“You can’t build a reputation,†Henry Ford once said, “on what you are going to do.†And when it comes to raising graduation standards, Virginia is building quite a reputation.
Tomorrow (at an absolutely ungodly hour), I am headed off to the Southern Regional Education Board’s Legislative Conference. This nonprofit, nonpartisan organization works with leaders and policy-makers in 16 Southern states to improve education.
One of the key topics at the conference will be the results of the accountability movement of the 1990s. Virginia, like many other states, raised standards for what students graduating from high school needed to know and be able to do.
In the beginning, states talked tough. They raised graduation requirements. They instituted state tests that students had to pass to graduate.
But when the time came for those new standards to kick in, many states backed off. They lowered their expectations for students. Or they watched their graduation rates slide.
Except Virginia. Here, despite rigorous new standards (every high school graduate now has to complete math through at least Algebra I, for example), graduation rates have actually increased slightly.
How did we do that? Much of the credit goes to local schools and teachers. They have worked very hard to prepare all students.
But the state has done its share. Gov. Warner’s Project Graduation is cited by SREB as one of the national model programs. Funded by the General Assembly to the tune of more than $8 million a year, this initiative allows schools to identify students who are at risk of not graduating. Then they are enrolled in special academies that may meet before or after school, during the summer, or on Saturdays.
As a result, Virginia’s graduation rate has held steady. In 1997, before any of the rigorous standards were imposed, 94.5 percent of high school seniors graduated. Today, 94.7 percent of seniors graduate—and they do it after taking tougher math, English, and other academic courses.
 This is a success story that all Virginians can be proud of. Over the years, the State Board of Education under both Republican and Democratic governors has held to a clear vision. Today, people from all across the country are taking notice.
I appreciate that you are willing to tell a success story like this Kris. Too often in times when there are many problems to discuss (e.g. the demagoguing of the immigration problems) things are negative and all about what isn’t working.
It’s refreshing to hear something about why government is getting something right, and I would argue, important that a distinction is made on why it’s happening—competent decision-making that avoids demagoguery vs the heated and empty rhetoric in politics we so often hear.
I still have a lot of worries about how “teaching to tests” and/or “rote memorization” does not serve students well in their futures when they will need skills in research and critical thinking more and more, and how I believe standardized testing encourages that sort of education. However, it does seem that perhaps Virginia, because of the sound and competent decision-making of its leaders, has actually found a way to accomplish these standards without leaving out the teaching of “learning how to learn”, effective communicating, and most importantly, critical thinking?
At least I’d like to think so. And if so, perhaps our political future will have less of that demagoguing and more thoughtful proposals based on facts, not rhetoric, spilling over as a result of that better education.
I’d sure like to think so.
Improving schools is tough. I take every opportunity to commend the leaders who have fought to do that. They come from both political parties. But thanks for thinking it’s important to tell some stories about the times that public policies made something better.