Here’s a simple rule of politics : if it seems like a quick
fix, is perceived to be a quick fix and could possibly act as a quick fix, give
it a shot. And lo and behold, Virginia’s legislators (mostly Republicans) in
the state Senate followed this simple rule on Tuesday when it passed a bill
requiring the Virginia Department of Education to evaluate schools on an A-to-F
scale.[1]
Democrats in the Virginia Senate derided the A-to-F
evaluation scale “as a gimmick” and just as predictably, Republicans in the
state Senate argued that it would improve transparency and spur interested
parties to get more actively involved in their school’s success.
Echoing my own feelings about the grading scale for public
schools, Sen. Mamie E. Locke (D-Hampton) said, “No school assesses a student’s overall
performance with a single letter grade. They provide parents with detailed
progress reports, and there is nothing that is going to make this a good bill.”[2]
So, for instance, if a school receives an “A” on their
evaluation report card, how did the school go about achieving an A? If another
school receives an “F,” what steps can that school, the county its located in,
and the state, take to correct the poor grade?
The bill and its proponents make it sound as if communities
and parents of children in failing schools will act differently now than when
they were told in different terms that their schools were failing.
While the grading system might be easier for Virginians to
comprehend and act upon, it doesn’t reduce important factors that play a role
in failing schools, factors like affluence, neighborhood crime, access to
diverse resources of learning, and so on.
It’s a platitude but education is an investment. If Virginia
is unwilling to appropriately invest in all of its schools, lackluster results
will continue to show in the state.
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