Posts Tagged ‘Prince William County Schools’

Fairfax County Leads in Graduation Rates

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Looks like the Northern Virginia area is a great place to go to high school. Fairfax County and Prince William County are nation leaders in graduation rates.

This is according to Education Week’s recent “Diplomas Count 2011: Beyond High School, Before Baccalaureate” report.

The rates come from 2008 data collected in the nation’s 50 largest school systems. Fairfax came in second with a graduation rate of 85.1 percent. Prince William County is a little further down, but still relatively high, at spot 17. It had a graduation rate of 68.4 percent.

Unfortunately, that is a fall in ranking for Prince William County. It was previously in 15th place. Also, that puts Prince William County below the national graduation rate of 72 percent. But that percentage is unusually high. Not since the 1980s has the national average been this good.

That’s good news for a country eager for evidence of education improvement, according to one expert quoted in the Washington Examiner article about the report.

“Just as Americans have been following the stock market and employment reports for signs of an economic turnaround, education watchers have been on the lookout for improving graduation rates for the better part of a decade,” said Christopher Swanson, vice president of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit that publishes Education Week. “It looks like we are finally seeing strong signs of a broad-based educational recovery, which we hope will gain further momentum.”

It may be premature to celebrate, however. The recession has led to deep cuts at many schools. It’s possible that graduation rates at some of the systems on the list have fallen since 2008. Plus the contrast between Prince William County and the national average show that there is a lot of work still to be done.

The challenge going forward is how to maintain and improve graduation rates with fewer resources. Though the recession is technically over, its effects still weigh heavily on school systems. It is unclear how long schools will be beleaguered by budget shortfalls or whether they will eventually rebound to previous levels of funding.

It’s possible that a long-term strategy for surviving on less is needed.

In the meantime, Fairfax County should be riding high on its ranking while taking steps to try and kick Montgomery County out of the top spot.

Check out this press release for more information about the Education Week rankings.

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Lean Times in Prince William County

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Superintendent Steven L. Walts’ proposed budget for Prince William County schools combines no layoffs with pay freezes to make a frugal yet satisfying budget.

The total proposed budget is $864 million. That’s $36 million more than was spent last year. The extra bucks will enable the district to add more classrooms as planned.

As for the rest of the budget, first, the good news: Walts’ budget preserves the jobs of all school employees. For those employees living on the cusp of despair in this harsh economy, that will be a relief. This will be the first time since 2007 that nobody was axed. In fact, the school district is planning to hire 175 more teachers.

Other programs that survived in this proposed budget include English as a Second Language and free and reduced-price lunch programs. One out of every three students qualifies for the free and reduced-price lunch, so the program’s preservation is a must.

On the other hand, for the fourth year in a row no school employees will be getting pay raises. No doubt this will frustrate a great number of people, but given the preservation of jobs, it seems a fair trade off. Plus, next spring, employees will get a one percent bonus. But that will not be a recurring reward.

The pay freezes are one cost of preserving positions and programs. Here are a few others: Prince William County has the lowest per-pupil spending rate in the Washington area — $9,577 per student. That is half what Arlington and Alexandria spend. Also, while there will be no reduction in health benefits for employees, rates will increase.

In times of financial strife, Prince William County is doing what it must with the resources it has available. No district in this nation is escaping the effects of our economy. And though American finances are improving, they are by no means where they need to be.

As is always the case in situations like these, parent and teacher options are few. In order to operate the county’s school system effectively, one of two things has to happen. Either the school district makes do with less money or citizens pay out more in taxes. That is a tough line to straddle, and for every person willing to spend more for good schools, there will be another who will stand opposed to the idea.

Until the economy returns to its full flourish, these decisions will continue to be faced. And whatever the choice, the schools have to be creative if they are to keep high-quality education available for Prince William County’s children.

To read more about the proposed budget, go here.

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Have No Fear

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

For Prince William County parents worried about their children’s education, perhaps they need have no fear.  Evidently it’s a great place for youth.

America’s Promise Alliance recently chose the county as one of its 100 best communities for young people. The group was founded by former secretary of state Colin Powell and his wife. A Washington Post article on the honor said that according to county officials, “Supportive educators, numerous after-school activities and volunteer opportunities that are available for students all make Prince William County shine as a place for young people…”

The mission of America’s Promise Alliance is to ensure students graduate from high school and are ready to move on to college. Indeed, graduation rates in Prince William County schools are not too shabby. In 2010, approximately 88 percent of students graduated on time. Of course, Virginia itself does pretty well graduation-wise. About 85 percent of students graduated on-time statewide in 2010. These figures are up from 2009. In that year, Prince William County graduated 84.3 percent of students while the state graduated 83.3.

But graduation from high school is just half the battle. That’s why the support of organizations like America’s Promise Alliance is so important. It is essential that students graduate high school prepared for the next stage of their education. America’s Promise Alliance does this by advocating for the five key supports children need:

  • Caring adults such as parents, teachers, mentors, coaches and neighbors
  • Safe places that offer constructive activities when young people are not in school
  • A healthy start and healthy development
  • An effective education that prepares young people for college and work
  • Opportunities to help others through service

Fortunately, it looks like Prince William County does a good job in these areas as well. So, keep up the good work, Prince William County. And all parents can ensure it does by keeping an eye on the facilities, services and support given to their children.

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Merit Pay Snafu

Monday, December 27th, 2010

The Prince William County school system plan to institute a merit pay program in some of its schools may have hit a snag. The Federal Department of Education provided the school system with an $11.1 million grant to pay for the five-year Teacher Incentive Performance Award pilot initiative, but it turns out that the taxpayers will still end up footing some of the bill.

At a school board meeting, Prince William County officials found out that the school system will have to pay 20 percent of the program’s cost the first year. Then the percentage the school system pays will go up 20 percent every year until it is taking care of 80 percent of the tab in the 2015-2016 school year.

The idea is that the school system should demonstrate its ability to continue to fund the program beyond the life of the grant. Unfortunately, school board members who were so keen on the merit pay program didn’t realize when they voted for it that taxpayer money was going to have to pay for some of the program in the near term.

This news comes in the midst of a poor economy and a sour outlook for the school system’s budget. It was cut $25.6 million from last year. At the same time, enrollment increased by 2,460 students.

While it looked like this experiment in merit pay was going to be free for county schools, the reality is that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The taxpayers must pony up.

For those that don’t remember, the merit pay program is a system where well-performing teachers will get extra compensation for their efforts in the classroom. Nobody’s salary would be affected negatively by the program, but some teachers will end up making more money than their peers. The program is planned only for the poorest schools in the system. The hope is that by offering merit pay, teachers will be inspired and student achievement will rise as a result.

The only “question” left now is how willing are taxpayers to start paying for this experiment in the near term? Everybody thought the monetary burden was going to be delayed, but instead it’s immediate, and in a tough economic time, painful.

It is generally recognized that something must be done to help students in the poorest and lowest performing school systems. Merit pay is just one experiment that is being conducted in an effort to improve the quality at such schools. Eventually, if they are to have a real chance of succeeding, taxpayers at the local level are going to have to pay. Of course, since the grant came from federal funds, the taxpayers are already paying, but the impact is less immediate.

If merit pay is effective, then it might be worth the cost. If it’s not, then the county could just be throwing money away. Time will tell which outcome is true.

To read more about this, go to Washington Examiner.

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The Model Student

Monday, November 15th, 2010

When you think of what the model student looks like, you probably imagine someone who gets good grades, participates in extracurricular activities, and maybe has a good attendance record. Although those are definitely positive attributes for a student to have, another powerful, but often overlooked, trait of the model student is civic responsibility. That was demonstrated by one Battlefield High School student a few months ago.

Christopher Berger, an 18-year-old senior at Battlefield High School in Gainesville, is responsible for saving a man’s life. Almost three months ago, Berger was on the scene of an accident where a flipped SUV was on fire with a man trapped inside. Berger ran to the vehicle and got the man out before things got too serious. Then Berger left. He didn’t expect or want any particular recognition for his actions.

Berger exhibited humility, bravery, and a civic respect for his fellow man—attributes not common in many people, much less high school students. On Tuesday, Nov. 9, Berger was honored in a surprise ceremony at Battlefield High School.

For many people, school is all about academic achievement. But in addition to teaching our children the intellectual skills needed for the outside world, schools should also be instilling civic pride and responsibility in our youth. What good is it for a student to go out in the world capable of great things but without the inner compass to guide his or her achievements towards the good of his society and fellow man?

We see that people often shirk their responsibility to participate in our election process. We see people disengaged from their communities, their governments, and their neighbors. We see people out mostly for themselves, with little thought given to those who cross their path.

Remedying this is, of course, not the main priority of the classroom. A person is shaped by multiple influences – parents, friends, role models – in addition to schools. But by honoring Berger, Battlefield is showing that the selfless actions of this senior are exemplary and something that other students should look up to. Aspire for greatness, the ceremony implies. And don’t worry about the credit. Those who do truly great things – with humility and care – will get the recognition they deserve.

So, in Christopher Berger, we get an example of what we should all be trying to do in one way or another: look out for our fellow man.

To read more about Berger, his actions and the Battlefield ceremony, go here.

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Pay for Performance

Monday, November 8th, 2010

It’s not a novel idea – paying teachers for how well they teach – but it has taken a long time to catch on in the public school system. Prince William County is the latest to adopt the move.

Prince William Public Schools got a grant of $11.1 million from the Department of Education to do a pay-for-performance program in its 30 poorest schools. The idea is that teachers get bonuses for achieving good results with their students.

Teachers could get $1,000 to $4,500, and administrators could get $7,000.  The bonuses would start in the 2012-2013 school year.

Teacher performance won’t be measured individually. Instead, the school as a whole will be evaluated. It basically works like this: Participating schools that have 50 percent or more students eligible for free or reduced lunch will have to attain yearly progress goals. After that, the schools will be evaluated on some other criteria, such as student behavior, ranked, and then awarded bonuses, which the schools will hand out to teachers.

To read more about this, go here.

We have seen school systems around the country struggling to raise student performance in schools. Pay-for-performance programs have been tried elsewhere and have failed. And not all educators in Prince William think this program is a good idea.

One thing that everybody seems to agree upon, however, is that something must be done in schools nationwide to improve them. Washington, D.C., took the tact of firing many teachers who weren’t up to snuff. The recent movie, “Waiting for Superman,” highlighted some of the pressure students face to get into the best schools our country has to offer. More is expected of teachers and their salaries barely increase, if at all.

The good thing about the pay-for-performance program is that it’s based on bonuses, not salary. So teachers will not be penalized. Instead, those teachers who help a school achieve its goals will receive something extra, above and beyond their ordinary paycheck.

Because of the grant, Prince William isn’t having to throw any of its money into the pay-for-performance pot, so that makes this program an overall win, whether it ends up being effective or not. Now all that’s left is to wait and see if cash can lead to higher quality learning in the classroom.

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AYP–Burden or Benefit

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Prince William County and Manassas schools had trouble meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals last school year, but is it poor education or extremely high standards that are responsible?

In Prince William, 28 out of 82 schools didn’t meet AYP in 2009-10, up four from the 2008-09 school year. The situation was even worse in Manassas where seven out of eight schools failed.

Of course, if you take Virginia as a whole, none of this seems surprising, and it becomes difficult to blame the problem on any one particular district. There are 132 school divisions in Virginia – 12 made AYP.

AYP testing is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which seeks to measure the progress and performance of the nation’s students. Since it was enacted in 2002, there has been grumbling from many people. Some teachers feel that the necessity of meeting mandated benchmarks forces them to teach to the tests which determine AYP, rather than simply concentrating on giving their students a well-rounded education.

Part of the problem with meeting AYP last year relates to new graduation and disability standards. For the first time, about 80 percent of all students must get an advanced or standard diploma in four years. Also, standards for disabled students were raised this year. These two factors alone led to 128 schools and 24 schools divisions in Virginia missing AYP. The Prince William County school division missed AYP only because it failed to meet the new disability standards.

To read more about this go to Inside Nova.

One question that arises from these scores is who’s to blame? Are schools underperforming, or are requirements simply too steep?

It’s a hard question to answer.  On the one hand, can anyone be blamed for wanting the highest education standards for students? But on the other hand, not meeting AYP can have serious consequences for schools.

Title I schools – schools receiving federal assistance because of their large low-income student populations – face the toughest consequences.  If they don’t make AYP two years in a row, these schools are labeled as being in “improvement,” a fact schools then have to report to parents. Also, schools in “improvement” must give parents the choice of sending their children to better performing schools.

If a Title I school misses AYP for three years, then the previous requirements remain and schools must also give students Supplemental Education Services.

After four years of missing AYP, in addition to the previous penalties, schools must choose one of the following options: changing some of their staff, coming up with a new curriculum, lessening management’s authority, hiring outside experts to advise them, reorganizing the school internally, or making the school year or day longer.

After five years, planning for school restructuring begins. After six years, those plans are put into effect.

The information about these consequences were found here.

Three Title I elementary schools in Prince William County – Bel Air, River Oaks and Neabsco – missed AYP for the second year in a row, meaning they will have to offer students the choice of transferring.

According to this article from The Virginian-Pilot, the consequences for non-Title I schools are less severe because they don’t receive the same federal funding, but school divisions still must take steps toward improvement if non-Title I schools miss AYP.

While perhaps necessary, the consequences of not making AYP can be costly and may severely change the lives of students and teachers. Of course, in some cases, that is desirable, but if failures result from unrealistic requirements, then the consequences may be too severe.

In the end, the question of whether or not requirements are too onerous might be better left to experts. But parents would do well to educate themselves as to what AYP requirements are, why they are what they are and what the consequences could be to their child if the school they attend does not make Adequate Yearly Progress.

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Almost Good News in Prince William County

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

There was a time that Prince William County schools faced a possible cut of more than 700 jobs in its fiscal 2011 budget. Gradually that number was whittled down until it finally reached zero. That was great news. The school system went from calamity to calm relatively quickly and restored peace of mind to parents, students, and schools’ staff.

Of course, that great news simply meant that the status quo was maintained. But recently, Prince William County schools became hopeful that they might actually get extra staff thanks to federal stimulus funds. With those funds, the school system could have hired 180 extra teachers for its classrooms.

That was all thanks to the U.S. Congress, which recently decided to make 10 billion extra federal stimulus dollars available for education jobs across the country. Virginia will get about $249.5 million of that.

It was up to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to make the final decision on the new jobs. And it did. The supervisors decided not to use the stimulus funds this fiscal year and instead to reconsider them next time.

To read about this, go here.

The use of stimulus funds is a complicated topic. In this case, the funds would have lasted only for a year. After that, the school system would have had to come up with the money to keep any new jobs. Something similar happened when Prince William County schools decided in 2009 to give a raise to school system employees beginning in fiscal 2010. The raises were made possible by federal stimulus funds that would last for only two years – 2010 and 2011. After that, county taxpayers will be footing the bill. Some county supervisors were skeptical of the move back then and have apparently retained that attitude this time around.

Ultimately, the current crop of stimulus funds may cost the county money. But it’s hard to deny that the extra money would benefit the students in Prince William, at least in the short term. The fewer teachers there are the more students each individual teacher must instruct. We all know that students learn better in smaller classes. So, it’s reasonable to assume that having 180 new teachers would mean smaller classrooms and better education to a certain extent.

Regardless, until the supervisors reconsider the funds for fiscal 2012, the discussion is moot.

In the meantime, county officials and taxpayers must think about which is more important: saving money or educating students? That may seem like an easy question to answer, but it’s not. More money in one place means less money elsewhere, so someone will suffer for the sake of better education. Everybody must understand who will suffer, how much they will suffer, and how much schools will benefit before stimulus funds should be used. Everybody has an extra year to think about it.

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Schools Bursting at the Seams

Friday, August 27th, 2010

The degenerative disease of school overcrowding continues to spread across the country, inflicting damage on the ability of students to learn and administrators to keep order.

Unfortunately, Virginia has no cure, and so we, too, must suffer the symptoms.

Researchers at the University of Virginia say that the state can expect swelling enrollment in public schools during the next five years. That is in addition to the record number of students already attending. Our current numbers have their positive aspects — in 2009-10, a record 88,624 high school graduates are expected, and getting educated adults out into the population is good by any standard. However, graduation rates are expected to hit their high in the 2011-2012 school year and then start declining.

Meanwhile, large school enrollment without accompanying growth in infrastructure means overcrowding — something nobody likes. We have all witnessed the results: trailers, large classroom sizes, less personal attention for students and children being lost in the crowd.

News of the expected increase in enrollment over the next five years is particularly bad for Northern Virginia because our jurisdictions are the ones expected to be hardest hit by the growth. Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun counties will make up 85 percent of the increase across the state. In fact, in other parts of the state, enrollment will actually decrease.

So, what does all of this mean for the three most affected counties? We need more schools and more teachers. Sadly, this is the absolute worst time for such necessities. Financial worries have led jurisdictions across the country to slash budgets, including those for education. But there is no doubt that regardless of economic woes, accommodations will have to be made for extra students.

Prince William County is busy building four new schools — two elementary, one middle and a high school. Local officials recognize that the county is in something of a unique situation and that action needed to be taken.

“We are definitely building at a rapid pace,” said Lionel White, supervisor of planning for the Prince William County school system. “Given the state of the economy, a lot of school systems’ growth is flat or they are losing schools. People, though, are coming here, buying homes. . . . We’re a little atypical compared to the rest of the state.”

Loudon and Fairfax are in the same boat, and all three jurisdictions need to recognize that for the next five years, expectations will be on them to satisfy the demands of a growing student marketplace.

To read a press release about the University of Virginia Study, go to UVA’s website.

To read more about the new schools coming to Prince William County, click here.

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Separating the Boys from the Girls

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Some Prince William County schools are trying out something that may be the bane of hormonal boys everywhere — single-sex classrooms.

The most recent adopter is Fred Lynn Middle School, which will start the single-sex classes in the fall. It’s following the lead of Woodbridge Middle, which piloted a single-sex classroom program three years ago.

Fred Lynn Middle’s Principal J. Harrison-Coleman, who originally started a single-sex program at a Portsmouth area school, tried out the idea on a smaller scale at Fred Lynn earlier this year. She pulled aside 10 boys struggling in math for one period and gave them instruction as a group. The majority improved. Harrison-Coleman attributed the success to the focus possible in a single-sex classroom.

“Not having to impress girls, what a difference it has made in them,” she said.

To read more about the program at Fred Lynn, go to Inside Nova .

Single-sex classrooms are not particular to Prince William County. As educators across the country try to find ways to better teach students, single-sex education has been adopted in many jurisdictions.

The results can be good.

On its website, the National Association for Single-sex Public Education cites the example of a three year pilot project conducted by researchers at Stetson University in Florida. The study compared single-sex classrooms with coed classrooms at nearby public school Woodward Avenue Elementary. Look at what the comparison discovered in regard to scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test:

Boys in coed classes had a 37 percent proficiency rating and girls in coed classes had 59 percent. That’s shockingly low when compared with all-boy classrooms, 86 percent, and all-girl classrooms, 75 percent.

Go to the website for information about this and more.

The NASSPE is careful not to claim single-sex education as a panacea, however:

“First point to remember, when you consider evidence regarding the effectiveness of gender-separate classrooms: Simply putting girls in one room, and boys in another, is no guarantee of anything good happening. On the contrary: some public schools which have adopted single-sex classrooms, without appropriate preparation, have experienced bad outcomes,” the website states.

The website provides a link to a 2005 commentary written for Education Week by Dr.  Leonard Sax, executive director of NASSPE. In the article, Sax explores single-sex education in more detail, giving examples of successes and failures, and expanding on some of the less-known portions of the topic. He begins his article with a number of interesting questions:

“Why the surge of interest in single-sex education? And should we perhaps be more cautious, and more concerned about the possibility that single-sex education might reinforce harmful gender stereotypes? Also, most of the North American research on single-sex education has been conducted in private or parochial schools, which may evoke images from “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” and “Dead Poets Society.” Can single-sex education really work in the more diverse setting of American public schools, particularly in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods where academic excellence is least often found? What happens when Mr. Chips meets Snoop Dogg?” he asks.

Of course, those words were written in 2005 and, no doubt, much has changed since then. But nevertheless, the NASSPE still points to that article as one that contains wisdom on the topic of single-sex classrooms.

You can read Dr. Sax’s article here .

Done right or wrong, single-sex classes are becoming more prevalent, as evidenced by the recent decision to go forward with the classes at Fred Lynn Middle School. So, it’s important that parents, students and educators learn as much as possible.

Before you know it, single-sex education could be coming to a classroom near you.

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