#2023-15 Virginia Education updated 12 October 2023

Virginia Department of Education sent this bulletin at 10/12/2023 04:35 PM EDT

View this message online

#2023-15

Update for October 12, 2023

In this edition

Message from Dr. Coons
ALL In VA
Teaching & Learning
School Performance & Support
Early Childhood & Learning
School Finance
Careers at VDOE

Key Takeaways

Updated ALL In FAQ now available
Alternative Accreditation Plan Application Timeline for School Year 2023-2024 announced
Seeking Nominations for the 2024 Presidential Scholars Program
VQB5 Practice Year 2 – Results Available for Site Administrators
Chapter 1 Budget Calculation Template now available

This Week’s Checklist

⚠️ denotes articles with deadlines attached

2024 CTE U.S. Presidential Scholars Nomination form due October 26
Public Comment accepted through October 27 for College Partnership Laboratory School Applications from Germanna Community College and the University of Mary Washington
Informational meeting for schools interested in applying for an Alternative Accreditation Plan on October 24
Public comment accepted through November 9 on the Revised Amendment 6 to Virginia’s Consolidated State Plan.

News from Across the Commonwealth

#ElevateEducatorsVA

Victoria Dawson, VDOE Associate Director in the Office of Child Care Health and Safety (pictured right) recently visited Bedford Primary School to recognize educators with kind words and special snacks.

Two educators deliver special snacks and kind words to Bedford Primary School staff.

Students listen to outdoor presentation at a folding table in Chilhowie Town Park.

Great Watershed Day

Smyth County Public School 6th graders participated in the Great Watershed Day at Chilhowie Town park. The educational event for #watershedday2023 was sponsored by several Smyth County community agencies. Photo courtesy Smyth County Public Schools.

Two students crunch into yummy apples in the school cafeteria.

Crunch Heard 'Round the Commonwealth

Norfolk Public Schools joined the Virginia Farm to School Week celebration by crunching into yummy apples. Photo courtesy Norfolk Public Schools.

As part of the Crunch Heard Round the Commonwealth, Culpeper County Public Schools make some noise for Virginia farm to school programs by enjoying local apples from Thornton River Orchard! Photo courtesy Culpeper County Public Schools.

Dr. Lisa Coons, Superintendent of Public Instruction

Good Afternoon,

Over the past week, I have had the opportunity to visit the SECEP facility at St Mary’s with several staff from Virginia Beach City Schools, and I continue to be humbled by the outstanding collaboration and focus on empowering students to be successful. The SECEP team truly goes above and beyond to provide inclusive opportunities for some of our most fragile youth.

I also want to thank the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia (COSARS) for hosting a strong and impactful Summit on High Intensity Tutoring. This virtual conference had over 400 educational leaders attend, and I was blessed to open the conversation around our struggling students and the “ALL In” approach so many leaders worked together to coordinate. The opportunities for teams to share, discuss solutions, and build supports for our students is truly exciting. In talking with several superintendents, I have heard the same collaboration is occurring with instructional leaders in every region across the state.

We are excited to announce that Ignite Reading has been awarded the digital platform contract to provide flexible practice content for students, lesson plans for tutoring, and data tracking. Please fill out the following interest survey if you want to opt in or learn more information about this free Grade 3-8 Reading tool for high intensity tutoring.

We are also excited to be in the final steps of contracting with Zearn to host our mathematics Grade 3-8 digital platform. Zearn has a multitude of tutor resources including practice content, AI tutor support, lesson plans for tutoring, and tutor training videos. The interest survey above will launch the process for using Zearn and Ignite.

Additionally, October is National Bullying Prevention Month. As we continue to focus on ensuring every child attends school every day, all schools must focus on creating strong and positive school climates throughout the year. Bullying is a critical issue that every school must address, and we must understand that bullying exists in schools. The VDOE has a set of strong resources to support school divisions in preventing bullying.

Please look for several updates to our newsletter next week. We appreciate the superintendents who have taken the time to collaborate and give us feedback.

Have a great week!

Lisa

ALL In VA

ALL In Updates

The ALL In FAQ document has been updated and is available on the ALL In VA webpage.

Additionally, information on possible carryover of ALL In funding across fiscal years has been added to the ALL In VA Spending Plans webpage.

In order to continue to support school divisions with their ALL In implementation, Office Hours are available on Tuesdays from noon to 1pm. VDOE staff will be on call to support any questions that you may have regarding your spending plans.

News from our Content Specialists and Special Education

2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars Nomination Process for High School Seniors in Career and Technical Education ⚠️

Audience: Superintendents, Directors, School Principals, Teachers, Counselors
Contact: Judith P. Sams, Specialist, Business and Information Technology and Related Clusters

VDOE’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, is accepting nominations of Virginia candidates for 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars for Career and Technical Education for recognition “on the basis of outstanding scholarship and demonstrated ability and accomplishment in career and technical education fields.” The Criteria for Candidate Identification and Nomination provides detailed information and the categories that will be used by the Commission on Presidential Scholars selection committee. Use these criteria to select appropriate supporting nomination documents for submission.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and, since that time, the program has honored almost 8,000 outstanding high school seniors. As the program has grown from the initial recognition based upon SAT or ACT scores, additional Scholars candidates have been invited to apply for accomplishments in the visual and performing arts or creative writing. Beginning in 2016, outstanding students who demonstrate excellence in Career and Technical Education (CTE) were included for recognition.

School divisions are invited to nominate an outstanding senior CTE student for the 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. The 2024 CTE U.S. Presidential Scholars Nomination Form, and strong, relevant supporting documents must be submitted in one folder for each nominee through the VDOE’s secure Single Sign-on Web Systems (SSWS) drop box to the attention of Judith Sams. All nominations must be received no later than October 26, 2023.

Seeking Nominations (High School Seniors) for the 2024 Presidential Scholars Program

Audience: Superintendents, School Principals, Teachers, Counselors
Contact: Judith P. Sams, Specialist, Business and Information Technology and Related Clusters

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by Executive Order of the President, to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Each year, up to 161 students are named as Presidential Scholars, one of the nation's highest honors for high school students. The Presidential Scholars Program reviewers will consider the following categories when evaluating the nominees at the Semifinalist and Scholar levels:

Involvement and Service in school and community
Leadership and Character
Writing samples
Academic achievements
Discretionary points for extraordinary achievement, heavy workload, family responsibilities, or obstacles overcome.

Principals will submit the VDOE Student Nomination Form to the Division Superintendent or Designee for submission of the form to a designated Regional Superintendent. Each Superintendent’s Region may select one female and one male student candidate (Region 4 may submit two female and two male student candidates due to the large student population). Regional nominations must be submitted through the Virginia Department of Education secure Single Sign-on for Web Systems (SSWS) drop box to the attention of Judith Sams.

Public Comment Forums for College Partnership Laboratory School Applications from Germanna Community College and the University of Mary Washington ⚠️

Audience: All, Parents, Students
Contact: Jim Chapman, Director of Board Relations

On October 3, 2023, the College Partnership Laboratory Schools Standing Committee (“Standing Committee”) received for first review college partnership laboratory schools (“lab schools”) applications from Germanna Community College (“Germanna”) and the University of Mary Washington (“UMW”). The Standing Committee also directed the VDOE to post the lab school applications for public comment.

In order to provide appropriate input from parents, teachers, and other interested parties and to obtain information to assist the Standing Committee in its evaluation of the lab school applications, the Standing Committee is seeking public comment on each application:

Comments on the Germanna application may be submitted through this form;

Comments on the UMW application may be submitted through this form.

Public comments for these applications will be accepted through October 27, 2023.

School Performance & Support

Alternative Accreditation Plan Applications for School Year 2023-2024 ⚠️

Audience: Superintendents, Directors, School Principals
Contact: Amy Siepka, Director, Office of Accountability

The Regulations Establishing Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia (SOA) allows the governing school board of special purpose schools (e.g., special education schools, alternative schools, or career and technical schools that serve as the student's school of principal enrollment) to seek approval of an Alternative Accreditation Plan from the Virginia Board of Education. Such requests should be limited to schools which have a very specific purpose and mission where there is a better method to calculate student performance on one or more school quality indicators than found in the current Virginia Accreditation system. It will be the responsibility of the division, through the application process, to clearly describe why this is the case. It is anticipated that there will be very few schools who qualify for an Alternative Accreditation Plan.  

The Alternative Accreditation application process does not apply to schools or programs where the students’ data is returned to other Virginia public schools for the purpose of accountability. The current application cycle will create plans that will be effective beginning in the 2024-2025 accreditation year using data from the 2023-2024 school year. If a school has had a previously approved alternate accreditation plan, the division will need to submit a new application for Board approval.  

A tentative timeline is as follows: 

October 24, 2023: Informational meeting for interested school division staff will be held from 10:00 a.m.─ 11:00 a.m. Pre-registration is required. 
November 30, 2023: DRAFT application due to the Virginia Department of Education, submitted via email to Accountability@doe.virginia.gov, with the subject line: Draft Alternative Accreditation Plan. 
January 29, 2024: A signed final application (by the local school board chairperson and division superintendent) is due.  
February and March 2024: Virginia Board of Education reviews and then approves or denies the applications.

The application can be accessed on the Virginia Department of Education website. 

Revised Amendment 6 to Virginia’s Consolidated State Plan ⚠️

Audience: Superintendents, Directors
Contact: Amy Siepka, Director, Office of Accountability

VDOE is currently seeking approval from the U.S. Department of Education (USED) for Amendment 6 to Virginia’s Consolidated State Plan, which was approved by the Virginia Board of Education in June 2023. Amendment 6 identifies the methodology for determining growth for the federal accountability growth measures. Upon initial review of the amendment, USED asked for a revision to the original language that was submitted regarding 3rd grade growth. The revision that will be submitted by VDOE is now a consistent measure of growth for all students and the change is expected to have a negligible impact on the identification of federal support schools, as compared to the original methodology. The revised amendment has been reviewed and supported by a Committee of Practitioners that is comprised of school division leaders, various educational organizations, teachers, and parents. The revised plan will also be presented to the Virginia Board of Education in October. Per USED requirements, the plan is being posted to the VDOE website for public comment until November 9, 2023.

Public comments can be sent to accountability@doe.virginia.gov with the subject line: Revised Amendment 6.  

Supporting Early Childhood Care & Education

VQB5 Practice Year 2 – Results Available for Site Administrators

Audience: Superintendents, Directors, School Principals, Child Care Center Operators, Teachers,  Non-teaching staff 
Contact: VLA Team (email)

All VQB5 Practice Year 2 Site Administrators have access to their site’s VQB5 Practice Year 2 Quality Profiles in their LinkB5 accounts, as of Monday, 10/9/23.   

To locate VQB5 Practice Year 2 Quality Profiles, refer to Guide to Accessing VQB5 Data. 
Details about how VQB5 quality ratings are determined can be found in the VQB5 Practice Rating User Guide.

Site Administrators are also encouraged to share their feedback as we prepare for next year when VQB5 results will be published online. Please complete a brief feedback survey to assist with the development of the public quality profiles, which will be shared in Fall 2024.  

Division Finance and Budgeting

Chapter 1 Budget Calculation Template

Audience: Superintendents, School Finance Staff
Contact: Ed Lanza, Director of Budget

VDOE has published a calculation template with detailed budget information related to the amended FY 2024 budget adopted by the 2023 Special Session I General Assembly, enacted as Chapter 1. The template is available as an Excel file on the VDOE website. This file gives school divisions the opportunity to change its March 31 Average Daily Membership (ADM) projection to assess the effect on projected state funding and local match requirements using the Department’s projected ADM or a local projection of ADM. Although VDOE’s ADM projections are historically accurate on a statewide basis, it may be necessary for divisions to use their own projections instead of the projections provided by VDOE. Divisions are encouraged to substitute VDOE’s ADM projections with their own when using the calculation template if they believe their projections may be more accurate.

Payments to school divisions for FY 2024 will be updated and finalized based on March 31, 2024, ADM and other final program participation information. Actual FY 2024 payments will not be finalized until after the Spring Student Records Collection is finalized. In addition to ADM, the Enrollment Projections worksheet provides the option of entering local enrollment projections for the Remedial Summer School, English as a Second Language (ESL), and Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) programs.

Additional details related to the Chapter 1 budget can be found in the September 14, 2023, edition of the VDOE Education Update newsletter.

Career Opportunities at VDOE

We currently have two open positions:

Mathematics and Special Education Specialist
Press Communications Coordinator

Stay Connected with the Virginia Department of Education

This service is provided to you at no charge by the Virginia Department of Education. Update your subscriptions, modify your password or email address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your email address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please visit Subscriber Help.