Some Charlottesville High School students are attending class at night, thanks to the extension of a supplemental learning program prompted in part by concerns over dropout and attendance rates. The Work Achieves Lasting Knowledge Program (WALK), which began in 2007, and which helped 82 CHS students earn diplomas in the 2012-13 school year, is an alternative learning initiative […]
Education
UVA prof’s study highlights problems with out-of-school suspension
Research has shown that school suspensions are linked to higher dropout rates and an increased risk of incarceration, and a new study by UVA education professor Dewey Cornell and the Legal Aid Justice Center brings more bad news: Black male students are suspended for minor infractions at more than twice the rate of white males. […]
Out of this world: Online gaming community launches UVA student on trip of a lifetime
How do you get to space without becoming a professional astronaut? If you’re Justin Bieber or Ashton Kutcher, you shell out a hundred thousand bucks or more for a seat on a space tourism flight. Or you can try to win a spot by harnessing the loyalty of a gamer army. That was UVA third-year […]
Education beat: Local schools and employees face new benefit landscape
Our Education Beat coverage is the result of a partnership with Charlottesville Tomorrow. Recent local and national changes to employer benefit systems have added another layer of planning that Charlottesville and Albemarle schools must account for as the two divisions head into budget season. [...]
Education Beat: Officials debate future of Yancey Elementary
Our Education Beat coverage is the result of a partnership with Charlottesville Tomorrow. A year after elected officials charged a citizen work group to find additional uses for the chronically under-enrolled Yancey Elementary School, the group has proposed transforming the Esmont school into [...]
Education Beat: CATEC’s annual fundraiser a feast of opportunity
Our Education Beat coverage is the result of a partnership with Charlottesville Tomorrow. Two days before Thanksgiving, Bob Bressan was in the throes of organizing the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center’s 12th annual Thanksgiving fundraiser, rattling off orders for walnut [...]
TEDx Charlottesville hosts local innovators to speak their minds
The question of the day is “The Difference that Makes a Difference.” The answers are many. So believe organizers of Charlottesville’s first-ever TEDx event at the Paramount Theater. The event, a local version of the global TED educational conferences, will host 18 speakers from the [...]
Education Beat: School enrollment shows steady growth
Our Education Beat coverage is the result of a partnership with Charlottesville Tomorrow. For the third straight year, school enrollment in Charlottesville and Albemarle is on the rise. Seven of Charlottesville’s nine schools grew, bringing the division total to 4,085 students—the first time [...]
Albemarle parents criticize division for lack of rigor
Monticello High School parent David Blaine called it “the race to the middle.” At a community meeting with Albemarle School Board member Ned Gallaway Thursday, Blaine and others took the division to task for what they see as a lack of academic rigor, and inconsistency in course offerings in the [...]
Buford opens new science labs, and other school news
Students at Buford Middle School are now learning about science, technology, engineering, and math in four state-of-the-art labs that feature 3D printing capabilities. The ribbon-cutting ceremony last week kicked off the Buford Engineering Design Academy, a $1.4 million, 9,600-square-foot [...]
Officials brief families on historically black schools
Nearly 100 parents and students came together at Albemarle High School last week for a discussion about historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). University of Virginia Associate Dean of Admissions Valerie Gregory stressed that college preparation should start in middle school, when [...]
Albemarle schools revisiting class rank reporting
Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics. Albemarle County Public Schools announced last week that the division has been [...]
Albemarle pushes back against new accreditation system
Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics. Virginia’s public schools have two accountability systems that determine whether a [...]
UVA eyes privatization as public funds diminish
In a preliminary report released earlier this week, a University of Virginia panel proposed that the Commonwealth’s flagship university take significant steps toward operating more like a private school. Jenna Johnson at the Washington Post broke the story of the 11-page report earlier this [...]
UVA demographer’s race map gets national attention
Dustin Cable suspected the online map he built to plot the distribution of the entire U.S. population by race—a color-coded dot for all 308.7 million Americans identified by the 2010 Census—would be interesting, useful, and maybe even important. He didn’t think it would be so beautiful. “I [...]
City, County schools’ SOL scores fall
Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics. Both Charlottesville and Albemarle schools saw pass rates drop on Standards of [...]
County schools look for outside help for Walton
Through a recent request for proposals, Albemarle County Public Schools staff announced the division is looking to “rebrand” Walton Middle School. The request comes on the heels of numerous leadership and student conduct complaints, and the hiring of a new assistant principal, Rick Vrhovac, who [...]
What financial model will sustain Barrett Early Learning Center?
Since forming last month, Barrett Early Learning Center’s new board of directors has raised $30,000 in a fundraising effort that began after the former board announced that the 80-year-old preschool on Ridge Road would close due to cash flow issues and delayed reimbursements from the Virginia [...]
New board forms to save Barrett Early Learning Center from closing, fundraisers in the making
It’s been three weeks since Grace Williams checked her grandson’s cubby at Barrett Early Learning Center and found a letter announcing the decision to close the nearly 80-year-old daycare center later this month. A fixture in the city’s Ridge Street neighborhood and for decades one of the few [...]
Selena O’Shaughnessy turns obstacles into opportunities
Selena Cozart O’Shaughnessy, Ph.D., is a career learner. But even her extensive education couldn’t save her from losing her job as a public school administrator when the economy tanked in 2008. Now, the Philadelphia native and UVA alumna puts her experience and love of community to work from 9 [...]
Cyclist Kiersten Downs stops in Charlottesville on veteran advocacy campaign
Charlottesville prides itself on being a bicycle-friendly town, but can you imagine biking 3,000 miles? Kiersten Downs, a 30-year-old Air Force veteran and doctoral student, has traveled coast to coast on two wheels to advocate for Student Veterans of America (SVA), a program that funds and [...]
Neighborhood book exchange movement finds a home in Charlottesville
In front of Sue DiMagno’s home on Essex Street stands a wooden structure that looks a little like an oversized mailbox: two feet wide, glass-fronted, filled with books. Inside is an array of titles: Heaven’s Keep; Tripwire; Five Sisters. A small, white plaque on top of the box reads: “Little [...]
ARTS Pick: Storyline Project
What makes Charlottesville go? To answer that particular question, the Storyline Project will team students grades 4-6 with local artists and designers for the fifth annual public art experience. As part of this year’s “transit” theme, the group will take bikes, buses, and boats around the area [...]