Governor Unveils K-12 Education Proposals

By Amber Lester Kennedy Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled his K-12 education legislation for 2012 at a press conference Monday.

His “Opportunity to Learn” agenda includes proposals in several areas – raising standards for college and workforce readiness; reducing mandates on local school divisions; expanding educational options; and enhancing teacher quality.

His agenda included a call to repeal the Labor Day Law that requires school divisions to begin their fall semesters after Labor Day, unless they apply for a waiver. McDonnell said the law is preventing Virginia students from remaining competitive by reducing instructional time. Local tourism leaders strongly oppose repealing that law, saying it would negatively impact the economy of the Historic Triangle. Read more about their opposition here.

McDonnell proposes streamlining the state’s diploma requirements by consolidating the seven available diplomas to three, folding the Modified Standard Diploma into the Standard Diploma and making accommodations for special education students. If approved, the legislation would also fold the General Achievement Diploma into the General Achievement Adult High School Diploma. A Special Diploma will be available for students with disabilities who complete the requirement of their IEP and who do not meet the requirements of other diplomas.

He would also like to add a career skills requirement to the Standard Diploma, asking students to either obtain a career and technical education credential or pass a state licensure exam, national occupational competency assessment or the Virginia workplace readiness skills assessment.

McDonnell proposes the creation of a positive youth development academy pilot program for rising high school freshmen and sophomores in selected regions of the state. The academy would focus on life skills, such as civics, financial literacy, community service, preventive health, character education and leadership skills. Through the legislation, character education programs could be implemented during the regular school year or during the summer.

The governor also wants to establish written agreements that make it possible for dual enrollment students to earn associate’s degrees or one-year Uniform Certificates of General Studies from a Virginia community college while finishing up their high school diplomas.

To advance literacy, McDonnell proposes revising the Standards of Quality to ensure local school divisions use funds appropriated for prevention, intervention and remediation to create reading intervention services for third and fourth grade students who show reading deficiencies on tests. The Standards of Quality spell out the minimum level of education services a division must provide. The intervention services would have to be provided before a student is promoted to fourth or fifth grade.

Several proposals fit into McDonnell’s goal to expand educational options. He wants to establish an Innovative Options Technical Advisory Committee that would provide guidance to potential applicants wanting to open charter schools, college partnership lab schools and/or virtual school programs. He also wants to establish new regulations for accrediting virtual schools that enroll students full-time, and create alternative licensure for virtual school teachers.

Enhancing teacher quality is another priority. McDonnell would like to see the state establish an annual contract and evaluation process for teachers and principals that would replace the current continuing contract practice for teachers and principals. In a press release, he said 17 other states have already made similar changes to their contract and tenure laws.

He would like to establish a three-step grievance process to include the employee, principal, superintendent and school board, while setting aggressive timeline to conclude a grievance investigation.

McDonnell’s Opportunity to Learn includes several funding initiatives that would provide money for reading and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming, for the expansion of the Communities in Schools program to regions in the state (including Hampton Roads), for 10th graders to take the PSAT, for Health Sciences academies and more.

The General Assembly begins its session Wednesday. Both the House of Delegates and Senates will consider the governor’s proposals and create their own budgets before voting on a joint budget later this spring.