Rescuing Virginia’s failing schools
Wikimedia Commons
By Christina Nuckols
In September 2010, I sat in a Petersburg school auditorium as about 100 parents, teachers, city leaders and state legislators discussed whether to support a proposed charter school in that community.
One teacher told the group, “We’re actually in pretty good shape, and I say that as a teacher, with a lot of room to grow. Petersburg is not doing all that bad.”
I cringed. Fifty-one percent of students in the city’s middle school had failed the most recent standardized math test. The failure rate in math last year was 57 percent, and the school has now been unaccredited for seven straight years.
Nuckols is editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
February 3, 2013 - 7:35 AM
There should be some changes. If we keep doing what we have been doing we will keep getting what when have been getting.
I agree with Al. We need to stop doing what we have been doing, which is tragically defunding the schools.