Va Dept of Ed Blows Off 60% of Virginia Students
by pwceducationreform
Va Dept of Ed Blows Off 60% of Virginia Students
January 27, 2013 — pwceducationreformThis summer, after receiving a wavier from NCLB’s 100% passing requirements, the VA Dept of Ed established new goals for the percentage of students passing the SOL in all school divisions and public schools in the state. The new targeted percentage passing was set for the state overall and for groups of students; groups that are based on race.
The Va Dept of Ed took lots of flack from the public because the pass rate targets for 2013 – 2017 for Black and Hispanic students are lower than the pass rate targets for White and Asian students. The Dept of Ed was accused of having lower expectations for Black and Hispanic students than they do for White and Asian students.
The VA Dept of Ed responded that the goals don’t reflect lower expectations for Black or Hispanic students as the final goal, 73% passing by 2017, is uniform across all groups. Instead of setting a uniform starting point that didn’t reflect actual pass rates, the Dept of Ed set the 2012 actual pass rates as the point from which annual increases are expected. The goals for annual increases for Black and Hispanic students, according the the Dept of Ed, will be challenging but are achievable.
Unfortunately the Dept of Ed blew off White
