New Profile of a Virginia High School Graduate: A Research Brief

Guided by recommendations from the Standards of Learning Innovation Committee - a group of educators, policymakers, and community members charged by the Virginia Secretary of Education with furthering PK-12 education in the Commonwealth - the Virginia General Assembly has recently passed legislation through House Bill 895 and Senate Bill 336 directing the Board of Education to redefine the “Profile of a Virginia Graduate.” The legislation indicates that beginning with the freshman class of 2018, students receiving a diploma in the state of Virginia must adhere to new graduation standards that include life skills that could potentially enhance the academic, civic, and social/emotional competencies of those entering post secondary education and the workforce. Ultimately, the purpose of the legislation is to ensure that Virginia high school graduates leave high school “life ready. According to State Senator John C. Miller, “The vision ... is that both college-bound and career-bound students will be much better-prepared to enter the workforce or to be successful in college.” However, in order to get students to that point it is necessary to know more about what resources will be required as well as what the intended and unintended consequences are of changing graduation standards. The purpose of this research brief is to provide background on the origins of the reform, summarize the rationale for the revised state high school graduation requirements, outline the timeline for implementation of the new standards, and explore the current research relevant to this policy initiative

Cultural Diversity Professional Development for Teachers: A Research Brief

Many regions of the United States have experienced rapid shifts in the racial and ethnic makeup of the population over the past decade. As a result, many of the nation’s schools have undergone significant changes in student demographics. This includes growth in the numbers of Asian, Hispanic, and multi-racial students.1 Regionally, enrollment data reflect this demographic change (figure 1). It is also worth noting that these demographic changes are more dramatic in some schools and communities than others. Aggregate data for the region shows the largest growth in the population of Hispanic students, which increased from 2.98% of the population in the 2003- 04 school year to 10.23% in the 2015-16 school year. This demographic shift has increased the cultural and language diversity of our schools

Reading and Math Interventions at the Secondary Level: A Research Brief

Starting in the early 2000’s with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, federal and state education authorities promoted the use of accountability policies that require schools to meet certain measures of academic progress overtime. Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) and Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) have become the new measure of school success. These policies rely heavily on students’ Math and Reading achievement at particular benchmark grades, leading local educational agencies (i.e. school divisions) to place increased emphasis on the reading and math results of state-mandated testing. In Virginia, pressures to meet AYP and AMOs by improving school performance on the Standards of Learning assessments – especially in academically underperforming schools – has to led to the adoption of various reading and math interventions designed to support student learning. While there is some broadening of school success criteria in the newly authorized Every Student Succeeds Education Act, it is likely that achievement in math and reading will still be a top priority in our education system. Therefore, even amidst changing policy, the importance of identifying and implementing effective interventions still exists. At the secondary level, reading and math interventions play a unique role in student achievement. While there may be students that struggle with math and reading at the secondary level, in most cases secondary course work has moved beyond these basic skills. For example, high school English classes are literature-based, and the teachers at this level are not trained to teach reading skills. For this reason, many local school divisions have had to develop interventions that restructure the form and the content of the curriculum, and draw on new resources for addressing these needs. Strategies include increasing instructional time in math and reading, integrating math and reading skills across the curriculum, and purchasing off the shelf curriculums, many of which are computer based. However, while the implementation of interventions has been widely accepted, some ambiguity still exists around which programs are most effective for school divisions to implement with their students1 . With hundreds of reading and math interventions available to school divisions, it can be challenging to select the most appropriate intervention for local schools. As a result, divisions often adopt multiple interventions that can sometimes appear to be fragmented. In accordance with the Regulations Establishing Accrediting Standards for Public Schools in Virginia (SOA), the Virginia Board of Education has published a list of recommended instructional interventions. While this list is beneficial, it still provides school divisions with a potentially overwhelming number of intervention options and provides little evidence that demonstrate their efficacy.1 As a result, school divisions are left to do their own research to decide which option is most appropriate to implement with their students

Who Takes Dual Enrollment Classes? A Research Brief

This research brief from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) explores three questions: 1) What are Dual Enrollment classes? 2) Who takes Dual Enrollment classes? and 3) What strategies promote greater access to Dual Enrollment? An accompanying podcast episode is linked in the research brief

A Review of Disciplinary Interventions in K12 Public Education

As a part of the Achieving Racial Equity in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices study from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, this literature brief offers an overview of school discipline interventions in K12 public education. This includes more punitive models that have been used in the past that have contributed to racial disparities in discipline outcomes, including corporal punishment and zero-tolerance policies. Additionally, this brief offers an overview of four prominent alternative approaches to school discipline: Trauma Informed Care, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and Restorative Practices. The literature brief offers the history, theory of action, and evidence of effectiveness for each alternative discipline approach and offers a discussion of how to effectively implement them in schools. Implications for the Commonwealth of Virginia are discussed throughout the brief

Podcasting as a Dissemination Method for a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership

Researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) present opportunities to conduct studies that support evidence-based decision-making for participating school divisions (Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013). Doing this work effectively requires ongoing input from key stakeholders, attention to the local impact of the research, and targeted dissemination to audiences who can benefit from the findings (Tseng, 2012). Research dissemination methods typically include written reports, but constantly evolving media platforms show promise for sharing findings in engaging and innovative ways (Voithofer, 2005). This paper discusses the development and apparent impact of a podcast for a metropolitan RPP to disseminate research findings and other information pertinent to the priorities of partnering school divisions, with implications for broader conversations about exploring issues in public, PK-12 education

One in Eight: Deciding to Pursue a College-Going Possible Self in a High-Poverty High School

There is considerable research evidence suggesting that low-income, racial minority students value education and aspire for postsecondary educational attainment (Bloom, 2007; Destin & Oyserman, 2009; Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). However, their performance in school often does not align with those values and ambitions, as these students tend to underachieve in comparison with their higher-income, non-minority peers (Reardon, 2011), with particular gaps found in those attending schools of concentrated poverty (Rowan, 2011). This gap between educational ambition and attainment suggests that the experience of living and going to school in a high-poverty context could be related to the motivational processes driving these students to pursue college. Using a conceptual framework overlapping expectancy-value theory and possible selves, the present multiple case study of six Urban Public High School (UPHS) students aspiring to four-year college explored how they made decisions about pursuing their postsecondary ambitions. Participants’ descriptions of their pursuit of college revealed themes related to who they did and did not want to become in the future, and outlined their expectancies, values, and perceptions of costs associated with becoming a first-generation college student. Socializers in and out of school influenced students’ perceptions of possible selves and decision-making processes. Results revealed how avoidance possible selves motivated students’ pursuit of college, how social incongruence among peers at UPHS made the pursuit more challenging, and how students with high expectancies and values for going to college still sometimes doubted whether they would ultimately go. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations of the study, are discussed

Capturing the Social/Emotional World of Students

The goal of this report is to explore the possibilities using student social emotional measures withing K-12 schools. This will include (1) a discussion of what constitutes a social emotional measure, (2) an overview of commonly used measures, and (3) a discussion of how these measures may inform school improvement processes and promote the success of students at the classroom, school, school system, and community level

Using Social Emotional Data for School Improvement: A Case Study of Goochland County\u27s Use of the Gallup Student Poll

This case study presents a profile of a school division, Goochland County Public Schools in Virginia, that has not only recognized the value of measuring student social emotional development, but has become a regional leader in the effective use of student social emotional measures for guiding practice as well as broader school improvement processes. The case study, which focuses on Goochland County\u27s use of data from the Gallup Student Poll (GSP) over the past several years, is based on a series of interviews with principals and school leaders conducted during the spring of 2015. The case study includes an overview of the GSP, information about the initiation of the GSP in Goochland county,and then explores how this survey has impacted the county\u27s work with students, how it has supported their 2014-2020 strategic plan, and what future directions they see for use of this data. The purpose of this case study is to share Goochland\u27s story as a way of exploring how social emotional measures can be used in meaningful ways to impact educational processes and ultimately student learning and success

Contexts of Cultural Diversity Professional Development in Schools

This report is part of a larger MERC study on Professional Development for Success in Culturally Diverse Schools.The goals of the larger study are (1) to understand the landscape of diversity within the schools in the MERC region, (2) to consider the implications for school policy and professional practice, (3) to review the current models of professional development that support teachers and other school professionals in regards to issues of cultural diversity, and (4) to develop and test models of professional development that have positive impacts on teacher practice, student outcomes and overall school success. With these goals in mind, this report contains three parts. Part 1 discusses demographic changes in the MERC region and provides historical, political, social, and economic contexts for understanding these changes. Part 2 describes the federal, state, and local policy contexts relevant to cultural diversity within schools, and professional development (PD) related to this topic. This section also reviews research on how policy contexts shape teachers’ decisions to participate in PD. Part 3 reviews existing studies of cultural diversity PD and describes the types of PD programs currently available in the MERC region. In the conclusion to the report, we present a list of recommendations for policy and and for future development and implementation of PD related to cultural diversity. The final section of the report also describes gaps in the existing body of knowledge and the research needed to better understand PD related to cultural diversity