Bacon's Rebellion

  • Virginia’s PreK-12 Educational Goals?

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Matt Hurt

    For any organization to be successful, there must be clearly defined goals based on the desired outcome. The goals must be measurable, and the measure(s) of progress must also be defined. The greater the focus is maintained on those goals, the more likely the organization will attain them.

    Virginia’s educators are at a disadvantage in that the goals (identified as priorities) laid out in the Board of Education’s Comprehensive Plan do not identify student outcome targets. The mission adopted by the Board (page 5) mentions the improvement of student achievement, but how much improvement is considered sufficient is not defined anywhere in the document. This document also does not specify any measures of student achievement that could be used to determine whether or not the board is accomplishing its mission.

    The lack of adopted student outcome goals and measures could be a significant factor in the declines in student achievement in the past five or so years. Much has been written about the recent and significant decline in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores in 2022, but student outcomes as measured by SOL tests were generally in decline prior to the pandemic. The only SOL scores that improved were in math, and then only because the Board of Education significantly lowered cut scores with the newest SOL test in 2019, which had the effect of making the new tests easier to pass.

    There have been a number of decisions made by the Board in recent years that have been inconsistent with practices which improve student outcomes. These decisions in effect lowered the expectations for Virginia’s students and educators. Rarely do outcomes improve when expectations are lowered. For example, the degree to which student outcomes were calculated into teacher and administrator evaluations was decreased from 40 percent of the evaluation to no less than 10 percent in 2019. Also, that same year, the Board lowered the SOL cut scores in math, which effectively lowered the expectations in that subject. Two years later, the Board similarly lowered the cut scores in reading.
    (more…)

  • Aside from Insinuating Matt Daniel is Anti-Semitic, Shapira’s Latest Piece Wasn’t So Bad

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Washington Post’s Ian Shapira has finally published his piece about Matt Daniel, head of the Spirit of VMI PAC and one of the more vocal critics of the current VMI leadership. It may be the most balanced piece Shapira has ever written in his coverage of VMI — admittedly, an extremely low bar to clear. Even though Daniel declined to answer his questions, Shapira made a decent effort to present his point of view by quoting from the public record. 

    I cannot say what accounts for this departure in Shapira’s journalistic practice, but it cannot entirely be coincidence that Daniel had pre-empted a feared hit job by publicly releasing a list of questions that the WaPo reporter had emailed him shortly before publication. (Bacon’s Rebellion reported on those questions here.)

    Still, Shapira can’t help being Shapira, and he described two incidents that grotesquely insinuated that Daniel has Nazi and/or anti-Semitic proclivities. (more…)

  • The Amazing Shrinking Times-Dispatch

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner


    by Jon Baliles

    You might recall a story from last summer in Style Weekly entitled The Incredibly Shrinking Times-Dispatch about the decline of our local newspaper and the print news business in general. It has been a precipitous and rapid descent.

    Now, according to Axios, it seems that shrinking is not only ongoing but might be accelerating: Lee Enterprises is telling some employees that they will need to take a two-week, unpaid furlough or accept a salary reduction, according to an internal memo obtained by Axios.

    The larger drama is that Lee was looked at for a takeover by Alden Global Capital last year and Lee laid off numerous employees company-wide and has continued to struggle (along with most legacy print media). The details of the saga can be read about here and are basically portrayed as two sides of the same bad coin. (more…)

  • The Future Is Here

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    EV charging station, Henrico WalMart

  • Peak Insanity: Why Schools Shouldn’t Teach the Dangers of Communism

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    HB 1816 would require the governor to annually issue a proclamation declaring November 7 each year to observe Victims of Communism Day to honor the approximately 100 million souls who died at the hands of communist regimes. The bill also would require the history and social science Standards of Learning to emphasize the dangers of communism in classroom instruction.

    There may be legitimate reasons for objecting to the bill. But they are emphatically not the reasons given by the Virginia Education Association (VEA) representative shown in the clip above. Here’s a transcript of her remarks:

    The VEA opposes this bill. Four out of the five current communist regimes are in countries that are in Asia. We are concerned that this bill would subject Asian-American students to anti-Asian sentiments.

    (more…)

  • Virginia Math SOLs: Science vs. Common Core

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Rick Nelson

    Parents depend on schools to prepare their children with the skills needed in the global economy. In Virginia public schools, K-12 instruction is governed by the Standards of Learning (SOLs). Between 1995 and 2015, our math SOLs were based on “best practices” identified by scientists who study how the brain learns mathematics.  Listening to cognitive experts worked.  In national testing, Virginia’s math test scores rose to rank in the top 10% of the nation. (more…)

  • Tragedies in Charlottesville

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Loren Lomasky

    Poor University of Virginia, the bad luck just kept coming. In 2014 the campus was rocked by the story of a vicious gang rape perpetrated at one of the fraternities. “Story” is the operative word; it transpired that the Rolling Stone exposé was entirely fabricated. Three years later the alt right came to town. Although to the best of my knowledge no actual member of the university community took part in its marches, the image of troglodytic wielders of tiki torches spreading their menace across grounds was indelibly etched into the American imagination. And then came Covid.

    These were external inflictions, but on Nov. 13, 2022, the university experienced an unexpected trauma. On a bus returning from a cultural outing to Washington, DC, one student gunned down three others. UVA responded by sending teams of counselors across the campus to respond to the pain of those who had lost friends or classmates. The university has no special expertise in psychological healing, but to its credit it did what it could.

    Entirely different were alterations made to the academic mission. Backed by university president James Ryan, provost Ian Baucom decreed that no graded assignments be required from students until after the Thanksgiving break, that is, the close of term. What if periodic writing of papers is necessary to the integrity of the particular course? The question did not arise; upholding academic standards had no place on the administration’s priority list.

    In case these measures were insufficient to calm the atmosphere, Baucom also decreed that all fall semester classes were now to be graded as “Pass-No Pass.” At first glance this may not seem especially radical. Almost all colleges offer an option for students to take an occasional ungraded class. Typically that option will be elected so that one can try out a subject distant from one’s major without undue risk to the grade point average. That, however, is not at all like what the administration imposed. First, “Pass-No Pass” was not an option available to some students for some courses; everyone in every course was summarily included. Second, it was not a choice between a graded or ungraded course. Rather, all students would complete the class, find out in the fullness of time what grade had been assigned to them, and only at that point choose whether to keep the grade or simply receive credit for the course. Presumably the idea behind the policy – I say “presumably” because the administration is not often inclined to spell out its reasoning – is to minimize potential anxiety. Students need not worry about receiving an undesired grade because they can simply make it go away.

    One wonders, though, what effect this policy is likely to have on students’ incentive to study industriously and get the most they can out of the course. If the cost to them of liberally substituting club time for book time is reduced, perhaps to zero, it doesn’t take a savant to figure out the likely response. This is meant in no way as a criticism of UVA student conscientiousness; in my experience Hoos are hard to match. Rather, it is to observe that they, like the rest of us, rationally respond to the choices on offer. If professors’ standards are effectively removed from the equation by an administration telling students that they need not bear the consequences of shirking on study, then results are predictable. Students may enjoy enhanced party time but they will be less well-educated. (more…)

  • Times-Dispatch Omits Facts Instead of Including Them

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Jon Baliles

    Public safety is one of every locality’s largest and most important responsibilities. If the sidewalks, streets, and neighborhoods are not safe, people go to places where they are. Walkers, joggers, businesses, customers, and everyone else won’t go to places where they feel their safety in in jeopardy.

    At the same time, that responsibility of providing that level of safety of the people enforcing the law comes with the burden of being better than the people that are breaking the law and/or causing trouble. It is a two-way street. If you don’t have people enforcing the law, you will always have people breaking it, and then society and streets and neighborhoods break down, and chaos and despair follow. That’s a fact, even though some choose not to acknowledge it.

    What is disturbing is what happened on a downtown street last summer when a 911 call led to an encounter with two Richmond Police officers responding to the call and ended up in a takedown and arrest of a gentleman named Mr. Holley at the Maggie Walker Plaza on Adams Street.

    You can read the article about this by Luca Powell in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that ran on January 31, but it turns out that was a less-than-complete (to be generous) accounting of the facts. After the article ran, the Commonwealth’s Attorney felt compelled to write a lengthy and detailed email to the newspaper “to correct the inaccuracies and incomplete information. Had you taken the time to contact me directly, I would have provided you with the following information that would have resulted in a more informed and balanced article.”

    What should trouble residents of the City is that the story that was reported seems to have omitted more facts of the case than it included. Maybe that was on purpose, maybe it was just sloppy reporting and a lack of proper editing. But the fact that it drew rebukes from both the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and then a lengthy statement from the Interim Police Chief, Rick Edwards, suggests to me that important parts of the story that were omitted in the newspaper can be relayed in a forum like this newsletter where accuracy and counterpoint do not give way to space for ads and revenue. (more…)

  • Demonizing Dutta

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Not “remarkable”

    by James A. Bacon

    In early February an exchange took place during a State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting between Anne Holton and Suparna Dutta that highlights the massive leftward shift within Virginia’s Democratic Party. So outraged were militant leftists by Suparna’s remarks that Democratic state senators voted unanimously to reject her appointment to the SBOE.

    Did Dutta minimize the horrors of American slavery? Did she make racially charged statements? Did the dark-complected Hindu immigrant say anything that could be remotely construed as “white supremacist,” as one of her accusers described her? No, no, and no. She defended America’s key founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and that was a bridge too far.

    The exchange between Dutta and Holton arose during a discussion of the Youngkin administration’s revised standards for history and civics Standards of Learning. Holton honed in on a section of the document that described the “foundational principles” behind the standards.

    One of those principles stated, “The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are remarkable documents that provide the freedoms and framework for our constitutional republic.” Another stated, “Centralized government planning in the form of socialism or communist political systems is
    incompatible with democracy and individual freedoms.” (more…)

  • Energy Outcome Cloudy as Adjournment Looms

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Rube Goldberg is the best illustration when our General Assembly does energy policy bills.

    by Steve Haner

    With adjournment less than a week away, the 2023 General Assembly is a mixed bag for electricity consumers, with the Assembly seeming to release control to regulators in some areas but continuing to assert its tight control in others.

    Dominion Energy Virginia’s legislation to sweeten its authorized profit margin, which will not lower customer bills despite claims in its advertising blitz, passed the Senate but remains in trouble in the Virginia House of Delegates. A key House committee voted late last week to stick with a version of the bill that leaves the return on equity formula unchanged. (more…)

  • Government Actors Try to Deflect, Deny and “Move On” from Failures During COVID

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Courtesy CBS rendering of two CDC spring of 2021 survey findings about American high school girls reported Monday, Feb 13, 2022

    by James C. Sherlock

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is in full self-defense mode.

    CDC and the left backed, indeed insisted, upon social isolation during the pandemic.

    Now they deflect and deny agency in the consequences. They continue to try to insulate themselves from the catastrophic educational and mental health effects on children and adolescents of that social isolation.

    A weakened CDC Director is pledging to overhaul the agency and its culture, a backhanded admission of the unimaginably bad performance of CDC during COVID.

    The entrenched bureaucracy that is that agency and its culture is admitting nothing. They are counting the days until she leaves.

    So, if experience counts for anything, we pretty much know how the CDC “overhaul” will work out.

    Virginia is due for the same sort of review of state actions during COVID.

    The Northam administration stumbled badly at nearly every new turn after failing to either exercise or implement Virginia’s own pandemic emergency plan. Which was excellent and predicted nearly exactly the course of events.

    Then they tried to cover up the existence of that plan itself.

    I am not sure that such a review is forthcoming. If it is, it will be preemptively be declared political. It must be done anyway.

    The federal government, under progressive management, is “moving on.”

    Or trying to.

    I hope Virginia government does not make the same mistake. (more…)

  • Woke Army Puts American Hindu Mom in Its Crosshairs

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Suparna Dutta

    by Asra Nomani

    A Woke Army of far-left activists and leaders from the mosque that once hired radical imam Anwar Al-Awlaki put a mother in their crosshairs: Suparna Dutta, a brave immigrant who has advocated for the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, democracy, and meritocracy.

    In a reprehensible display of bigotry and xenophobia, Virginia Democrats voted on Tuesday, Feb. 7, to reject Suparna’s nomination to the Virginia Board of Education, after Sen. Ghazala Hashmi accused her of alignment with “white supremacy.”

    These are the new Southern Democrats — mimicking the bigotry of their predecessors.

    You can’t make this up.

    In a statement, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who nominated Dutta, criticized the “Democrats’ partisan rejection of qualified appointees,” including with the Parole Board and Board of Health.

    “In an appalling show of partisanship, today Senate Democrats attacked the integrity of three highly qualified members of my administration,” said Youngkin. (more…)

  • RVA 5×5: Needed Resources for Human Resources

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Jon Baliles

    Last week we had a story about a glut of open positions at Richmond’s City Hall and the difficulty in filling them. Lo and behold, the Richmond Free Press this week put out an article about the struggle to fill positions as the department responsible for filling those positions (Human Resources, aka HR) is upside down and employees are being told to reapply for their jobs. In case you didn’t read last week’s edition, the HR department has a lot of vacancies which makes it hard to fill any vacancy in any department. HR “is involved in every aspect of employee services, from hiring and retention to designing and administering classification, compensation and performance evaluations, overseeing employee data, handling employee grievances and providing training and development.”

    Think of it like a clogged sink — it takes forever for the water to get through. And reporter Jeremy Lazarus notes that word has leaked out that everyone in the department was “told at a staff meeting in early February and urged to reapply for new positions that are being advertised, but that there were no guarantees they would have jobs. But three department employees have separately told the Free Press that effective Friday, all of the remaining full-time employees are to be laid off except for the three top managers….”

    And one employee spoke directly but anonymously: “We’ve been told our department is the heartbeat of City Hall, but we’ve been left in the dark. None of us knows what will happen. Maybe we’ll all get rehired. Even so there will be fewer people left to do the work,” the employee said, as result of the transfers that have already taken place.

    “I don’t know how everything we’re involved with will get done,” one of the employees said. “The city is fortunate. Instead of running for the exits, for the most part, everyone has stayed on and kept focused on the work. But it becomes so stressful when the reward for loyalty is uncertainty and worry. This is not what we signed up for.”
    (more…)

  • Bias and Risk in Behavioral Polls and Studies – A Cautionary Tale for Public Policy

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Courtesy WebIndia

    by James C. Sherlock

    Here at BR, both the authors and commenters spend a great deal of time discussing the outcomes of behavioral polls and studies.

    Taxes, mandates, and bans are behaviorally informed. As are most public policies.

    But behavioral science adds levels of risk and bias much more prevalent than in the hard sciences.

    As a citizenry, we generally understand that polls that predict future behavior can prove unreliable because we see political polling.

    Most expect polls about how we feel about our lives to be imperfect, but not purposely so. Yet some polls are designed to support a specific political position.

    We probably understand a lot less about the risks and biases in behavioral studies that govern most public policy, because assessing them requires technical expertise most, including most elected politicians and political observers do not possess.

    Which is a key reason such policies often go wrong. (more…)

  • The Bill of the Year: Menstrual Search Warrants

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Monty Python’s Church Police, a famous sketch we can now watch being played out in Virginia politics.

    By Steve Haner

    Now here’s a phrase I never expected to type, even in a blog post: menstrual data. Looks like the 2023 Virginia General Assembly will be best remembered down the road for a silly bill that sparked a very avoidable stumble and then turned into a National Thing.

    Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) was even the target of well-publicized staged outrage from the Biden Administration, suddenly diverted from balloon- watching by a nationwide flood of search warrants seeking data on women’s periods. Except there don’t actually seem to be any such search warrants and there may not actually be any interest in such information. (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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