Tag: Matt Hurt
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Finally, a Law to Help Teachers!
by Matt Hurt This year HB568 was introduced in the General Assembly. The bill aims to reduce the amount of work required by educators to comply with the Virginia Literacy Act by leveraging technology. If enacted, this law would significantly reduce the time teachers and reading specialists spend on paperwork, allowing them to devote more time…
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Best of Intentions, Unintended Consequences
by Matt Hurt Maintaining an appropriate level of orderliness in school is a delicate, nuanced balance when done well. Without discipline learning can’t take place. Good teachers are loath to remain in schools that do not maintain appropriate student behavior. Students respond to some practices by some teachers and administrators, and run roughshod over others. Many…
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New School Accountability System Could Use Some Tweaking
by Matt Hurt In December JLARC released a report on the School Performance and Support Framework (SPSF), Virginia’s new accountability system. The report states that the new system is better than the old Accreditation system, but improvements are needed. From the perspective of an educator who has spent the last twenty years focusing on student outcomes and…
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Factors Impacting Teacher Vacancies
by Matt Hurt Last week Jim Bacon published an article about the fact that our teacher vacancy rate problem is not all about salary, and I agree that other factors also contribute to this problem. Jim also posited that “It’s caused by teachers dropping out of the profession because they think their jobs suck,” and…
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We Need More Teachers!
by Matt Hurt Chris Braunlich (Bait and Switch: Reform Reverts to Mo’ Money) brought up many good points about some bills that propose to increase teacher salaries. However, it seems necessary to add some additional context to help flesh out this conversation/debate. It appears that many don’t fully understand the gravity of the situation. On…
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2023 School Success Stories
by Matt Hurt According to the SOL data from the end of the 2022-2023 school year, thirty-four Virginia schools (of three hundred seventy-seven) in the Comprehensive Instructional Program (CIP) consortium achieved the highest level (Level I) for all academic indicators the state uses for accreditation. The intended purpose of these performance benchmarks is to ensure…
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The Most Improved Virginia School Division in 2023
by Matt Hurt In a previous paper (Tales of Student Success in 2023) the successes of four of the top five divisions that realized the greatest improvement in SOL pass rates in 2023 were highlighted. Since then, I was afforded the opportunity to visit Greensville County, the division that realized the greatest improvement in Virginia.…
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Tales of Student Success in 2023
by Matt Hurt Virginia Standards of Learning test results remained rather flat from 2022 to 2023 (see Table 1). This occurred despite the fact that many considered the pandemic over. There were many contributing factors, such as (but certainly not limited to) worsening teacher shortages and continued high rates of chronic absenteeism. However, among Virginia’s…
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Restoring Trust in Institutions
by Matt Hurt Over the last several years, it has become widely accepted that trust in our institutions has declined. Ultra-tribalism has infected almost every aspect of public discourse, which has certainly enriched the war chests of our politicians on both sides of the aisle. On April 20, 2023, the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE)…
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Increasing Teacher Vacancy Rates
by Matt Hurt The teacher vacancy rate in the Commonwealth has become such a problem that the Virginia Department of Education created a database to track this problem. The Staffing and Vacancy Report found on the Education Workforce Data & Reports page of the VDOE website displays unfilled Virginia educator positions at the state, region,…
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Virginia’s PreK-12 Educational Goals?
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…
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Educational Expectations
by Matt Hurt Since the Region VII superintendents initiated the Comprehensive Instructional Program in 2014, we have annually identified our top five most successful teachers of our most at-risk students in each SOL-tested course. In their classes, at least 50 percent of students were economically disadvantaged, and they also had a significant number of students…
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Just-in-Time Remediation for Kids Who Fall Behind
by Matt Hurt There have always been students who have evidenced a year or more delay in their independent working ability. Unfortunately, our educational response to the pandemic of closing schools and offering virtual instruction has made this problem significantly worse (more on that here). Today there are significantly more students who are a year…
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Teachers Are Critical to Student Success
by Matt Hurt Twenty five years ago, the demand for teaching positions was not sufficient to supply the employment needs of newly-minted teachers. It was common in many divisions for teachers to serve for at least a year or two in an hourly instructional aide position before finally earning the coveted teaching contract. For whatever…
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Virginia’s Student “Growth” Model Stunts Achievement
by Matt Hurt Virginia’s system for accrediting public K-12 schools has engendered some concern since the release of school accreditation data on September 19. While students exhibited lower proficiency during the 2022 school year than in 2019, as measured by Standards of Learning test scores, the percentage of schools meeting the requirements for full accreditation…