Terry McAuliffe's Platform for Putting Virginia First: Education

7/27/2019 Terry McAuliffe's Platform for Putting Virginia First: Education

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Paid for by Terry McAuliffe for Governor. Printed in house. Labor donated.

PRE-K THROUGH 12: EDUCATING VIRGINIA FOR TOMORROWS JOBS

Education is the single most important thing we can do to build a strong Virginia and what our kids need to build

successul lives. Whether theyre going to invent a product, start a business, or get the job o their dreams, it all starts

with the basic skills and condence that only a good education can provide, and right now were not doing enough.

Reorming the SOL TestsWe must have a strong system o student achievement and teacher evaluation. Unortunately our current system isnt

working or parents, students, or teachers. The current Standards o Learning tests have created an environment with an

over-emphasis on drilling students to take one-time, multiple-choice tests. There is no question that teachers must be held

accountable through air, multi-dimensional means, and that we need to ensure that students are learning what we want

them to know, but we can do a better job. Improvements include:

Focusing on progress through pre-testing. I a 5th grade teacher gets a child reading at a 1st grade level and, by the

end o the year, has that child reading at a 4th grade level, the current system calls that teacher a ailure. We must

move toward progress-based data instead o simplistic grade level requirements.

Permitting exible test timing and ormats. I school districts want to break up the SOL into smaller portions,

administer it closer to the end o the school year, or administer the test dierently or children with dierent learning

styles, we should support that.

A blue ribbon commission to study the content being tested and the ormat o tests. Teachers and students both

report that the acts ocused on in SOL tests dont always line up with the most important concepts rom each

subject and that theyre oten poorly presented. Tests are only as good as the questions they ask.

Moving to essay or short answer-based testing where possible. Multiple-choice tests drive teachers to drill individual

acts rather than broad understanding. Its good i a child knows when we landed on the moon, but its much better

i the child knows about the space race, NASA, and the Apollo program. Essay and short answer tests let our kidsdemonstrate knowledge and our teachers teach.

PUTTING JOBS FIRST

TERRYMcAULIFFEFOR GOVERNOR

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Letting Teachers TeachOur teachers need to be relieved o the growing amount o paperwork and administrative tasks so they can ocus on the job

they signed up or: educating our kids.

Task orce to reduce administrative and non-instructional workload or teachers. By reducing the time teachers spend

doing something other than teaching or preparing to teach, we increase the time they spend ocused on education.

Targeted and improved proessional development. By supporting teacher in pursuing proessional development in theareas they actually want to improve their skills we can get better educators without wasting their time and the states

resources.

Increasing Support or Pre-K and Early Childhood EducationEvery young Virginian deserves access to the benets o an early childhood education.

Broaden the reach o the Preschool Initiative. Virginia should change the distribution requirements to ensure eligible

preschoolers in every community can participate in Virginias Preschool Initiative.

Improve skill levels in our early childcare workorce. We can up-skill the early care and education workorce throughtargeted, aordable training in partnership with Virginias community college system.

Bring public and private resources to bear to improve early childhood education. Leverage partnerships with small

business to ensure amilies access to high quality early education.

HIGHER EDUCATION: A SKILLED WORKFORCE FOR 21ST CENTURY JOBS

Education is the single most important thing we can do to build a strong Virginia and what our kids need to buildsuccessul lives. Whether theyre going to invent a product, start a business, or get the job o their dreams, it all starts

with the basic skills and condence that only a good education can provide, and right now were not doing enough.

Community CollegesCommunity colleges provide tremendous resources to their local communities. But tremendous growth in student

enrollments combined with decreasing state support over the past decade has stretched their ability to meet demands or

classes and act as the drivers o workorce development.

Giving Community Colleges the tools to succeed. Every dollar spent on Community College workorce training creates

many more in economic development. Its time to invest where we get the greatest return.

Challenge Grants. By providing some state support through challenge grants we can improve community college

undraising and bring more private dollars into our system.

Increased exibility and authority. We need to ree our Community Colleges up rom old-ashioned purchasing and

hiring restrictions let presidents and department heads run their schools so they can be more ecient and spend

their resources on what matters.

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Increased support or workorce-development programs. Ensuring that our community colleges are providing every

student with the sot skills those basic job readiness skills that will allow them to transition into on the job train-

ing necessary to succeed in their careers along with specialized training options or specic industries will ensure

that our workorce can meet the needs o our industries.

Increased collaboration with local high schools. We should do everything we can to get students in career training the

best education and amiliarize them with their community college.

Provide support or career coaches in high schools. Giving our community colleges the opportunity to place career

coaches in high schools to help guide students toward career readiness will keep our kids in the pipeline to college

or a career.

Four-year SchoolsWe have one o the proudest traditions o higher education in the country, but they must remain aordable to parents and

students. Our universities and colleges are challenged to stay current and absorb more students while their unding has

been cut dramatically.

Public Four Year Schools

n Controlling costs and ees to keep our kids out o debt. Every student in Virginia deserves the opportunity to get a

quality education and start their working lives without the burden o heavy debt.

nEmphasize fnancial aid. We must ensure that, in this era o rising costs, all students have a air shot at getting a

college education.

n Ensuring proper representation on governing boards. It is critically important that alumni, sta, students, and other

members o college and university communities are involved in the selection o their governing boards. The Governor

should solicit and respect slates o nominees rom college and university communities when lling board slots.

n Making employment data available. Virginia should do more to ensure that students, parents, and colleges and

universities all know about and can easily access state data on what jobs are going to be available and in

which elds.

nFocus on expansion o those schools interested in expansion. Virginia absolutely needs more space in our colleges

and universities, but we should ocus on those institutions with growth in enrollment as part o the plan. Every

school shouldnt have tens o thousands o students.

nRenewed commitment by the state to academic reedom or proessors. Only by assuring our researchers that they

can study ree o ear that theyll be subpoenaed or prosecuted can we attract and retain the brightest minds.

nSupporting returning veterans. As our veterans return home, many o them will seek education in our colleges and

universities. We need to ensure that these are welcoming places or them and understand their needs and talents.

nPursuing online and virtual education. We cannot aord to sacrice quality, but where possible we must embrace

online education.

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nModern management systems. College and universities need to adopt modern methods o management and

administration to control costs and improve eciency.

nSupporting our Historically Black Colleges and Universities. These institutions play a critical educational, cultural,

and commercial role in our system and should continue to get our support.

n Increased support or research and development. In addition to creating new products and industries, supporting

requests or unding rom our schools research departments will bring revenues back to the schools and attractnew aculty.

Private Four Year Schools

n Protect the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grants. These grants help keep private schools a critical part o

Virginias higher education system aordable and available or Virginia students.

n Increase community college articulation agreements. Our community colleges already have agreements with

our public schools to permit high achieving students to transer ater two years and we should ensure that a

similar option exists or private schools as well.

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Terry McAuliffe's Platform for Putting Virginia First: Education