Please write your Delegate urging that he or she support two bills now before the House. Click here to send a message.
First, urge them to vote for HB 1871. Bullying remains a persistent problem in our
schools and in our society.
Victims of bullying display a range of responses, even
many years later, such as:
1.
Low
self-esteem
2.
Difficulty
in trusting others
3.
Lack
of assertiveness
4.
Aggression
5.
Difficulty
controlling anger
6.
Isolation
Research shows us that the prevalence of bullying is
predictive of school-wide passing rates on state-mandated achievement testing
used to meet accreditation standards.
We learned that the passage of legislation defining bullying
in Mississippi in 2010 has had a chilling effect on bullying there, so we seek
the legislation before you today. There is no criminal penalty or cause
for civil action in this legislation, but it gives school personnel a
definition to cite which clearly shows that bullying behaviors are forbidden by
the code of Virginia.
Second, urge him or her to vote for HB 1889. The Freedom of
Information Act allows a governmental body to grant or deny public access to
personnel records.
We are both thankful and well served by
the fact that most school boards show great wisdom in regard to this issue;
however, with the advent of the collection of discrete student performance data
for each teacher we wish to make it clear that this information should not be
distributed for public consumption.
One thing that we are discovering from
states that are ahead of Virginia in the development of teacher specific data
is that news outlets will request this data, and in Los Angeles, for example,
this data is published. We know that the
data is volatile and this year’s top teacher may be next year’s low
performer. Assignment of students to
teachers has never been random and it never will be.
If a teacher is a consistent
underperformer, the division should address this issue. However, no teacher deserves to wake up and
read in the morning paper that they are the worst teacher at their school. In one widely reported instance, this rude
awakening led to the suicide of a very promising young teacher, who taught
special needs students in Los Angeles.
I applaud Virginia’s school divisions for
showing wise discretion in regard to this issue; however, the purpose of HB1889 is to make it clear that this data should not be released.
Please send a message to your Delegate urging him or her to
vote for HB 1871 and HB 1889.
