Students receive a letter grade on their report cards and so, too, would their public school under a proposal Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled Thursday as part of the next phase of his K-12 education legislative agenda.
Each school would be assigned a grade, A-F, which McDonnell’s office contends would help parents and others to fully understand how their child’s school is performing.
Oh dear God, when will the politicians stay out of education! Surely Gov. Ultra-sound didn’t think this one up all by himself. Let’s take a careful look at what would happen if the good governor gets his way.
First off, who decides the grade? Will there be a list of objects the school is to master? Will it be based on SOL scores? Hasn’t there been enough stress on SOL scores already? What will be done to ensure that schools with high populations of minority students, ESL students, economically disadvantaged students, and special ed students aren’t the schools making the D’s and F’s?
