Board of Education
May 24, 2006
Video Transcript

Mark E. Emblidge, President, Board of Education

It is my real pleasure to introduce…

Charles Pyle, Virginia Department of Education (narrator)

Board President Mark Emblidge opened the May meeting by introducing the board’s newest member, Lynchburg architect Kelvin L. Moore.

Representatives of two school divisions accepted awards from the Board in recognition of their success in raising the achievement of disadvantaged children. Scott County was honored as the 2006 Distinguished Title I School Division and Fairfax County as the 2006 Highly Distinguished Title I Division.

Acting Superintendent Patricia Wright briefed the Board on the strong performance of Virginia students on the 2005 national science tests.

Patricia I. Wright, Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction

We are very pleased to report that the 2005 NAEP science results for Virginia show that Virginia showed significant gains across the board for both fourth grade and eighth grade and significant gains across all the content topics tested for those two tests. We are one of only five states that saw significant gains in both tests across all areas. We are indebted to the thousands of teachers and principals and school administrators across the commonwealth who have contributed to the success of our students in science. With that said, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least make mention of the fact that we have made progress in closing some of the achievement gaps with our African-American and our white students and Hispanic and white students but we still have a ways to go. So, while we are proud we do have significant changes in that gap, we can’t be satisfied until we accelerate closing that gap.

Narrator

The Board took final action on the revised Standards of Accreditation, which now enter the final length of their journey through the regulatory process.

And the board approved cut scores for the new reading and mathematics tests for grades 3 through 8, and the revised grade 8 writing test. The Board did not change the cut score for the grade 5 writing test.

Shelley Loving-Ryder, Assistant Superintendent for Assessment and Reporting

For the new tests that are required by No Child Left Behind, we have divided the students who failed the SOL tests into two categories of “below basic” and “basic.” And we have added these additional categories to more accurately describe the progress that students are making toward proficiency and reaching the standards.

Narrator

The board also heard an update on No Child Left Behind, including the recent announcement that additional school divisions may be allowed to offer tutoring rather than public school choice during the first year of school improvement.

Linda Wallinger, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction

We do need to move fairly rapidly however because we must submit a proposal to USED by June 19, so we will be moving shortly to try to identify school divisions – there are approximately 30 divisions that have schools that we think will be eligible – and it’s a matter of going back and seeing where the best pilots [pilot programs] might operate and where they have the capacity to deliver the pilot.

Narrator

More information about the 2005 science tests and other issues discussed during the May Board meeting is available here on the Department of Education Web site. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for June 28, here in Richmond. I’m Charles Pyle for the Virginia Department of Education.