Dear House of Delegates, I am disheartened by the lack of high expectations and standards for Virginia’s schools. Many politicians and people believe throwing money at the issue will fix it. Nope Where are the parents, guardians of the students who are being disruptive and causing harm? It was Never about the salary! It was always about the poor policies, low standards and expectations for the students. Stop making excuses for some and not the others. All schools must follow The Student Code of Conduct. Fact: there are teachers and administrators who are too lazy to follow the policies and be consistent. I refuse to let this go because I know we must be fair. Schools that allow bad behavior instead of discipline and accountability are shameful. Look at our society now. Please stop covering up bad behaviors with low standards, excuses, and now metal detectors. Stop lowering standards in one place and raising standards in another. Encourage hard work and dedication without government dependency. Please stop dividing us into groups based on race, religion, gender, etc. Where is the home?

The Virginia Association of School Superintendents stands in support of HB 1604, HB 1829 and HB 1831. Thank you Dr. Tom Smith VASS

The idea of a Virginia Numeracy Act is a good one. However, there are several concerning features of HB 1829. 1) The motive behind the Virginia Literacy Act was pedagogical -- move away from Lucy Calkins and balanced literacy toward a science-based literacy program. A Virginia Numeracy Act should make the same commitment to moving toward a science-based/evidence-based program for math. Unfortunately, this bill does not. Instead, it calls for the same nebulous “best practices” in math instruction that have led to disappointing US student math performance over the last decade. This bill should embrace the Science of Math, just as VLA embraced the Science of Reading. 2) Funding within this bill should be provided to programs that directly serve students, not ones which expand government bureaucracy. There is no need to establish an Office of Mathematics Improvement with 13 new FTE when there is already an existing VDOE Math Office. If more math staff is needed, VDOE should be able to reallocate staff internally. 3) Any Mathematics Advisory Task Force should include parents, business representatives, community members, and STEM professors at four-year universities to ensure diversity of thought and perspectives; the current bill fails to do this. 4) The bill waters down the math requirements for an Advanced Studies diploma, allowing math-lite courses like Data Science/Data Literacy to replace Algebra 2. This is a mistake. Without taking Algebra 2 in high school, students will lose the ability to major in STEM or other quantitative fields in college. Why would we want to curtail students’ future career options? Thank you for your consideration.

The VA NAACP supports: HB 1829 HB 1831

As the former head of the Math Advisory Committee for Arlington Public Schools, I am in strong opposition to the math education bill, which contains 2 controversial components of the rejected and widely unpopular Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI). First, the bill only talks about “best practices” instructional methods instead of “science-based” or “evidence-based” like the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA) did. Imagine if the VLA funded Lucy Calkins – that’s what this bill does by using “best practices” and omitting “science-based” and “evidence-based”. As currently drafted, this bill funds the current failed approach to math education that has been the standard for the past 30 years and still lacks solid studies. Such non-evidence-based math practices are notably pushed by controversial organizations like the innocuously-named National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and Stanford Education Professor Jo Boaler, known as the Lucy Calkins of math. Second, this bill lowers academic standards by allowing students to earn the college track Advanced Studies diploma by taking less rigorous math courses than Algebra 2. More importantly, the result of de-emphasizing Algebra 2 will be less Virginia economically and racially diverse students in lucrative STEM, economics and business careers. That’s not just my opinion, but also the opinion of (i) one of the top African American STEM Professors in the United States, Berkeley Computer Science professor Jelani Nelson and (ii) the Director of Undergraduate Math Studies at Stanford University, Math Professor Brian Conrad. This type of proposal in California resulted in an all-out revolt by the world’s leading STEM professors and professionals. As a result, the University of California does not permit substitution for Algebra II in admissions. A real Virginia Numeracy Act modeled after the Virginia Literacy Act could greatly improve the education of Virginia children. But this backdoor VMPI bill will significantly hurt the math education of Virginia children, especially the most disadvantaged kids.