EDUCATION: Let Virginia Give Every Child Every Chance, Every Day

Most educators are committed to the idea of giving every child every chance to succeed every day in our public schools. Yet Virginia's 2009 on-time graduation rate, released Tuesday, reveals an alarming achievement gap for a state whose minority and low-income populations are increasing. Left unaddressed, these data portend a rocky economic future for the commonwealth.

Virginia's on-time graduation rate measures the number of students who leave high school with a diploma in four years. Troublingly, the outcome is very different depending on where a student lives, and whether a student is a minority or low-income student. Many of the school divisions with the lowest on-time graduation rate are among the most resource-challenged in Virginia and have high concentrations of poverty. For example, in Hopewell, Lee, Portsmouth, Petersburg, and Roanoke, at best only two out of three students made it to graduation day in four years. In Petersburg and Portsmouth, more than one in five students dropped out altogether.

State policymakers have a major role to play in eliminating this opportunity gap. The Board of Education has resisted recent proposals to reduce the Standards of Quality in ways that are not educationally justified. But the board has no power to tax or spend. The governor and General Assembly must fully fund what the board prescribes if all Virginia school divisions will have the inputs needed to graduate all students. Right now, Virginia leaves much of the burden for funding education on localities, and this increases inequities.

Considering that each new graduate gains the commonwealth $582,210 in reduced social service, health, and crime expenditures and increased state and federal tax revenues, increasing the number of graduates should be priority No. 1 for policymakers faced with balancing the budget and improving Virginia's economy. That means full funding for the Standards of Quality, investment in preschool and K-12 programs that serve students at risk of educational failure, and incentives for highly effective teachers to work in hard-to-staff school divisions.

State policymakers also should look to Martinsville, where, despite facing the highest rate of unemployment in the state, the dropout rate was 1.9 percent, well below the state average. State leaders should understand how communities like Martinsville achieve these results, and help to replicate and sustain the lessons learned in other low-income communities.

Not all solutions to the dropout problem are expensive. Across the commonwealth, schools are punishing students by denying them access to education. In 2008-09, Virginia schools issued suspensions and expulsions at a rate of 1,158 per school day. Common sense tells us that depriving these students of instruction negatively impacts graduation rates. Indeed, the American Psychological Association and the American Bar Association reported that punishing students by denying them an education does not make schools safer, and leads to dropping out.

The Virginia Department of Education also reported that students who "repeated grades, who were frequently absent, and attended multiple schools were more likely to drop out." Suspension forces students to be absent from school, can result in repeating grades, and leads to transitions in and out of school or to and from alternative programs.

Fortunately, we do not have to choose between safe schools and denying students access to classrooms. Several Virginia schools have implemented solutions such as positive behavioral support programs, including Virginia's Effective School-Wide Discipline program. Schools implementing ESD report a reduction in the need for suspensions, and less time spent addressing behavioral issues.

A quick scan of the mission statements of Virginia school divisions reveals a common theme: from "learning for all," to "every child, every chance, every day." Presumably, schools adopt these mottoes because they believe that all students can learn and should be educated. A true commitment to "every child, every chance, every day" means foundational funding by the commonwealth to ensure that, no matter the locality, every school and every teacher can meet the diverse needs of students. It also requires effective discipline policies at the local level so schools can meet those needs for every child, every day.

Virginians will go to the polls in less than two weeks to vote in a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and House of Delegates. No doubt the candidates have claimed to make education a priority. Let us make sure our elected officials keep this focus every day they are in office.

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To access the 2009 cohort data for your school, school division, and the commonwealth, go to http://www.vastudents.org.
Sarah Geddes is a staff attorney with the JustChildren Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Contact her at (804) 643-1086 x110 or .