Virginia Schools Insider

Virginia Schools Insider is moving

Washington Post Staff — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:09:00 GMT

Virginia Schools Insider is moving to a new format and a new page. Go to washingtonpost.com/education for the latest education news in Virginia and around the region.

This page will be redirected to the new Education Page soon.

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Fairfax assures parents about school security

T. Rees Shapiro — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:43:49 GMT

After the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, officials in Fairfax County sent a message to parents about school security measures.

While the investigation continues at at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Fairfax officials wanted to assure parents about the safety of their children in local schools.

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Fairfax schools to buy paper textbooks after pixel predicament

T. Rees Shapiro — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:16:29 GMT

Fairfax County schools will soon purchase tens of thousands of hard copy mathematics textbooks after an experiment with Web-based instruction came under scrutiny from parents and teachers.

Fairfax schools will pay about $2 million for the paper and ink textbooks to replace what parents called the woefully inadequate pixel and gigabyte version.

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Fairfax’s own Lincoln on ‘Lincoln’

T. Rees Shapiro — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:26:00 GMT

Ever since Dan Storck was a boy he has idolized President Abraham Lincoln.

Now as a politician himself, Storck says he aims to bring the 16th president’s best qualities as a statesman to his role as the Mt. Vernon district representative on the Fairfax County school board.

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How would sequestration affect Fairfax schools?

T. Rees Shapiro — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:23:25 GMT

Earlier this month, the Fairfax County School Board unanimously passed a resolution urging the federal government to avoid sequestration

In the resolution, available online here, the board declared that the automatic spending cuts would “disproportionately impact” Fairfax and its school system.

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Pakistani teachers visit Fairfax classrooms

T. Rees Shapiro — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:12:28 GMT

Rana Hussain’s sequined turquoise sari cascaded to the tile floor in the first grade classroom at Eagle View Elementary as she knelt next to a blonde boy reading next to her. He whispered to her and followed the words on the page with his index finger.

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New Fairfax superintendent to be announced in May

T. Rees Shapiro — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:40:26 GMT

At the Monday work session held by the Fairfax County School Board, members discussed the timeline for selecting a new superintendent, the upcoming fiscal year budget and amending the admissions policy at the county’s elite school for math and science.

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Fairfax School Board urges Feds against sequestration

T. Rees Shapiro — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:15:00 GMT

November has already proven to be a busy month for the Fairfax County School Board. And it’s just getting started.

They held a meeting that ended very late Thursday, and below I’ll update you on what happened there. Today, they are meeting for a work session where members will discuss the search for a superintendent, budget proposals for the next fiscal year and possibly amending the admissions process at the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I’ll be there taking notes and will keep everyone up to date on what goes down.

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Haycock renovation stirs community; Fairfax charter school delayed and more: Friday roundup

T. Rees Shapiro — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:53:22 GMT

It’s Friday, folks, and that means it’s time for a roundup of recent news. I’ve been away for a few days so here are some things that happened involving Fairfax County education recently.

First, there was a community meeting last week organized by parents who wanted to express disapproval about plans to renovate Haycock Elementary in Falls Church. About 200 people showed up to the meeting held on Oct. 23 to talk about the upcoming renovation, scheduled to begin in 2015. The parents contend that the renovation will not add enough space to sufficiently address the school’s crowding problems. Read about the meeting here.

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Fight at Centreville under investigation

T. Rees Shapiro — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:33:45 GMT

A fight between two teenagers at Centreville High School was captured on video and posted to YouTube last week.

Fairfax County schools spokesman John Torre said the incident is being investigated by administrators.

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Nikhil Goyal, 17: the future education secretary?

T. Rees Shapiro — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:04:00 GMT

The other morning I had coffee with Fairfax County School Board member Elizabeth Schultz, who represents the Springfield district. Shultz said she wants to address some of the school system’s biggest problems head on, even if it means having to turn the system upside down.

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Groundhog captures playground in Fairfax County, evades police

T. Rees Shapiro — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:03:00 GMT

We’ve got vicious beavers in Lake Barcroft. There are rabid foxes scampering along Chain Bridge road.

And last week, a groundhog that Fairfax County police described as “acting in an abnormal manner,” took over the playground at Rose Hill Elementary School. That’s right, a groundhog.

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Policy for TJ admissions to be reviewed

T. Rees Shapiro — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:05:14 GMT

The Fairfax County School Board’s governance committee is recommending that the admissions policy for the county’s most elite high school be reviewed and possibly amended.

The committee will make its recommendation regarding admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (known as TJ) to the full board at its next work session Oct. 15.

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Fairfax student followed home by suspicious man

T. Rees Shapiro — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:04:00 GMT

An alert was sent to Fairfax County parents with children at West Springfield High School Tuesday afternoon after a female student was followed home Monday night.

The Fairfax County Police department said the student left the West Springfield campus by car at around 8 p.m. on Monday. Beginning at the intersection of Old Keene Mill Road and Bauer Drive, she was followed home by an older man she did not know.

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All Fairfax schools garner state accreditation

T. Rees Shapiro — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:26:00 GMT

Good news, Fairfax County parents: all 190 Fairfax County Public Schools received full accreditation this year by the Virginia Department of Education.

That means a vast majority of students at public schools in Fairfax passed the Standards of Learning Tests with ease.

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A trip to jail

T. Rees Shapiro — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:13:06 GMT

Earlier this month, I took a trip to the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center. It was my first time visiting a jail of any kind, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived.

The reason for my trip was to report on one of the lesser-known entities within the Fairfax County school system: the Juvenile Detention Center school.

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Fairfax County students score well on state tests

T. Rees Shapiro — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:20:44 GMT

In my first few weeks on this beat, I’ve gotten several notes from parents and advocates about some of the problems they’ve encountered at Fairfax County schools.

Classrooms are crammed. Teachers are ensconced in double-wides with wafer-thin walls. The school system may face a multimillion-dollar deficit in the next year as it struggles to pay for an ever-growing student body.

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New year, new board, new beat reporter

T. Rees Shapiro — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:56:26 GMT

In the waning days of summer, I always looked forward to returning to school to meet the new kids in my class.

Now, as the school year begins, I’m the new face in the crowd.

I’ll be The Post’s beat reporter covering Fairfax County education. If you see me around your school, or at a School Board meeting, please stop and introduce yourself. I’m looking forward to getting to know Fairfax schools and all the people involved with educating children in the county. Feel free to e-mail me, shapirot [at] washpost [dot] com, and also follow me on twitter for updates about the school system, @TReesShapiro.

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Va. board approves charter school application

Emma Brown — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:48:59 GMT

The Virginia Board of Education on Thursday unanimously endorsed an application for a math- and science-focused charter school in Loudoun County, a move that means the proposal will now go to the local school board for final approval.

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Federal civil rights complaint filed over low numbers of black, Latino students at elite TJ High

Emma Brown — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:31:36 GMT

The disproportionately low number of black and Latino students admitted to Fairfax County’s prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology — long a subject of debate — has triggered a federal civil rights complaint.

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Parent group pushing for TJ admission changes

Emma Brown — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:54:59 GMT

One key group that has shaped the debate over overhauling the admissions policy at the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: The Fairfax County Association for the Gifted.

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Parent group pushing for TJ admission changes

Emma Brown — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:54:59 GMT

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Fairfax considers first charter school

Emma Brown — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:31:34 GMT

More than 100 parents, teachers and activists turned out Tuesday night for an informational meeting about the Fairfax Leadership Academy, which would be the first charter school in Northern Virginia if it’s approved by the county school board in October.

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Fairfax takes small step in debate over high-school start times

Emma Brown — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:47:00 GMT

For the eighth time in 24 years, the Fairfax County School Board is studying whether high schools should open later in the morning to accommodate teens’ natural sleep cycles.

At a work session Monday, board members appeared to be headed toward hiring a consultant to identify how to push back high-school start times without breaking the budget and with minimal disruption to families’ lives.

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Fairfax school board takes first step in superintendent search

Emma Brown — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:59:00 GMT

The Fairfax County School Board took the first step on what will be a long path to hiring a new superintendent when it decided Monday to issue a formal request for proposals from headhunting firms.

Board members said during Monday’s work session that they hope to settle on a search firm by October and find a new schools chief by late April.

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