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County board member compensation bill introduced today

County board member compensation bill introduced today House Bill 4073 was introduced today. Provisions of that measure are included in the “Association” section of the newsletter. Here is the link to the measure.

The measure would provide a compensation increase for county board members as well as providing remuneration for mandatory training sessions board members attend. There are other provisions.

House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, is the lead sponsor.

Governor makes some education proposals, but not enough for everyone

Gov. Tomblin has presented the West Virginia Legislature with a proposed budget that is balanced without creating any new taxes and including $84 million in tax relief.

“Let me be clear that nothing is more important to creating good jobs than providing a world-class education for both our children and adult.” – Gov. Tomblin

Much of his State of the State address to lawmakers focused on economic development, and he tied education into that effort.

“Let me be clear that nothing is more important to creating good jobs than providing a world-class education for both our children and adults,” Tomblin said. “The world economy demands lifetime learning. We must start by refocusing our education system on the best interest of the student. If we want our children to have a future of their own choosing, we must meet their educational needs from the first day of school until graduation and beyond. We must elevate our aspirations and challenge one another to participate in the world as productive, income-earning members of society.”

The governor said an education efficiency audit recently completed by contractors has provided a better understanding of best practices being used in other states and identified ways to make West Virginia’s public education system more efficient. (The audit report is available on the governor’s website.)

“As a result of that work, we now have ideas that can save approximately $90 million for use in our education system every year,” Tomblin said. “These recommendations have the potential to eliminate overlap and allow our schools to work smarter and more efficiently. The audit identified potential areas where West Virginia can develop its own best practices.”

Among the audit’s recommendations he mentioned were:

• Using new technologies to assist rural communities;
• Giving local officials more authority over their schools;
• Using better methods for evaluating teachers;
• Enhancing the teacher mentoring program; and
• Compensating professional educators adequately.

“We cannot achieve all of these goals overnight,” Tomblin said. “But it is one of my highest priorities. Every West Virginian concerned about our education system needs to take the opportunity to review and discuss this report so we can begin to take advantage of its recommendations and do so in a way that is right for West Virginia.”

Governor proposes education reform bills.

The governor said he would introduce legislation incorporating student achievement into every teacher performance evaluation. “This bill will codify a pilot program currently in place and expand it to require yearly assessments of teacher performance,” Tomblin said. “It is a plan I believe can help make our good teachers great and identify a teacher who needs our help to be better.”

Another bill he intends to introduce would establish a pilot program to improve struggling local schools. “Under this pilot program, local administrators and educators will be granted flexibility to attract qualified teachers into those local schools in an effort to obtain better results for our students,” the governor said. “This legislation will be implemented in coordination with the Reconnecting McDowell Project, a public-private partnership involving over 40 organizations that will focus on everything from jobs and economic development, housing and transportation, technology and services for students and their families.”

Tomblin recognized in the audience in the House of Delegates chamber the presence of Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has played a leading role in instigating the Reconnecting McDowell Project to revitalize the school system in McDowell County. The governor also announced that Save the Children would match $1 million in state funds for that project with a $500,000 investment in McDowell County. Save the Children will partner with three elementary schools and their administrators to focus on literacy, he said.

“Children in rural counties should have the same chance to succeed as children who live in the most affluent areas of America.” – Gov. Tomblin

“Children in rural counties should have the same chance to succeed as children who live in the most affluent areas of America,” Tomblin said. “Because of this, I am confident that we will bring those opportunities to the children of McDowell County. I am also confident that these efforts will serve as a model of what we can do throughout the state when we work together.”

Tomblin wants action on OPEB.

One other topic mentioned by the governor that affects education is West Virginia’s liability for OPEB – other post-employment benefits, which mostly are health care benefits promised to current and future retirees from public-sector jobs. He praised the Finance Board of the Public Employees Insurance Agency, which took action last month to cap those benefits for retirees. That step cut the estimated OPEB liability from $10.3 billion to $5.3 billion.

“This was a significant effort led by a host of groups, including several unions,” Tomblin said. “I want to thank them for stepping up to the plate and helping to solve this issue. Today, OPEB is the last unfunded liability we have to face. And I will provide specific legislation this session to eliminate it once and for all.”

Getting OPEB under control would allow West Virginia to “reach the upper echelons of financial strength and stability,” he said, and it would help attract business investments to the state. Although he did not specifically say his legislation would declare most of the OPEB liability to be a state responsibility and take it off of the books of school districts, legislative leaders already have said they expect that provision to be part of the legislation. That is a big issue for school boards, which have fought the state all the way to the West Virginia Supreme Court to get that burden removed.

Lawmakers are cautious about governor’s proposals.

After the speech Wednesday evening, House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling said she was aware of what Tomblin wants to do to incorporate student achievement into teachers’ evaluations, because the governor’s office has worked with staff members from both the House Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee on that proposal.

“I think the component of using the student performance is new; specifically using it as a percentage of the evaluation is new, not that we didn’t use it before,” she said, but she acknowledged that incorporating student achievement into evaluations for teachers is not easy because information collected is not uniform from teacher to teacher.

“It is tricky, and if you have been tracking some of what’s been going on with states that took [federal] Race to the Top money and agreed to do teacher evaluations with a high percentage of student performance embedded, they’re having trouble implementing it and determining whether they really have good indicators of student growth,” Poling, D-Barbour, said. “Now in our model, I believe it’s 15 percent [of a total evaluation] on multiple measures and 5 percent on the standardized test, the WESTEST. A small part, but that forces everyone to take a look at it. One of the things that we have to work on with our WESTEST is to make sure that we can measure growth, not just proficiency, but where a student was when they started with that teacher and where the student is at the end of that time with the teachers. If the student is at the lower end of the spectrum and progresses one or two steps, even though they may not be proficient, they’ve grown. But we don’t know that our test measures growth; it measures proficiency.”

House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, said he was encouraged that Tomblin wants to include student achievement in teachers’ evaluations, because that is a key part of determining whether the education system is effective. “The main purpose of our education system is to make sure our students are prepared,’ he said. “Certainly, that has to be the primary focus of whether we’re being successful or not. If we have students who are not prepared for the workforce or not prepared to move on to higher education, then we need to address why they’re not, and that would be part of the evaluation process. Certainly, there are other components, but that one has to be one of the primary components.”

“Right now the hiring practices of teachers sometimes prevents the improvement of performance.” – Senate Minority Leader Mike Hall

Senate Minority Leader Mike Hall, R-Putnam, said he also likes the proposal to include student achievement in teachers’ evaluations and complimented the governor for considering it. “What he’s really saying, I think, is that right now the hiring practices of teachers sometimes prevents the improvement of performance,” Hall said and suggested that one out of every 20 or 30 teachers are not good at their jobs and should be encouraged to do something else for a living. “There needs to be a more streamlined way to evaluate that and help people improve or move on or actually come into the system if they’re good at it. And it’s very hard to do it given our current employment law, the way it’s structured, all the issues of seniority and so forth. It’s a very sticky wicket.”

Hall said the state didn’t need to spend about $750,000 on the audit to know that. However, he predicted there would be “a great deal of strife” over legislation to incorporate student performance into teachers’ evaluations.

Senate Education Vice Chairman Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, said lawmakers should study the education efficiency audit thoroughly before they address new education legislation. “I think what we really need to do is determine this session what is actually doable politically, frankly, and then focus on that,” he said. “One of the things we should all agree upon that came out of the audit is [enforcing a minimum school year of] 180 days, and we need to be serious that we’re paying folks to educate our students for 180 days, and they need to be in classrooms 180 days. This whole concept of having a snow day be counted as an instructional day is ripping off the taxpayers of West Virginia.”

Former first lady likes Tomblin’s proposals.

Gayle Manchin, wife of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and a member of the state school board, called Tomblin’s education proposals “a great start. Of course, I’m extremely excited about Reconnecting McDowell. That’s been very personal as a state school board member.”

In regard to the education efficiency audit, which her husband had called for when he was governor two years ago, Manchin said the school board would consider it carefully. “It’s a big audit, and it’s going to take a while to really go through and look,” she said. “But I think it’s given us a lot of great material to think about and reflect on.”

With Manchin was Randi Weingarten, the AFT president recognized by Tomblin during his speech. “I think that West Virginia is very focused on the things that are important to people: creating jobs, creating economic dignity, creating educational opportunity, creating a great environment,” Weingarten said. “And that’s what the governor’s speech was about. That’s what the education proposals were about. And that’s what we’re going to be digging deeply in when we do Reconnecting McDowell.”

Judy Hale, president of AFT’s West Virginia chapter, also was pleased that Tomblin talked about Reconnecting McDowell. “AFT has spent a lot of money, time and effort trying to create a model for rural education that works for kids, and I’m glad that the governor is supportive of that,” she said, but she was less pleased with other aspects of the address.

“While he mentioned teachers’ needing more money, he didn’t propose a salary increase, so I’m disappointed in that, because we’re so desperately in need of a salary increase because we’re so noncompetitive,” Hale said. “As a result, we are not able to put certified teachers in our classrooms. I have a friend who just came to Kanawha County to teach science the second semester. The students had had four substitutes the first semester. Kids don’t learn under those circumstances.”

However, she said, the governor did not rule out raising teachers’ pay, so there still is hope for that, and her union will continue to work for it. As a member of a Department of Education task force that has considered ways to evaluate teachers, Hale also expressed doubts about incorporating student achievement in teachers’ evaluations.

“The pilot that is out there – I am not sure there is enough data yet that tells us that it improves practice, that it is fair to teachers and good for kids,” she said. “Until we study the data and know that it is fair and good for kids, then I think we need to go carefully. This is not something you can do overnight. The state department is gathering data, and I want to see is it working, is it fair and does it make people better teachers for kids. When that data comes back, I think we’ll be in a position to talk more about what we do with that model.”

Yet Hale said that having student achievement account for just 5 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is a lower level than other states have tried to use, so that probably would not cause too much harm.

“Everyone agrees – the state board, research, the public, even the audit agrees – that we need to enhance teachers’ salaries. To not include it, to me, was just the wrong thing to do.” – WVEA President Dale Lee

Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, said he was “very dismayed” that Tomblin didn’t include a pay raise for teachers in the speech. “Everyone agrees – the state board, research, the public, even the audit agrees – that we need to enhance teachers’ salaries,” he said. “To not include it, to me, was just the wrong thing to do.”

Lee gave the governor credit for calling for action on OPEB, which he believes will include taking much of the liability off of the books of school boards, but he expressed concern about the proposal to include student achievement in teachers’ evaluations.

“The pilot project right now has a small portion based on student growth,” Lee said. “If it’s student growth and not a single test score, and it retains that small portion, then I think expanding the evaluation with some tweaks is a good thing to do. But the audit calls for 51 percent based on student achievement. That’s just the wrong thing to do. There are too many variables outside of teachers’ control. If we want to improve education in West Virginia, we really need to look at making everyone accountable for public education, not only teachers but administrators and students and some parents and elected officials.

“I never get discouraged during the State of the State, because I’ve learned over the years that it’s not what you start the session with, it’s what you end the session with.” – Bob Brown of WVSSPA

Bob Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, called the governor’s speech just a start. “I never get discouraged during the State of the State, because I’ve learned over the years that it’s not what you start the session with, it’s what you end the session with. I’m encouraged that he’s made a commitment to pilot and try some new ideas in McDowell County in conjunction with the McDowell initiative. He didn’t mention salaries, and I think that’s important as we move forward in West Virginia. But once again, it’s not what we start with; it’s what we end the session with.”

Senate president expects changes resulting from audit.

At the Issues and Eggs Breakfast sponsored by the Charleston Regional Chamber of Commerce the morning before the State of the State address, Senate President Jeff Kessler said he expects the Legislature to pass some education reforms based on the efficiency audit. “There are some things in there that I think need to be addressed,” he said.

Among the findings Kessler said he supports is requiring each district to have at least 180 instructional days during the school year, because students in some districts have been getting only about 160 days a year. If that means pushing the school year for students into the summer in a district like Preston County, which gets a lot of snow in the winter, so be it, he said.

“They need their fannies in the seat 180 days a year,” Kessler, D-Marshall, said. “I know it’s quality more than quantity [that counts], why not both?”

Kessler also supports the effort to address the OPEB liability, which he called “the last remaining major financial albatross” facing West Virginia. He said Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, is leading a Senate task force on that subject. Another member of that task force is Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, who led OPEB efforts when Tomblin was Senate president. Other members include Senate Finance Chairman Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, and Senate Minority Leader Mike Hall.

Kessler said that, once the Legislature addresses the OPEB liability, West Virginia will be poised to make more short-term advances.

When audience members at the breakfast submitted questions to legislators, one asked Delegate Meshea Poore, D-Kanawha, what can be done to reduce the high school dropout rate. She first said it would help if more parents would have greater involvement in their children’s education and volunteer at schools. Like Kessler, Poore also called for requiring all schools to have 180 days of instruction each year.

In response to a question about charter schools, Sen. Wells said he has become more pragmatic about that issue, which he has pushed in past years. He conceded that charter school legislation is not going anywhere this year, but he intends to continue discussing its merits.

“We don’t have competition when it comes to our schools,” Wells said. Teachers’ unions need to understand that not all teachers are the same, he said.

“We need to look at education as one of the major components of economic development,” Wells said. “It could be a win-win for everybody.”

Education chairman wants districts to have more technology choices

By Jim Wallace

It looks as though lawmakers might try to shake up the way West Virginia schools get computers and other classroom technology, based on comments made this week in a meeting of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability.

Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale told state Supt. Jorea Marple that he has “been very disappointed in how we handle state contracts on technology,” and he wants to make changes quickly. He specifically mentioned making it possible for schools to buy such devices as Apple iPads. Under the current process using a statewide contract for classroom technology, he said, the school system seems to take two steps forward and then three steps back.

“I’m real concerned about that, and I would like for you to come back with a package to us on what you’re planning to do on technology,” Plymale, D-Wayne, said.

Marple said she realized some people have expressed concern that Apple products are not included in the state contract, but if Apple wants to get its products into the schools, the company must make a bid to be included. Plymale interrupted her before she could finish her response.

“First off, I think what we’re doing is antiquated. I think the way we’re going about it from the state department is old school.” – Sen. Bob Plymale

“My position is this,” he said. “First off, I think what we’re doing is antiquated. I think the way we’re going about it from the state department is old school.”

Plymale said the approach might have worked in the 1990s, but it needs to be revamped now so school districts can buy a wider variety of items using state funding.  “Right now, we’re being an obstructionist to changing technology from the state side,” he said. “This was outlined in the [education audit] report pretty extensively. I’ve been saying it for a number of years. I’m really concerned, and I’d like to see us work on that this year.”

“We would be more than glad to come over with the audit in hand and with the process that we presently have in place and share that,” Marple replied. “We could share that with you and determine how we might do it better. Presently at the local level, there is a lot of flexibility in terms of using the local dollars to purchase what they desire to purchase.”

But Plymale argued that what counts is how districts get to use the large amount of state money available for technology purchases, not the smaller amount of local money.

“I don’t like any way you’re doing it,” he said. “We got to look at revamping this to allow technology to be purchased and embraced from every angle.”

Marple responded that it would be worthy to discuss why there is a statewide contract for classroom technology. She said the reason goes back to the Recht decision of the 1980s in which Circuit Judge Arthur Recht ruled in favor of equity of spending among the state’s school districts.

“The reason for a statewide contract is in order to allow counties who are not really competitive to be able to attract the lowest price, to be able to bid and secure the pricing at an equitable level that the McDowell counties and the Mingo and Wyoming counties can access as well as Kanawha County,” Marple said.

Once again, Plymale argued that was fine in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but the world has changed since then. “Just because we have the same people there that do contracts that way doesn’t mean that I think we should be looking at it from that standpoint,” he said.

Marple ended the discussion by saying, “We would be more than glad to review the processes and receive your input.”

Superintendent commits to following at least some audit recommendations.

The commission’s meeting came a few days after the release of an audit of West Virginia’s public education system. Marple said the Education Department was still studying the audit report, but officials were committed to working on the recommendations. “Any effort that will allow the department to be more efficient and more effective deserves careful consideration,” she said, adding that the department would have more to say about the audit after the state school board’s discussion of it on Thursday.

Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, said he heard some people in the department were concerned that the auditors did not understand West Virginia’s School Aid Formula.

“I think that within any comprehensive report this large there are things that may be factually incorrect,” Marple responded. “And I think that this is an opportunity for us to address those things that stakeholders believe are important to implement. And I think it ought to be viewed through a filter.”

That filter, she said, should be the state board’s goals. She suggested assembling “a lot of different stakeholders” and having them ask whether each recommendation would improve student achievement while doing no harm to school districts’ ability to attract and maintain teachers and school service personnel. 

“I’m trying to focus on what we need to retrieve from that report that’s good for children and good for our teachers and good for our school systems.” – Supt. Jorea Marple

“I think in any report of this size, there are things I’m concerned about, but I’m trying to focus on what we need to retrieve from that report that’s good for children and good for our teachers and good for our school systems,” Marple said.

Marple reports some success in curbing dropout rate.

In other business, she reported that the Legislature’s decision to raise the mandatory school attendance age has helped reduce the number of dropouts. Marple said 424 students, including 177 ninth-graders, dropped out of West Virginia schools at age 16 during the 2010-2011 school year, but no 16-year-olds had dropped out this year.

“So I think the legislation will have dramatic impact on keeping those children in school,” she said.

Marple said another way the department has attempted to curb the dropout rate is by assembling a task force that is meeting this month. It includes representatives from the Legislature, the judicial system and other partners, including higher education, the Education Alliance, parents, superintendents and principals, she said.

“We know that the better we get at instruction in the classroom that engages children the more likely children are to stay in school,” Marple said. “So over this past year, literally thousands upon thousands of teachers have engaged in professional development activities that provide them with opportunities to learn about, create and engage in interactive lessons.  We've been working diligently on the Common Core that will support instruction that is relevant to our children."

Establishment of the GED Option Pathway also has deterred some students from dropping out of school, she said.

Marple said she hoped lawmakers would appropriate money for a critical skills program, which helps students in danger of slipping behind their classmates catch up. She said the program serves more than 7,000 students in third grade and about the same number in eighth grade in sessions before the regular school day, after school and in the summer.

Districts find several ways to use extra funds.
 
Susan Smith, executive director of the Office of School Finance, told lawmakers that her office conducted a survey on how school districts have used the extra amount of money from the School Aid Formula made available to them in recent years. It’s what the Education Department calls “additional local share retainage.” The results were that:

• Eleven districts made new salary increases for the 2010-2011 school year.
• Another 21 used the funds to maintain previous salary increases.
• Forty-six used part of the funds to maintain current salaries at levels they were at prior to the change. Among those, 33 said they used at least some of the funds to maintain positions above the School Aid Formula, such as retaining positions even after student population levels had dropped enough that the formula no longer covers them.
• Finally, 27 districts used the funds for other operating costs, such as substitute teachers or maintenance.
   

House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, wanted to know how much expenditures per pupil varied as a result of having the additional local share retainage funds. Smith said the state average was $164.81. She said Wirt County had the lowest level of $74.44, while Pocahontas County had the highest at $370.92.

Poling said, "While the local share retainage gives counties some flexibility, it certainly creates a big inequity there." Smith agreed that it provides more funding for property-rich counties.

Delegate Bill Anderson, R-Wood, wondered if any districts had sequestered any of the funds for potential use in paying for OPEB liabilities. OPEB – other post-employment benefits – consists mainly of health care benefits promised to current and future retirees from public-sector jobs. The state has required school districts to carry a portion of that liability on their books, although legislative leaders have indicated they will rescind that requirement this year. (See State of the State story for more on that.) Smith said she saw no evidence that districts were setting aside local share retainage funds for OPEB.

“Of course not,” Plymale quipped. “They'd rather sue us.”

That was a reference to most school boards’ attempt to get the court system to order the state to assume the OPEB liability and not require the districts to carry it on their books.

Plymale also said lawmakers didn't envision that districts would use local share retainage funds to maintain positions over the School Aid Formula. He said he was concerned, because the counties also received federal stimulus funds during that time.

Report shows what counts in preparing for college

At a separate meeting of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability, Rob Anderson of the Higher Education Policy Commission reported on an assessment of student readiness for college or careers. The commission contracted with ACT, the college-testing company, to produce a series of High School-to-College Success Reports. They examine high school and district student profiles, along with statewide data. The latest report is for the graduating high school class of 2009. One year ago, ACT provided a similar report for the class of 2008.

Anderson, who is interim executive vice chancellor for administration, said the report contains what ACT calls college-readiness benchmark scores – the level of preparation a graduating high school senior needs to be successful without remediation in an introductory-level post-secondary course. Students who don’t require developmental courses have higher high school and college grade-point averages, he said.

Among the findings of the report are:

• When compared to the class of 2008, the average high school grade-point average for West Virginia college-going students rose from 3.30 to 3.31. First semester college GPAs rose from 2.58 to 2.59.
• College-going students meeting all of the ACT readiness benchmark scores had an average fall GPA of 3.12 compared to a 2.48 GPA for those students who did not meet all of the indicators. Unfortunately, only 17 percent of West Virginia’s college freshmen met the standards, which is equal to the previous year’s proportion.
• Across all test subjects (English, mathematics, reading and science), students with higher scores in each of the ACT College Readiness Standards’ ranges performed better during their first year of college.
• Students taking recommended core coursework in high school earned higher ACT scores and higher first-year college grades, and they were less likely to be assigned to developmental courses.

Anderson said his agency is hopeful that restructuring of remedial and developmental coursework, along with funding from Complete College America, will lead to improvements in the outcomes and fewer students who require developmental coursework.

After showing a chart illustrating the portion of West Virginia’s college-going students meeting each benchmark, he said, “Our figures continue to lag in both math and science, which is problematic considering the types of jobs these skillsets fill and the type of industry that proficiency in these areas would attract to our state. So definitely, we need more of our students advancing into the college ranks that are deemed proficient in mathematics and science.”

”We see, without exception, that those students that had more rigorous courses in high school have better success at the college level.” – Rob Anderson

In reference to charts showing performance in college courses matched to the high school courses math and science students had taken, Anderson said, “Once again, we see without exception, that those students that had more rigorous courses in high school have better success at the college level.”

The Higher Education Policy Commission has been working with the Department of Education to address the issue of college readiness, he said, and as a result, a team of public school teachers and higher education faculty has developed a transition mathematics course. The course was offered statewide this past fall to high school seniors who needed extra instruction to be deemed ready for college. Anderson said the agencies hope to have a transition English course ready to teach this coming fall.

Overall the findings in the latest report are very similar to those in past reports, he said. “It’s clear that we need to improve both our college readiness and performance in order to train a more prepared West Virginia that will meet our workforce needs moving forward,” Anderson said, and he pledged that his agency would continue working with the Department of Education.

When Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, asked why some students are lagging behind, Anderson said that’s difficult to answer. Browning said more needs to be done.

“We need to start looking at who we’re preparing for what,” he said. “In other words, if we have a child that’s on a college-bound track, we need to put that student in courses that will make him more successful. If you have students who aren’t on that particular track, let’s do something else with them.”

Delegate Linda Sumner, D-Raleigh, said she met a student who did well in high school advanced placement classes but found they had not prepared him for college courses. So she asked for a comparison of students who take high school AP classes and how they do in college.

Anderson said the agencies are merging the P-20 data, which include information on students from pre-kindergarten through their senior year in college. He said those data will allow them to parse out which AP classes prepared students to succeed and which ones didn’t.

“I see this report as being much more robust next year because of what we’re going to have data-wise,” Anderson said.

Plymale noted that legislators have heard a lot about the need for rigor for all students, particularly for those going into career and technology fields. For example, he said, those going into hydraulics need higher level math skills.

“It may be that we’re not teaching it the proper way,” Plymale said, suggesting that courses must be made more relevant. “The rigor has to be there; you just do it in multiple ways that you deliver it.”

Further, he said, “A high school diploma does not tell you that you’re ready for college or a career. I think that’s very evident in the report.” Plymale said all the figures show that only about 20 percent of high school graduates are really ready for college or careers.

Lawmakers want some improvements in education this year

By Jim Wallace

Two proposed bills, two proposed resolutions and several recommendations have come out of subcommittees that studied education issues during interim legislative meetings over the last several months. Lawmakers concluded their interim meetings early this week just before they began the Legislature’s 60-day regular session.

Education Subcommittee B recommended two bills dealing with alternative certification for teachers that members want the full Legislature to consider.  One would authorize teacher-in-residence programs, which Concord University has expressed interest in doing. The programs would have to be intensively supervised and monitored, as well as approved by the state school board. Participating individuals would be college seniors who already have passed the basic skills and content area licensure tests and meet certain other requirements. Each one would have to receive a teacher-in-residence permit and would be the teacher of record in the classroom. A teacher-in-residence would be paid a stipend equivalent to the salary and benefits for a beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree.
 
The other proposed bill would provide a method of alternative certification, so non-teachers with certain backgrounds could become teachers without having to go through the normal certification process. Both bills are intended to help school districts fill shortages in teaching positions.

Education Subcommittee A did not recommend any bills, but it did recommend that the Legislature should approve two resolutions. One would encourage the governor, the Legislature and the state school board to work together to implement the “10 Elements of Digital Learning.” The other would encourage the governor, the Legislature and the state school board to implement the Department of Education’s Career and Technical Education College and Career Readiness Initiative.

Education Subcommittee C issued eight recommendations intended to benefit students who are deaf or hard of hearing:

• Increase the salaries for educational interpreters to make salaries commensurate with education levels and experience, and to address the shortage of interpreters.
• Change the job title of “sign language specialist” to “sign support specialist” and prohibit persons in that role from being used as substitute interpreters, because their skills and roles are different.
• Establish policies for hiring substitute interpreters.
• Address clustering, so that, whenever possible, services are brought to the home school of a student rather than sending students from various schools to a single location where services are made available.
• Establish alternative options for defining “highly qualified” teachers of American Sign Language, rather than the current standard of having a master’s degree, so that more ASL courses could be made available to students.
• Increase accessible technology in schools, such as video phones in each school where there is a deaf student or a student with deaf parents.
• Encourage schools to improve general services to deaf students, such as placing a hearing student who signs in the same homeroom as a deaf student to facilitate peer communication for deaf students.
• Include a legislative proclamation with key elements of the model Deaf Child’s Bill of Rights, as developed by the National Association of the Deaf.

The same subcommittee also issued recommendations for attracting health care professionals to West Virginia and retaining them.

Full committee gets briefing on successful program.

The Joint Standing Committee on Education accepted the subcommittees’ recommendations. The committee also heard from officials of the about how it has helped students get to college and become successful. HSTA’s mission is to increase the number of African-American and underrepresented students in West Virginia who pursue degrees in health sciences and other majors in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Its mission also is to increase the number of health practitioners and advocates in medically underserved communities in West Virginia.

Ann M. Chester, director of HSTA, said the program has become a national model over its 17 years of operation.

“What we have is a program that increases the college-going rate among kids who don’t think about college.” – HSTA Director Ann Chester

“What we have is a program that increases the college-going rate among kids who don’t think about college,” she said. ”These kids are African-American, financially disadvantaged, the first in their families to go to college, and they’re rural kids.”

Students start in the program in ninth grade, continue through the 12th grade and get exposed to the target fields. Chester said about 96 percent of them go to college.

“Not only do they go to college, they stay in college,” she said. “Ninety percent of the time, they graduate. That’s phenomenal, and that’s because of all the people behind them.”

Chester said about 62 percent of them choose careers in science, technology, engineering or math, while only about 20 percent of members of the general, college-going population choose such careers. She said many of the HSTA students work on health projects, which make people in their communities healthier. The program also retains brains in West Virginia, because 90 percent of the HSTA students stay in the state.

“Our kids stay in the state,” Cathy Morton-McSwain, assistant director, said. “They stay in the state, and they give back.”

More than 80 of the HSTA students have become teachers, and 25 of them have master’s degrees, she said.

HSTA students receive tuition waivers from all state universities and colleges if they meet several criteria:

• Attend weekly, after-school meetings;
• Complete and present a yearly science project;
• Attend two summer institutes that last one to three weeks;
• Maintain at least a 3.0 grade-point average;
• Take science, technology and health-related field trips;
• Complete 75 hours of community service;
• Attend an annual HSTA Science Symposium; and
• Matriculate from four years of participation.

Summer Kuhn, a HSTA participant from Raleigh County, offered herself as an example of what the program can do. She said her father quit school after ninth grade, and her mother graduated high school and had a little bit of college. But Kuhn said she is the first member of her family to complete college, and her four younger siblings are following a similar path.

“Without this support, I would not have gone to college,” she said and added that her siblings probably wouldn’t have either. “Here are five children touched by this program.”

Kuhn said she can go on to do things her parents didn’t consider when they were in their early 20s.

Education system tries to prepare students for Marcellus industry

By Jim Wallace

A new study has come up with ways West Virginia’s public education system could help prepare more students to go into jobs being created by oil and gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. The state Department of Education contracted with World-Class Industrial Network to develop the study.

Kathi D’Antoni, assistant state superintendent in the Division of Technical, Adult and Institutional Education, told members of the Joint Commission on Economic Development this week that the West Virginia study follows one done in Pennsylvania. She said the industry is becoming more capital-intensive and technically sophisticated, and it is drilling more horizontal wells and more wells that are deeper than previous ones.

Other trends are that most activity is condensing in central and northern West Virginia, and it’s being done mainly by larger companies that have swallowed up smaller companies, D’Antoni said. Projections show it takes about 450 jobs and 150 different occupations to drill one well, she said.
 
The study’s key recommendations include:

• Develop a high-level partnership between the educational system and industry to define clearly what is expected of the education and training institutions and to define boundaries between training undertaken by companies in-house versus training that is the responsibility of secondary schools, community colleges and universities.
• The partnership should include industry financial support to supplement public resources, be it via the provision of equipment and expertise or via grants targeted at specific projects.
• The secondary system and community colleges should coordinate their activities and leverage each other’s resources to meet the challenge of developing skilled personnel to supply the oil and gas industry in West Virginia. A joint committee should be formed with representatives of the Division of Technical, Adult and Institutional Education and the community college system to manage the relationship of the education and training sector with the industry.
•  A position should be created within the Division of Technical, Adult and Institutional Education to function as a fulltime liaison with the industry.
• Programmatic recommendations include: 1) Review existing courses of study (in areas such as mechatronics and engineering technologies) with the industry to ascertain how they can be adapted (if necessary) to meet the needs of oil and gas companies; 2) Consider the creation of a Petroleum Technology Associate Degree; 3) Consider adding a second location to the Appalachian Basin Oil & Gas Training Center in the Northern Panhandle; and 4) Monitor the progress of the ShaleNet initiative and consider having a few institutions in northern counties become licensed as ShaleNet training providers.

D’Antoni said the intent is to develop skill sets and pathways for students, especially for medium-skill jobs. She said companies need workers who can get jobs done quickly, and when they can’t find such workers locally, they send for them to come in from other states. Although some jobs require college education, she said, about 70 percent of the jobs in the industry could be filled by students from secondary career-tech centers. But D’Antoni said she learned from some industry officials that it’s important sometimes for students to go beyond the confines of those schools.

“They said to me it’s one thing to learn to weld in a 72-degree building with nice surroundings and then walk out into a field that’s heavy deep in mud and the wind’s blowing and it’s about 30 degrees outside,” she said. “Some of these folks they have, they put them on a job and within an hour, they say, ‘I’m out of here.’”

In response to that situation, D’Antoni said, her agency is trying a “CTE reality model” in which companies have agreed to bring portable welding trucks to the tech centers to let kids see what it’s like working in the field.

“We are using this information to change and adapt and to add to our career-technical career pathways. I think we’re on the right track.” – Kathi D’Antoni

“We are using this information to change and adapt and to add to our career-technical career pathways,” she said. “I think we’re on the right track.”

D’Antoni said a career pathway that will develop the skill sets students need should be ready to be put into practice at career-technical centers by August. She said it would expose them to a wide range of jobs in the industry and then let them pursue their specific interests.

Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, said, “I think each of those tech center directors ought to be mandated to do an interest inventory of their county, particularly for Marcellus Shale.” But he also worried about whether students would have the right training as the needs of the industry change.

“We want to see our West Virginians have the ability to get those jobs,” Prezioso said. “We have to have the ability to look into the future a little bit and see where this industry is going and prepare our West Virginia workers to meet those needs.”

D’Antoni agreed. She said that’s why her agency began two years ago to have a group of business, industry and labor officials meet twice a year to look at the curriculum.

“You can’t gear up specifically for one industry, because that industry downsizes, and then you got students that are without jobs,” D’Antoni said. “So what we are finding across industries and across businesses in West Virginia – the mining, manufacturing – that there are a set of foundation skills needed by all of those.”

Companies offer some assistance.

Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, asked if the companies are doing anything to help replace obsolete equipment to train the students. D’Antoni said they are, such as bringing portable welding units and other equipment to the schools for students to use.

“It’s not to the extent that I’d like to see it, but those conversations are being had,” she said. “And I think business and industry are starting to see that, if this is what they want, they are going to have to help us get there with the equipment.”

D’Antoni said one reason why companies often bring in workers from out of state is that they have three-week turnaround times to get jobs done and don’t have time to train new workers. She said the state is trying to get ahead of that by offering an employer portal that lists skill sets students have on a website, as well as contact information to reach the students. “It just started, so we have great hopes that this will help,” D’Antoni said.

But she said getting students trained in the right skills is not the only challenge. “Drug testing is a huge problem,” she said, adding that one well had 250 applicants for jobs but only 25 passed the drug test. However, it’s not limited to the oil and gas industry, D’Antoni said, because officials in every industry have been complaining about that.

“It is a major issue, but it’s not West Virginia,” she said. “It is nationally.”

Chancellor Jim Skimore of the community and technical college system told lawmakers that his agency conducted needs surveys of the oil and gas industry in 2006. He said West Virginia Northern Community College and Pierpont Community and Technical College provide most of the training for that industry, and the companies are helping with some funding for it.

Browning encouraged the community and technical college system to collaborate with the state Department of Education to coordinate training programs.

--Jim Wallace is a former government reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail and former news director of West Virginia Public Radio. He now works for TSG Consulting in Charleston and writes for several national and West Virginia publications.

News Media Roundup

The following is a compilation of news media articles relating to public education in the Mountain State.

Mercer County Prepares for Truant Hearings
http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=23448

W. Va. District that Fired Athletic Director Won’t Release Audit Detailing Financial Problems
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/073451a4d4ca422c94d39b8d1012bcba/WV--AD-Fired/

School to Establish Mental Health Facility
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/564188/School-to-Establish-Mental-Health-Facility.html?nav=510

Possible Layoffs Topic of JCBOE Meeting
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/573375/Possible-layoffs-topic-of-JCBOE-meeting.html?nav=5006

Vargo New School Superintendent
http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/564104/Vargo-New-School-Superintendent.html?nav=515

Fayette County Board Elects a President
http://www.register-herald.com/local/x2146228052/Fayette-County-board-elects-a-president

Closures Mean Elementary Students will go to Class in High School
http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/201201110185

Harts Pre K-8 Opens; Dingess Describes Excitement; Matthews, Smith Welcome Opening
http://lincolnjournalinc.com/harts-pre-k-opens-dingess-describes-excitement-matthews-smith-welcom-p7743-1.htm

Teachers Work to Help Stop Bullying
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/573500/Teachers-work-to-help-stop-bullying.html?nav=5006

Huntington Young Professional Committee Takes Community Efforts to Weed and Seed
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x109182199/Huntington-Youth-Professional-Committee-takes-community-efforts-to-Weed-and-Seed

Mon County BOE Moves Toward “Reduction in Force”
http://www.wdtv.com/index.php/home/local-news/11564-leave-them-teachers-alone

Raleigh School Officials Decide to Bring in Chefs
http://www.register-herald.com/local/x2146230151/Raleigh-school-officials-decide-to-bring-in-chefs

Students Combine Skills to Make Stained Glass Window
http://www.wowktv.com/story/16500960/students-combine-skills-to-make-stained-glass-window

Turner Rallies for Open Prayer
http://www.tylerstarnews.com/page/content.detail/id/508219/Turner-rallies-for-open-prayer.html?nav=5008

Warner Continuing Duties on School Board
http://www.mydailyregister.com/view/full_story/17080260/article-Warner-continuing-duties-on-school-board?instance=home_news_lead

Students Build and Launch Rockets with NASA Visitor
http://www.jacksonnewspapers.com/photos/x449148928/Students-build-and-launch-rockets-with-NASA-visitor