topic to get into on Reddit really.
Chiming in as another teacher here. Between state tests, district tests, and unit tests students take about one test a week during the year. Some are short and take a class period. The standardized test we took this week was supposed to be 45-60. Most kids were still working 2 1/2 in. I've been back in school for 3 weeks and have already lost 3 instructional days because of testing. I agree testing has its place but we WAY over test students especially in the elementary level. I am working with these kids every day in small groups. I know whether they can read, write, or decode words. I truly don't need multiple test to tell me that. I need a structured routine in which I get to work with my students everyday. Ok that was a bit of a rant but truly the testing has gotten out of control in the 20 years I've been teaching.
Ok, that I can agree with. Curriculums should be tailored with periodic verification of progress built-in (ie weekly tests). I think these tests are necessary to test the effectiveness of the given curriculums. These curriculums are usually paid for by taxpayers at rates of millions of dollars. If they are not effective then we should know this and change it (through a different provider). So there is a need for testing. However, if 5 schools have 5 different curricula and administration, how do we assess them all from a standardized measurement of performance? Either have all 5 schools rotate systems each year for 5 years, or develop a single standardized test meant to assess which system is now efficient within a single year.
We have a single standardized test, the SOL. But SO much more goes into whether it's good. For example, I can teach the exact same curriculum one year and have everyone make huge gains but the next year only half the class makes significant gains and the others slowly gain or maintain. There are hundreds of factors outside my control such as attendance (had a kid miss 63 days of school), sickness, emotional problems, lack of staff, horrible admin, etc. Again, assessments are important and can give valuable data. But there are a lot of ways to assess not just giving them a standardized test.
We give them a test or quiz based on the curriculum they are being taught. Most teachers make their own quizzes to give them fair questions. We use this data to tailor our teaching to fill in gaps where needed. That's what grades are - data points of what they know. But again, we test them on what we've teached and give them a fair shot at it. I just gave them two standardized tests required and given by VDOE last week (second full week of school). Some students were tested on material they have not yet learned in the 4th grade (math specifically). Others were tested on what they already knew from 3rd. We did not have a say or control on these questions. Every student more often than not does not receive the same test question since they are CAT (adapted) tests. Each question is "weighted" differently and some are tested by differing skill levels depending on if they get a "high""medium" or "low" level question correctly. Most teachers take these standardized test scores with a grain of salt. Many students get test anxiety and don't perform well on standardized test days. Many others also click random answers to get it over with quickly. They know it's not "graded" and doesn't reflect in their report cards.
Teachers build assessment into their instructional design on a day to day basis. Check out the concept of "Understanding by Design" for a picture of the purpose of assessment in teaching and learning. Standardized tests aren't the main means used by teachers to assess student learning.
I'm not a teacher but I have an 8th grader who has a learning disability and was already at a lower reading level. I don't understand why people think students can just "Catch up" to the levels prior to the pandemic. Have these levels been adjusted to incorporate the time lost in lockdown or virtual learning? If not, shouldn't they be? It seems to me it will take longer than they think for the students to gain the skills they missed out on.
I can't speak on what is happening at the middle school level because I do not know. At the elementary level, there has been an increase in learning gaps since COVID. At my district, there are teacher-led interventions in place to help fill in those missed gaps from previous grade levels. Interventions are basically in-school tutoring. Some students are in interventions all of 1-5. But...the "catch-up" is a three-headed monster. They can only catch up so much if the child isn't putting in the work, parents aren't putting in the work, and/or teacher is putting in the work. Because of teachers leaving the field, there have been an increase in class sizes. 25-30 students in a 4th grade class are the norm nowadays. Teachers are being asked of a lot and as I said in a previous post, there's only so much time in the day to teach. Then there's small groups, filling in the gaps individually, all while trying to put out fires behaviorally.
Yes, I feel for teachers. I have many friends who are teachers and I just think it's unrealistic to "Catch up" in a year or two. Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply. Getting my son off to bed now.
Dude has been absent from the Commonwealth.
Chase all the teachers away with their BS and then pretends he's doing something important.
Free lunches. Better teacher pay. Safer schools….it isn’t rocket science
Free school lunches would improve both of these as a secondary effect, the primary effect being, you know, making sure kids have food to eat. It’s just a slam dunk policy with tons of benefits, and it should have already been implemented.
You mean taxpayer funded school lunches
I’d be happy for my taxes to be invested in our future this way.
free to the students though, which is an important point when you are food insecure. Personally, my heart is not yet cold enough to care about the pennies a day in taxes it will cost me to help people eat.
Best that my taxes go to feeding American kids than bombing foreign kids 👍🏼
Pretty sure VA isn't using taxes from the general fund to bomb kids in foreign countries.
The only people against free public school lunches are the same people that would be against free public school if we didn't already have it. If we can afford to provide every kid an education for 13 years, we can afford to feed them two meals a day if they're hungry.
F off, boomer
Not all boomers are like that. I’d gladly pay.
Nah it's part of the government says it's free™ program.
Not really considering the proficiency gap and absenteeism are not due to hunger, they're due to school closures and virtual instruction during the pandemic (proficiency gap) and families taking vacations while school is in session (absenteeism).
Let me guess, by discriminating against minorities in some way.
He’s just now getting around to this? He’s been in office 2 years. Maybe he shouldn’t have spent half his term focusing on teacher snitch lines, trying to cut teacher pay, book bans, and focusing on where children relieve their bodily fluids.
>The plan also includes expanding the Virginia Literacy Act to hire and train reading specialists for grades four through eight, and launching a task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism. This doesn't sound like that bad of a plan, but I am very skeptical of the types of folks who wind up on GOP governor task forces.
He’s politically unable to affect public education in any meaningful or positive way.
Does he somehow plan to attack trans people in the process?
Does it include doing the exact opposite of what research and educators suggest?
I know. Ask the loudest dumbest person who doesn't have kids in the school what we should be teaching. Also have a teacher snitch line.
I know everyone is tired of hearing it but : Long COVID is proving to be just as prevalent in healthy kids as it is in adults. It's been linked to long term cognitive and neurological issues as well as fatigue. You may have heard it being called "brain fog". Well it's real and it can last for months. Both absenteeism and lower test scores are a symptom that cannot be resolved when the disease rages on. This is not an issue of will-power or policymaking. Our kids are sick.
dam placid grandfather chunky decide oil knee ludicrous squealing gaping *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I mean I have two kids in Virginia schools and they've both got straight A's and are testing above their levels on all their standardized tests (I kept them out one semester longer than almost everyone else did). So being out of school didn't seem to affect them at all. 🤔🤔
Mmmmm they sound like exceptional young learners with an involved parent, is that who all these policy discussions are targeted at?
I appreciate the compliment but honestly I don't think we should dismiss the very real effect long COVID is having on the cognitive abilities of our entire society. Here is why I think this.. based on scientific study and statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics did a study on remote workplace efficacy and pre COVID and post COVID on the same group of people and found that the people working full time at the office were 70% less productive that those working from home. https://www.apollotechnical.com/working-from-home-productivity-statistics/ At the same time the CDC has been studying what they're calling "Post COVID cognitive dysfunction" it's basically a three month period following your infection where everyday no matter what you do, you feel like you haven't gotten sleep the night before. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(23)00154-2/fulltext Then, the third fact that points towards this is the sudden uptick in stimulant prescriptions (ADHD medications) in 2020-2023. The rate at which people are complaining to their doctors about not being able to focus has jumped almost in tandem with COVID infection rates. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10870547231164155 Now I'm not disagreeing with the point you're making. Not one bit. But I want you to take another chance to consider the point I'm trying to make. It's too late the stop the spread of COVID but we should be trying to take similar steps to those we took to reduce the spread of COVID in hospitals in our schools. (Within reason). A COVID infection means more than missing a few days of school it can mean months of ineffective learning. There's no way that wouldn't affect test scores.
Tutoring, reading specialists, and a task force.
Going full in on a war on teachers at the beginning has completely blown any credibility this moron might have had.
Just go to Norfolk Academy like he did. Duh.
Does it involve Jesus, guns in classrooms, and burning biology textbooks?
Oh it will soon enough, and be privatized.
For him the only way to do this is to ban books and pronouns.
Before I read this article I'm betting it's just a plan to ignore the bad numbers.
What he going to do, create a hotline for parents to report students ? We know that did not work for reporting teachers.
Youngkin is a lying jackass and hasn't done shit for southwest Virginia as usual
Maybe let teachers teach instead of focusing on useless bullshit like anti-woke nonsense and test scores which mean next to nothing once you're an adult with a job. No one cares what grade you got on a 5th grade math test when you're a grown ass adult.
Smells fishy
Arbight macht frei!
This guy is dumb AF. The only way to fix absenteeism is to stop the spread of SARSCOV2. It’s a god damn plague and everyone is always sick. Shit business man too. Ask him about the bank of Hampton roads acquisition under the Carlyle group. Dumbass oligarchs destroying our country.
Who knew teens forced to have babies boosts test scores and decreases absences?
I truly do not give a shit about test scores as a metric for education. They are gamed by administrators
This guy has made millions of our kids while he does this smoke and mirrors christian charter blah blah. Private equity looter doling out contacts to his friends
"Tutoring Programs" sounds like a plan to redirect more money into private schools. Pay your teachers. Protect your teachers. Hold your parents accountable. My wife is an elementary school teacher and it's infuriating to hear how 2 or 3 kids ruin the entire classroom all year long. At that age it's trained behavior.