Virginia’s Department of Education (VDOE) will update its Math Standards of Learning (SOLs) in 2023 as part of its regular seven-year revision cycle. SOLs:

• determine what topics will be covered in each grade,
• dictate the standards (local school districts then create courses to meet them), and
• were last updated in 2016 for math and remain in effect today.

In the 2016 math revision, VA adopted many of the ideas of Common Core, which generally:

• slowed down the progression through VA’s math curriculum,
• delayed the timetable for fact & procedural fluency, and
• increased emphasis on conceptual understanding & applications. 

The Northam VDOE had intended to use the 2023 SOL revision to implement the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI), which would have ended Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II and replaced them with blended math courses that all students in Grades 8-10 would take. Governor Youngkin’s recent Executive Order ended VMPI. VDOE is asking for public feedback as it begins to revise the SOLs. Given the recent change away from VMPI and with VDOE reopening its planning, this is an excellent opportunity to convey your views on math instruction.
 
Certainly, the ideas raised during the VMPI debate are relevant. Some pertinent questions included:

• how best to incorporate more data analysis and statistics into the math curriculum,
• whether the Algebra I-to-Calculus pathway should be abolished or maintained, and
• whether only one pathway or multiple pathways should be offered for students in grades 6-10.

However, public comment is also a venue for sharing broader ideas on how to increase the quality of math instruction for all students, including exploring:

• the role of teacher-led instruction versus student discovery learning,
• the optimal balance between fact & procedural fluency and  conceptual & applied learning, and
• whether math classes should center around math applications & group projects or whether applications should occur within other curricular subjects.

Public comment on the upcoming math SOL revision is open until February 28. We encourage you to fill out the VDOE math SOL survey or email VDOE directly at vdoe.mathematics@doe.virginia.gov to share your views on this important topic.  
 
As the planning process appears to be starting with the new administration, we hope that VDOE will be particularly open to hearing what parents want. For what it is worth, here are some comments for your consideration:

1. We believe that students are best served when they have a choice of multiple math pathways. Students with STEM interests should have access to the Algebra I – Calculus pathway, while students interested in statistics & data analysis should have that pathway available as well.  Data science/statistics electives should be offered early in high school to help students determine if they want to pursue a statistics pathway and to equip them with the skills needed to produce high quality science and social science research projects.
2. There should also be more emphasis on building a strong base of math skills for younger students through the greater use of teacher-led instruction, physical textbooks, and emphasis on fact & procedural fluency. Once a solid skill base is built, applications and problem-solving are more productive. We are seeing a similar shift in view on language arts, where there is a growing recognition of the need to first build a strong reading base with phonics before branching out into other literacy areas. By forming a strong skill base in the early years, students will be best positioned to take advantage of the rich curricular pathways available to them in high school and beyond.

Complete the VDOE Math SOL Survey.
Tell VDOE your comments directly.
Forward to a friend or neighbor.

On Feb. 16, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed Senate Bill (SB) 739 into law, including several amendments he added by recommendation. The law codifies the right to live, real-time, in-person instruction. It also permits parents to opt out of school mask requirements, and the amendment makes the law effective immediately with school districts required to comply by March 1st. (Note: the emergency clause, which enabled the immediate start date, was passed by a simple majority. The prerequisite of only a simple majority to enact an emergency clause immediately via Governor’s recommendation was a change from the 4/5 majority previously required, and was first enacted and used several times by the VA General Assembly starting in 2020.) 
 
Read the text of the bill here.
 
APS has provided initial guidance on its compliance with the new law, which was also discussed at the Feb 17th School Board Meeting. That guidance notes that parents may opt their child out of masking. Additional details on how parents may do that will be communicated this week.

Read more about APS guidance on SB739.
Forward to a friend or neighbor.

Dr. Durán made his annual visit to the Arlington County Civic Federation on Tuesday, February 8th. He gave a 40-minute presentation, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A from the audience.
 
We highly recommend watching or listening to his presentation and Q&A session. The video of his CivFed visit is available here (from 9:28 to 1:10:00) and covers the following topics:

• Bio (11:00): Dr. Durán’s career as well as several icebreakers showing his personal side (including his connection to Breaking Bad as an Albuquerque native as well as his stint as a backup dancer in a couple of Michael Jackson’s shows in Thriller!)
• Past APS Bright Spots and Challenges (14:30): His opinion on what were his three bright spots and challenges thus far in his tenure as APS Superintendent:
  • Bright Spots:
    • Implementing an equity focus
    • Implementation of elementary literacy program
    • Safely reopening schools for the 2021-22 SY
  • Challenges:
    • Reopening schools in 2021
    • Meeting the learning needs of all students
    • Student and staff mental health and well-being
• Goals for 2022-23 SY (19:40): His principal goals for next school year of (1) focusing on learning loss, (2) addressing social and emotional needs of students and (3) mitigating the spread of COVID
• Personnel (22:50): His overview of his staffing plans for teachers and the central office, including teacher compensation and retention plans
• Equity (32:05): APS’ views on equity, from the definition of “equity” to boundaries and staffing
• Learning Loss (42:10): An update on APS’ learning loss plan (notably, the assessment data from the first semester will be shared at the March 24th School Board meeting to show where APS is on its learning loss plan)
• Homework Policy Changes (47:35): The status of the process to modify the homework policy consistent with the principles in Joe Feldman’s book “Grading for Equity”
• Budget (49:05): APS’ budget goals this budget season
• Q&A (51:00): Dr. Durán answers over 10 questions from the audience on a wide variety of topics (none of which were softballs), such as on equity transparency, why the VDOE Board on which he served lowered the statewide cut score for the reading SOL, what happened with the VLP, status on the removal of SROs and much more. 

The Arlington County School Board is scheduled to make its similar annual visit to CivFed on Tuesday, May 10th at 7 pm.

Watch Dr. Durán's presentation to Civ Fed.
Learn more about Civ Fed.
Forward to a friend or neighbor.

At Thursday’s School Board meeting, Dr. Duran announced that APS would be creating a dashboard showing student progress. This is long overdue. As APS had not yet published beginning of year (“BOY”) or mid-year performance data, as it had by this time last year, Arlington Parents for Education made a FOIA request for the data (thanks to several generous donations from parents). That data is here. Based on it, there remains good reason for concern about pandemic-driven learning loss, and there continues to be a need for increased investment in recovery services.
For Math Inventory (MI) scores:

• Consistent with the SOL scores from last spring, this year’s data shows a dramatic increase in the percentage of students scoring below basic in grades 5 through 8. (APS has historically administered MI tests only in grades 5 through 8. This year, it began administering the test in grades 2 through 4 as well, but there is no historic data with which to compare those results.)
• In 2021, almost 40% of students entered the year at below basic levels of math, far higher than any previously reported year.
• The MI scores improve over the course of each academic year (fall, winter and spring). But even at the winter administration of the test in 2021, almost 30% of students fell below basic. This is 45% higher than the average for winter in prior years.
• Two thirds of the students (67%) in grades 5 through 8 entered the year at basic or below basic performance, and over half of students remained at basic or below by the winter administration.  

This data confirms that learning loss is real, and that APS’ business-as-usual approach to recovery is still leaving many students (almost a third of its 5th through 8th graders) behind.
 


The DiBels BOY data is harder to interpret, in part because APS only began using the DiBEls assessment in 2020, making it difficult to benchmark against pre-pandemic performance. Nonetheless, for grades K through 5: 

• 33% of students entered the year needing intensive or strategic support (what APS considers below benchmark), and
• 20% of the class entered the year needing intensive support, which is 25 percent more than even the beginning of 2020 (which had already been impacted by the pandemic). 

Tell the School Board you want more funding dedicated to addressing learning loss.
Donate to APE to help fund FOIAs and research.
Forward to a friend or neighbor.

APS is currently engaged in a concept design process for the Career Center. Its stated goals are to:

• build a new option school and parking facility,
• provide needed instructional facilities for Career Center students, and
• modernize career/technical education (CTE) facilities.

Currently, the campus has about 1,100 secondary students and 500 elementary students. APS has proposed to add an estimated 250-700 secondary seats, and set a maximum site capacity of 2,570 students. Maximum total project cost for this phase is $170.48 million.
 
Background: APS has made several previous proposals for the Career Center site, but prior plans significantly exceeded available funds. When APS originally created Arlington Tech (AT) and added 600 full-time students to the site, it did not build adequate facilities. As a result, AT students do not have access to a proper gymnasium, library, or dedicated field space for secondary students (they currently share some field space with Montessori Public School of Arlington, MPSA). There is a need to improve facilities for these students, as well as to update the CTE spaces for county-wide classes. However, APS also rejected options that renovated existing space (vs. building new) to meet these instructional needs.
 
Current Proposal: The current proposal would:

• tear down the Fenwick building (Arlington Community High will go into a temporary space while a new Amazon-funded building is completed),
• build a new five-story building along S. Walter Reed,
• reduce current green space (MPSA’s playground will be moved and condensed and an existing T-ball field replaced), and
• build one small field (non-regulation size for any APS sports). 

APE Has the Following Concerns About The Proposal:

• This project will utilize most of APS’ available CIP resources for the next decade, adding very few new seats, without a long-term vision for the site. APS has specifically said it won’t plan for the whole campus until the FY2025-34 CIP. 
• After this phase, additional funding will be required to renovate or tear down the existing Career Center or MPSA buildings. 
• APS’s proposed cap of 2,570 students is very high (Arlington’s second-largest campus), with students from preK-12. This cap was based on assumptions made by previous workgroups utilizing a cohesive site plan that concentrated density along S. 9th St. Since there is no cohesive site plan, it’s unclear how the site will be designed to hold this many students. 
• The plan has very little green or open space, a field that does not help to address Arlington’s overall field shortfall, and no dedicated field space for MPSA.

The bottom line: this project appears ill-considered. We are preparing to spend a huge amount of money on very few new seats, and not considering plans that renovate existing space. By selecting this option, APS would be committed to spending more funds now, and creating a future project (as the existing building will need to be renovated or torn down). At the same time, we continue to experience a capacity crunch for field space, which this plan would make worse. APS should obtain more clarity on these issues before moving forward with such an expensive commitment of almost all of our capital budget. In particular, APS should consider plans to renovate the existing Career Center building to meet program needs vs. building a brand-new structure, plan for a lower total cap of students on the site, and engage in full site planning now.
 
Tell APS your thoughts on the Career Center proposal
Tell the School Board your thoughts on the Career Center proposal
Forward to a friend or neighbor.

(Editor's Note: From time to time, we will offer a perspective written by an APS parent or teacher on a topic of concern or interest for APS. What follows has been only lightly edited for clarity.)

The political repercussions of the prolonged school closures that took place in certain parts of the U.S. last school year are continuing to be reflected in recent elections. Last week, San Francisco overwhelmingly voted to recall 3 school board members (the only 3 eligible for recall) in a city well-known for its progressive politics (85% of San Francisco voters voted for Biden vs. 81% in Arlington). This election follows the effects of school closures on the gubernatorial elections in NJ and VA, which were 41st and 44th, respectively, for in-person school last school year. 
 
The recall was more than just a story in the newspaper for me. I lived in San Francisco for 4 years during the mid-2000s and did some volunteer fundraising work in Democratic politics. Then, Gavin Newsom was my mayor, Kamala Harris was my prosecutor, Nancy Pelosi was my Congresswoman, and now-Congressman Ro Khanna was my co-worker. Because of San Francisco’s rough-and-tumble municipal political culture, I was shocked on Wednesday morning to see the recall winning in a landslide of 69-76%, with more numerical votes to recall the 3 board members than they received to get elected in 2018, as well as every neighborhood voting for the recall.
 
San Francisco’s prolonged school closures are what first really upset a large number of San Francisco parents, reminding me very much of Arlington. After closing in March 2020, San Francisco Unified School District did not start its reopening until April 12, 2021 (6 weeks after APS). Like APS, SFUSD has suffered large enrollment declines as a result of such closures, with enrollment currently down 6.5% compared to Fall 2019.
 
School closures in San Francisco politically split rank-and-file Democratic parents who wanted schools reopened from the Democratic activist class, just like in Arlington. Many of these lifelong Democratic parents who advocated for SFUSD to reopen were similarly disparaged by their prior political allies as “Trumpers.”  
 
San Francisco Mayor London Breed though was very vocal as early as October 2020 about SFUSD needing to reopen, and the city even sued SFUSD to reopen on February 3, 2021. These local actions stood in contrast to the silence of Arlington’s local elected officials, although APS ultimately required similar outside intervention to move its School Board, announcing return to school dates only after the intervention of Governor Ralph Northam on February 5, 2021. 
 
Mayor Breed on Meet the Press this past Sunday attributed the recall primarily to SFUSD’s closures. But San Francisco did have other issues that caused voters to resort to recalling these School Board members, such as: 

1. Voting to rename 44 schools in January 2021 named after historical figures over their perceived flaws (such as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Scott Key and current Senator Diane Feinstein), all while SFUSD was still closed;
2. The discovery of past racist, anti-Asian Tweets by the now-recalled School Board member Allison Collins, and Ms. Collins then suing SFUSD for $87 million after she was removed as Vice President of the School Board because of the discovery of her Tweets; 
3. Replacing merit-based admission to the highly selective Lowell High School with a lottery, all while SFUSD was still closed (similar to the controversy regarding changes to admission to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County); 
4. The prior de-tracking of math education (similar to what was discussed as a possibility under the now-canceled Virginia Math Pathways Initiative); and
5. A $125 million budget deficit, or approximately a 10% shortfall, that resulted in state intervention.

In analyzing these three recent elections, some have criticized these so-called “angry parent voters” as being too focused on re-litigating last year’s school closures. However, the failure by elected leaders to acknowledge that, even knowing what they know now, they would not have done anything differently still resonates with parents (as also noted in this focus group of suburban NOVA and Richmond Biden voters to understand why they swung to Youngkin or seriously contemplated doing so). Without this acknowledgment, and because COVID is likely here to stay and we face the ever-present possibility of new variants, parents continue to fear schools shutting down again and the harm to their kids that would result.
 
The U.S. has serious pandemic-related education issues that need to be addressed soon, especially regarding learning loss. Acknowledging the mistake of last year’s school closures would go a long way towards assuaging parents’ fears. Unfortunately, with politics these days, admitting any past error is mistakenly assumed by many politicians to be perceived as a sign of weakness. The failure to do so is having political reverberations up and down the ballot, and preventing the political debate from focusing on these pressing educational issues.

Donate to APE to help fund FOIAs and research.
Forward to a friend or neighbor.

2/17 School Board Meeting Recap
 

Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 8:30-10:30 AM: Open Office Hours with Barbara Kanninen. Register here.
 
Thursday, February 24, 2022, 7 PM:  School Board Special Meeting: Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2023 Budget Presentation (Budget work session immediately follows the Meeting)
 
Monday, February 28 7-8:30 PM NAACP General Membership meeting with Dr. Reuben Varghese from Arlington Public Health presenting. Attend here.

Monday, March 7, 7-9 PM: Open Office Hours with Mary Kadera. Register here.