1. Virginia Board of Education’s Annual Report on the Condition and Needs of Public Schools in Virginia Dr. Billy K. Cannaday, Jr. President, Virginia Board of Education Dr. Steven R. Staples Superintendent of Public Instruction Virginia House Committee on Education Education Summit November 9, 2015

2. Board of Education Priorities and Critical Needs
Factors Impacting the Work of Public Schools
Actions Taken by the Board
Achievements and Challenges
Next Steps

3. Board of Education Priorities and Critical Needs

4. Board of Education Priorities
Creating an accountability system that promotes continuous improvement, acknowledges progress, and measures quality across a broad spectrum of indicators.
Building capacity in schools and school divisions to support the unique needs of all students, teachers, and administrators.
Fostering positive, safe, and healthy school climates that promote high student achievement and social and emotional development.

5. Priority 1 – Accountability
The Standards of Learning, both the learning expectations and associated assessments, have provided a foundation for increased student achievement for nearly two decades and have helped make Virginia’s public schools among the nation’s best. However, twenty-first century accountability is more than just achievement on a series of tests.

6. Priority 1 – Accountability
Creating an accountability system that…
Recognizes growth in student achievement and rewards, encourages, and promotes continuous improvement
Supports thoughtful innovation
Maintains high expectations
Recognizes and supports the whole child – incorporates measures of social, emotional, and physical well-being
Improves alignment of K-12 to future workforce needs and skill sets identified by Virginia employers

7. Priority 2 - Building Capacity
Local School Divisions:
Reduced instructional and student support personnel to support administrators, teachers, and students
Since 2008, K-12 public education staffing has been reduced by 5,000 positions, while student enrollment has increased by almost 4 percent.

8. Priority 2 - Building Capacity
Virginia Department of Education:
Limited capacity to support local school divisions with professional development resources
From the dawn of the Standards of Learning era in 1990 through 2015, VDOE staffing levels have dropped by 40%

9. Priority 2 – Building Capacity
Educator Workforce:
Difficulty recruiting and retaining the best educators
High turnover, especially in the most challenging schools
Virginia public school teacher salaries are 35th among 50 states
Shortage Areas:
1. Special Education
6. School Counselor PreK-12
2. Elementary Education PreK-6
7. Foreign Languages PreK-12
3. Middle Education Grades 6-8
8. English (Secondary)
4. Career and Technical Education
9. Health and Physical Education PreK-12
5. Mathematics Grades 6-12
10. History and Social Science (Secondary)

10. Turnover and Trouble Recruiting in Challenged Schools
Tier I School Year Baseline Metrics
Virginia
School Division #1
School Division #2
School Division #3
Percentage of Classes Taught by Teachers not Meeting Definition of Highly Qualified
Core 1% 5%
Non-Core 3%
21% 2%
12%
Percentage of Provisionally Licensed Teachers
General 4% 9%
10%
Special Education
Percentage of New Teachers
4.4%*
8.5%
6.3%
9.1%
Percentage of Substitute Teachers
0.3%
13.3% NR
16.6%
*Based on divisions responding to New Teacher Program Data Collection

11. Priority 2 – Building Capacity
Educator Workforce (Continued):
Aging workforce
Approximately 1/3 of Virginia’s 97,000 public school teachers are over the age of 50 – prime candidates for retirement. Yet, Virginia schools of education produce about 4,000 new teachers a year.

12. Priority 3 – Positive School Climate
What does a positive, safe, and healthy school climate look like?
Families are engaged
Students are well fed
More than one in six children in Virginia face a constant struggle against hunger
Students are receiving the “wrap-around” interventions needed to combat issues, such as mental health issues, substance abuse, homelessness, trauma, violence, transience, and poverty.
Students are in school
Moving away from disciplinary actions that reduce learning time, such as suspensions and expulsions, to restorative accountability and positive behavior support systems

13. Factors Impacting the Work of Public Schools Changing Demographics Limited Funding Higher Expectations

14. Changing Demographics
Since 2008, the total student population has increased by 4%, while the number of economically disadvantaged students has increased by 40% (representing 40% of the student population)

15. Changing Demographics
The number of English language learners has increased by 37% (representing 10% of the student population)

16. Changing Demographics
While the number of students identified with disabilities has decreased slightly since 2008, students receiving special education services still represent roughly 12 percent of the student population in 2015.
Two disability categories in particular, autism and other health impairments, have risen steadily within recent years - autism by 45% and other health impairments by 10% percent respectively.

17. Limited Funding 26 $10,600 41 $4,426 35 $48,670 Measure Virginia Rank
Virginia’s Data
State and Local
Per Pupil Education Funding, Pre-K-12 26
$10,600
State Per Pupil Funding, Pre-K-12 41
$4,426
Average Salary of Public School Teachers 35
$48,670

18. Higher Expectations More rigorous curriculum standards
Challenging new SOL assessments that test students’ problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, as well as their content knowledge
Higher benchmark pass rates required for full accreditation
High schools must meet goals for improving graduation rates

19. Schools Not Fully Accredited 2002-20013 through 2015-2016

20. Actions Taken by the Board Provide flexibility Acknowledge progress More effectively communicate

21. Revised Standards of Accreditation
Created new ratings to differentiate schools that are close to meeting the requirements for full accreditation, or that are making significant progress, from those that are not.
Schools that were making progress were hidden in the old accreditation ratings.
The Board did NOT lower its standards.

22. Flexibility for Seat Time Requirements
Provided options to waive the 140 clock hour requirement to receive standard credit for students who have learned the content and skills included in the relevant Standards of Learning, making it easier for struggling students to catch up, exceptional students to move ahead, and students facing scheduling barriers to take the courses they need.
In response to HB 1675 (Greason) and SB 982 (Garrett) (2015)

23. New State Performance Report Card
A new State Performance Report Card will be unveiled in 2016
With new features, tools, and data elements, the report card will paint a more complete and contextual picture, and be easier to view and to understand.
New features and elements include:
SAT/AP Achievement
Post-Secondary Enrollment
Elementary/High School Students Per-Teacher
Division Per-Pupil Spending
Composite Index
Expulsions & Suspensions
Enrollment by Subgroup
Google Map
Achievement Gaps by Subgroup
Comparison Tool
Kindergartners Meeting Benchmarks

24. Achievements and Challenges

25. Connecting Schools and Workplaces
High school students earned more than 104,800 workplace credentials in 2014 As we expand our view of graduation competencies and accreditation, how does this fit in?

26. Test Trend Data
State Pass Rates by Subject: through
SUBJECT
Reading
88.8
74.6
74.4 (-0.2)
79 (+4.6)
Writing
89.4
75.9
75.1 (-.8)
77 (+1.9)
History/Soc Sci 85
84.9
84.4 (-0.5)
86 (+1.6)
Mathematics
68.5 71
74.3 (+3.2)
79 (+4.7)
Science
90.7
80.7
79.9 (-.8)
82 (+2.1)
Blue indicates pass rates flat
Red indicates pass rates declining
Green indicates pass rates improving
Pass rates for writing, history/social science and science for are based on fewer tests than previous years due to the tests eliminated by the General Assembly in 2014

27. BUT “Achievement Gaps” among student subgroups still persist…

30. Graduation and Dropout Rates
Virginia’s on-time graduation rate climbed to 90.5% for the class of 2015
The dropout rate continued to fall from previous years to 5.2%
BUT “Achievement Gaps” among student subgroups still persist…

31. The on-time graduation rate for students with disabilities has made large gains over the past 5 years,
climbing from 82.6 in 2010 to 88.4 in 2015.

33. Student Discipline Rates
Since 2010,
Short Term suspensions are down 19%
Long Term suspensions are down 14%
Expulsions are down 48%
BUT “Gaps” among student
subgroups still persist…

34. Although black students only made up 23% of the student population in 2014, they accounted for 53% of the short term suspensions, 56% of long term suspensions, and 43% of expulsions

35. Recommendations for Moving Forward

36. Recommendations
Sustained investment of resources, both human capital and fiscal assets
Cohesive, proactive, and aligned collaboration

37. Recommendation 1 - Resources
Continued restoration of funding is needed in response to:
funding reductions made during the recession
growing demands placed on schools and educators
growing student population
Resources are needed to:
Build capacity through additional staff, especially, in the area of instructional and student support services
Provide professional development
Provide financial incentives for the most skilled educators to teach in and lead the most challenged schools
Support strategic reinvestments in the Standards of Quality
Improve the assessment system to better measure student achievement and growth, including expanding Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT), and supporting reliable and valid local assessment methods

38. Recommendation 2 - Collaboration
Collaboration among governing bodies in education will help advance our shared mission of creating an excellent statewide system of public education:
Local school boards
Virginia Board of Education
Virginia General Assembly
Governor
Standards of Learning Innovations Committee
Department of Education
Early childhood education organizations
Higher education system (SCHEV, VCCS, public and private institutions)
Virginia businesses
The public
Cohesive, Proactive, and Aligned Collaboration

39. The Board of Education will continue to examine:
Alternative methods of learning
Alternative methods of assessment
Social-emotional competencies
College and career ready standards and measures
Elements of school climate
Alternative paths to teacher licensure, especially for shortage areas
Profile of a Virginia Graduate

40. Questions and Discussion Thank you!