New figures show the size of savings to the state if a funding cap for school support staffers remains. The state Board of Education is to make a final recommendation on the issue by November.

State Superintendent of Instruction Patricia I. Wright told lawmakers this morning that she is “very comfortable” that the Virginia Board of Education will keep the 3rd grade history assessment.

Bowing to pressure, the state superintendent of public instruction has abandoned her proposal to end the third-grade history and social studies Standards of Learning test. The proposal drew a bipartisan outcry from legislators and objections from parents, educational groups and textbook publishers. Superintendent Patricia I. Wright said she made the proposal to save about $380,000 a year and because she thought third-graders were being tested too much.

Responding to economic realities and changing testing methods, the Virginia Board of Education is considering scrapping the third-grade history/social studies assessment. State educators say the content that students learn from kindergarten through third grade would be incorporated into the third-grade reading test instead. But the idea didn’t sit well with some board members yesterday. After hearing multiple pleas to leave the test as is, they asked Department of Education staff members to explain exactly how the material would be woven together.

Virginia is in talks with Maryland and Washington about seeking part of an additional $5 billion in stimulus money that will be awarded to states most aggressively trying to improve student achievement. State educators are working with their regional counterparts to devise a joint proposal to win part of the competitive grant money offered by the federal Department of Education, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said yesterday.

Kiyoko Timmons can think of a thing or two she’d like to change about public school education. Unlike most students in central Virginia, she’s in a position to do something about it. The senior at Richmond Community High School is one of 12 students statewide chosen to serve on the Virginia Department of Education’s Student Advisory Committee. She’s the only representative from the Richmond area.

Disparity exists among the state’s 134 school divisions in measuring student grades. Most Richmond-area districts have similar grading scales, but there are differences, especially on what constitutes failing.