proposed bill in Richmond---no public information about school's test scores

[Anonymous]

from a tweet by Ibraheem Samirah--Herndon delegate to Va House:
Schools lose funds when property taxes go Down pointing backhand index due to property value going Down pointing backhand index as buyers make home purchase offers based on nearby schools' demos instead of real quality. HB2003 stops the nasty act of advertising our schools' qualities using scores that have racism baked into them.

https://twitter.com/IbraheemSamirah/status/1349503570853425155

retweeted by Melanie Meren--she likes it
https://twitter.com/MelanieForEdu/status/1352639657482326023

Are they talking about "Great schools" or public information.

No transparency, please.........

[Anonymous]

While I think this will stop the flight away from bad schools, I am not in favor of it. Why not fix the root problem and raise the scores?! All of our schools are having issues with the diversity score, which means that Hispanic kids who are often ESOL are being left behind (at least in northern VA). Clearly there's an issue and it's just not being addressed fast enough. Hiding the scores is like a charade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I think this will stop the flight away from bad schools, I am not in favor of it. Why not fix the root problem and raise the scores?! All of our schools are having issues with the diversity score, which means that Hispanic kids who are often ESOL are being left behind (at least in northern VA). Clearly there's an issue and it's just not being addressed fast enough. Hiding the scores is like a charade.

How do you propose raising Hybla Valley's scores?

[Anonymous]

I think the proposed bill is based on the belief that if you hide the scores, people won't be able to figure it out for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Glad Melanie Meren is focused on the important things - making it harder to find out how badly FCPS will be doing after this year of virtual learning drastically widens educational gaps between the haves and the have nots.

Fixing things is hard. Maybe covering them up is easier.

[Anonymous]

LOL - now test scores are racist.

It's not complicated. Focus on academic achievement using tried and true methods (e.g. textbooks); group students of similar academic abilities together so that all children can be challenged while not being overwhelmed (or bored) by the material; enforce strict behavior requirements for all students across the board, thereby creating an orderly and safe place for children to learn; and leave the political and sexual indoctrination out of school.

Equality under the law -- not some starry-eyed utopian dream of "equity" of outcomes which leave everyone with a lowest common denominator education.

But that wouldn't touch all the lefty feels buttons, would it?

Enjoy the clown show.

We've long since departed the broken public schools for private. Now I'm just working on the exit strategy to get out of dodge before property values plummet due to the failing public schools.

[Anonymous]

How exactly would this bill achieve this objective?

But it is very much aligned with the thinking of the far left Dems on the FCPS School Board. It is not a coincidence that FCPS provides far less information about student performance by cohort than it used to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad Melanie Meren is focused on the important things - making it harder to find out how badly FCPS will be doing after this year of virtual learning drastically widens educational gaps between the haves and the have nots.

Fixing things is hard. Maybe covering them up is easier.

That was true even before Covid.

Meren is like the under-study for Pat Hynes. She mouths a lot of the same far-left lines, but can’t quite pull it off with the same conviction.

[Anonymous]

We shouldn't lose track of the bigger issue, which is that Ibraheem Samirah and his friends like Melanie Meren want to impose restrictions on commercial speech that make someone feel bad about the comparative performance of students at their school.

Limits on commercial speech have to be narrowly tailored, so far from clear that this would survive a First Amendment challenge if it were signed into law, but it's another indication that the far-left wing of the Virginia Democrats is in favor of monitoring what others say and think. Given half a chance, they would shut down this sub-forum in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say but then people will simply base their decisions on what kids they see in the school yard so I don't think it's any better than not showing test scores.

I am ok with test scores but I think standardized testing needs to be done throughout the year and not one time a year. it would give more important feedback and lessen the high stakes of it all for some schools.

[Anonymous]

The SOLs are literally the cheapest way to gather data for "accountability." So you get what you pay for, I guess. I'm sure GreatSchools could invent another flawed metric to generate white flight.

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say but then people will simply base their decisions on what kids they see in the school yard so I don't think it's any better than not showing test scores.

Hope this isn't projection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL - now test scores are racist.

It's not complicated. Focus on academic achievement using tried and true methods (e.g. textbooks); group students of similar academic abilities together so that all children can be challenged while not being overwhelmed (or bored) by the material; enforce strict behavior requirements for all students across the board, thereby creating an orderly and safe place for children to learn; and leave the political and sexual indoctrination out of school.

Equality under the law -- not some starry-eyed utopian dream of "equity" of outcomes which leave everyone with a lowest common denominator education.

But that wouldn't touch all the lefty feels buttons, would it?

Enjoy the clown show.

We've long since departed the broken public schools for private. Now I'm just working on the exit strategy to get out of dodge before property values plummet due to the failing public schools.

This *1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say but then people will simply base their decisions on what kids they see in the school yard so I don't think it's any better than not showing test scores.

I am ok with test scores but I think standardized testing needs to be done throughout the year and not one time a year. it would give more important feedback and lessen the high stakes of it all for some schools.

Their issues are with ratings that are, in fact, based on county and state data. They don't have a problem if realtors regurgitate all the raw data, but they'd ban any metric that tries to analyze the data and determine which schools are performing the best. Because equity.

Of course, their ultimate goal is to stop collecting the data to begin with because everyone is equal so there's no point.

[Anonymous]

It's not hard to figure out demographics

[Anonymous]

Apparently this is the current text of the bill - it may have been amended to try and address First Amendment concerns by permitting certain information so long as there is a disclaimer (whether that actually satisfies acceptable limits on commercial speech is another question):

"66. Using in any advertising any information regarding the quality of any public or private
162 elementary or secondary school other than information derived from the school quality indicators
163 contained in the School Quality Profiles established by the Department of Education or information
164 derived from the school's website or the website of the school's district, unless such advertising contains
165 a statement, displayed on its face in a conspicuous manner, that such school quality information is not
166 derived from the school quality indicators contained in the School Quality Profiles established by the
167 Department of Education or endorsed by the Department of Education. The provisions of subsection F of
168 § 59.1-199 shall apply to this subdivision."

If people think that's necessarily going to keep real estate sites from mentioning Great Schools or U.S. News ratings, I'd ask them to focus on the key phrase "derived from[i]." These rankings are clearly derived from information from state and local school district websites regarding SOL scores, graduation rates, and AP/IB participation and test scores. In addition, while statements referring to "sought-after" school pyramids may not be "derived from" state and local school district websites, it's hard to see how the state could bring a case alleging that such general "puffery" statements are misleading.

Unfortunately, this is how far-left Democrats legislate - they try to level the playing field by prohibiting speech rather than by improving the less attractive schools. It's not surprise many FCPS School Board members support this bill; it's the same crowd that is already driving thousands of families away from FCPS.