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We talked a bit this morning during the editorial board meeting about a U.S. Department of Education study that found a third of states, including Virginia, lowered education standards, which helps them meet requirements of No Child Left Behind.

We're going to look into the report some more and discuss again next week.

• The report (2+ meg pdf)
• A news story summarizing the findings

On Virginia, specifically, the researchers found that Virginia's Grade 4 and Grade 8 reading standards are well below what the federal government considers basic proficiency.  In Mathematics, the commonwealth meets the Grade 4 basic proficiency but not the Grade 8.  (Note: There are some margin of error issues one these, so maybe Virginia barely meets some of the basic proficiency levels.)  On none of these is the commonwealth even close to what the feds consider "Proficient."

Part of the discussion is whether states should voluntarily subscribe to national standards.  That conversation is underway, but details on that must be worked out.

On a sort-of-related topic, the Virginia State Board of Education is accepting comments on proposed revisions to the English and Science Standards of Learning.

• English revisions
• Science revisions

Good news: Evolution and the Big Bang survive in the revisions as required learning for Virginia's young people.

If you want to comment on the revisions in person to the State Board of Education, there will be five public hearings in the next couple of months. The two for Southwest Virginia will take place in Max Meadows and Lynchburg both on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m.  See here for details.

Congratulations to Jessee Vasold, William and Mary's first transgendered homecoming queen (and first at any Virginia university as far as I know). Congratulations, too, to the student body at one of Virginia's premiere public institutions of higher education for their bold choice.

Vasold identifies as "gender-queer," a catch-all term for those who identify with something other than traditional male or female gender roles.

Perhaps it inspired their football team, who crushed James Madison 24-3.

To make sure every child graduates

Schools alone can't teach your kids. Parents, most of it is on you.

If you haven't yet looked at today's Horizon front, please take a few moments now to read, "Students achieve if 'fathers kick their butts,'" then rejoin us here.

The message delivered by Patrick Welsh, an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, is powerful and should be repeated in every home until it sinks in: Parents have the greatest influence in determining whether their children will do well in school.

Read more.

Wednesday, we'll laud Virginia Tech for its management of an international resource management project that won a Nobel for one of its researchers, and applaud the university's success in winning a multimillion-dollar federal grant for the university's bioinformatics institute. Both are pointed reminders of the important role research has to play in the lives of ordinary people, and the wisdom of investing in it.

For Friday we'll write about the controversy at William Byrd High School where one parent objected that the school's library carries the novel, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky. The parent's child did not check out the book nor was he assigned to read it.

The county policy requiring three librarians to read, review and recommend whether the book should be reshelved is underway. We find it troubling that a teacher might be in trouble for recommending a book found in the library.

Investing in higher ed

Virginia underfunds its colleges and universities at the cost of its economy.

Transportation might get most of the attention in Richmond, but Virginia underfunds other core government services, too. Higher education has been the ugly stepchild of the state budget for years.

The well-respected Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia recently released an in-depth analysis of higher education's economic impact on the state. It offers fresh evidence that when lawmakers shortchange higher education, they harm the commonwealth.

Read more.

The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia today released a detailed analysis of what higher education does for the Virginia economy. For example, every $1 the state invests in higher education yields $1.39 in state revenue and $13.31 in Virginia gross domestic product.

We're writing an editorial for Tuesday in which we will run down some of the benefits and urge state leaders to take this information seriously when they return to Richmond. Everyone knows that transportation is underfunded, but the underfunding of higher education in recent years is equally tragic and misguided for the commonwealth's economic future.

An academic exercise over school days

Longer and more school days could boost achievement, as the president suggests. But who would pay the bill?

Pay attention, public school students, the president has plans for your day. No, he's not giving another pep talk encouraging you to do your best in school like the one that got some of your parents all bent out of shape.

This time the president wants to seriously cut into your free time. His education secretary (Arne Duncan, for those of you who wish to scribble down his name in case it appears on a pop quiz) is pushing for longer school days and for more days in the school year.

Read more.

President Obama just won't stay out of the nation's classrooms. Now he says kids need to stay in school longer each day and go to school more days each year. He's obviously not trying to win class president.

For later this week, we'll write that it is worth looking at changing the school day. But that the federal government -- not known for its generosity with education -- would need to step up with the substantial funds needed to do this.

Radford still must cut

Administrators reverse course on two firings, but the hard work remains ahead.

Radford University last week offered to rehire two administrators it had fired just a few weeks before. That reversal comes from an administration that seems to be reeling in the face of massive state funding reductions.

Read more.