Board of Education
January 10, 2007
Video Transcript

Narrator
At its January meeting, the Board of Education approved a series of proposed amendments to Virginia’s No Child Left Behind implementation plan. One amendment, if accepted by the U.S. Department of Education, would re-benchmark the annual measurable objective for graduation to 61 percent. Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Linda Wallinger described the increase as an interim step.

Linda Wallinger/Virginia Department of Education
The proposal is to use this 61 percent through the 2008 AYP calculations while the board continues statewide discussions on what an appropriate rate would be.

Mark E. Emblidge/President, Board of Education
I think a majority of the board members and the administration are very clear that 61 percent is a placeholder. And it is a placeholder in a document that doesn’t, with the federal government, that doesn’t acknowledge three of our five diplomas. And the board intends to open up the SOA [Standards of Accreditation] and to deal with graduation rates here in Virginia in an aggressive way.

Billy K. Cannaday Jr./Superintendent of Public Instruction
I’d like to applaud the board for not using the cover of No Child Left Behind to do the right thing by young people. No one certainly can accept a 61 percent graduation rate as being something good for children or good for families or good for the commonwealth. And so the fact that you are not only going to open it but seriously address this issue bodes well not only for this board but also for all the children in the commonwealth.

Narrator
The vote was not unanimous. Andrew Rotherham of Earlysville argued for setting a graduation benchmark higher than 61 percent immediately.

Andrew Rotherham/Board of Education
I want to echo something Mark said. The disagreement that we have here is around the policy; it is not a disagreement about the level of commitment to addressing this issue on the board. You know, who cares more or less about this issue. What it is about – there is no disagreement about the importance of the issue, there is a disagreement about what the policy decision should be.

Narrator
Other proposed amendments approved by the board include reversing the order of school-improvement sanctions, extending the use of a proxy percentage for students with disabilities in calculating AYP, expanding the definition of recently arrived LEP students, and allowing elementary and middle schools to use writing or history as an academic indicator.

The board also authorized the Virginia Department of Education to conduct studies to identify factors contributing to success in postsecondary education.

Shelley Loving-Ryder/Assistant Superintendent for Assessment and Reporting
More specifically, the studies will look at policies and practices that affect student achievement in the first year of college and also looking at key indicators of college readiness such as looking at the performance of students who are judged to be ready for college and successful on the SOL end-of-course tests so that we would be able to identify a college-ready scale score on our end-of-course tests.

Narrator
The board made several recognitions at its January meeting. Roanoke County and Hanover County were recognized for becoming the first school divisions in the commonwealth to attain division-level accreditation from the Council on Accreditation and School Improvement.

Virginia Neal of Highland High School in Highland County was honored for her selection as the Virginia recipient of the National Education Association’s annual award for teaching excellence.

Virginia Neal/Highland High School
I love my job. It gives me great joy to work with young people and help them see beyond the five mountains that define my system.

Narrator
The board also honored Bethann Canada, the director of VDOE’s Office of Educational Information Management, for receiving the 2006 national Data Quality Campaign award.

Bethann Canada/Office of Educational Information Management
In addition to providing data for accountability and policy making, we have a commitment to providing data to the practitioners, to principals and teachers who use the information on a daily basis to improve instruction for all of our students.

 Narrator
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28. A downloadable agenda will be available here, on the Department of Education Web site, on the Friday before the meeting.