Category Archives: Education

VCU Meets Supply and Demand

Posted on April 10, 2014 by matt ohern

Surely Virginia Commonwealth University has an economics department. Surely, there is someone at the state’s largest institution of higher learning who is conversant with the law of supply and demand. But, then, maybe not… The VCU Board of Visitors will … Continue reading →

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A New Virginia Tradition

Posted on February 26, 2014 by matt ohern

Can you name one thing on which Governors George Allen, Jim Gilmore, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Bob McDonnell agreed? Here’s one: the importance of Virginia’s Standards of Learning. The Standards of Learning, or proverbial “SOLs,” became the basis of … Continue reading →

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Fixing Virtual School Governance

Posted on February 13, 2014 by matt ohern

Most parents of children with disabilities don’t worry about the nuances of school governance for full-time virtual schools in Virginia. They just want their child to receive the services he or she needs. The Virginia Virtual Academy provides full-time online … Continue reading →

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SOL Reform: Will There Be Unintended Consequences?

Posted on January 29, 2014 by matt ohern

In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly replaced one eighth-grade social studies Standards of Learning (SOL) exam with three required middle school SOL tests. In 2009, Virginia’s state superintendent proposed eliminating the third-grade social studies SOL exam, but backed off after … Continue reading →

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Historical Overview of the Standards of Learning Program

Posted on January 29, 2014 by matt ohern

Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series, reprinting the Virginia Board of Education’s SOL history published in the 2013 Annual Report on the Conditions and Needs of Public Schools in Virginia. This part discusses international comparisons for Virginia’s … Continue reading →

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