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The 2014 Virginia General Assembly and the Three E’s:
Education, Economy and the Environment
Vannah Mitchell
November 18, 2015
POLS 311
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On March 8, 2014 the Virginia General Assembly adjourned sine die, or with no
appointed date for resumption; with this adjournment several hundred new bills were passed.
The subject of these bills ranges from Agriculture to Workers’ Compensation, and everything
in between. There are three subjects in particular that spark the most interest from lawmakers
and Virginia residents alike; the three E’s. Bills on the subjects of education, economy, and
environment had a combined 376 proposed bills during the 2014 General Assembly. Why do
these three subjects spark so much interest by lawmakers? The simple answer is, because
these are the three subjects that effect nearly everyone living in the Commonwealth.
Under the subject of Education there are two headings Education dealing with
Virginia’s public education system, and Educational Institutions, dealing with private and
public higher education systems in Virginia. A great deal of time is spent writing and passing
bills concerning public education because generally, legislation has been able to remove
discriminatory barriers, and overall improve the public educations system (Yergin, 1).
Legislators have good intentions when it comes to creating public policy and in Virginia,
many of the policies regarding public education have lead the commonwealth to have an
excellent, and even world class, education system.
Today’s students are 21st century learners, meaning they need to be taught traditional
academic subjects, but also need to have a set of 21st century skills. These skills include
digital literacy, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving (How Do You Define
21st-Century Learning?). During the 2014 General Assembly session House Bill 930,
regarding the Commonwealth’s high-stakes Standards of Learning (SOL) test was passed.
This bill reads as follows:
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Standards of learning assessments; reform. Provides that
the number and type of Standards of Learning assessment
shall not exceed 17 specified assessments in grades three
through eight. The bill requires each local school board to
certify that it has provided instruction and administer an
alternative assessment in conformance with Board
guidelines, for each subject area in which the Standards
of Learning assessment was not administered. The bill
also requires the Secretary of Education to establish the
Standards of Learning Innovation Committee to
periodically review the Standards of learning assessments.
(2014 Session Summary).
The main reason this legislation was added was because teachers of science and social studies
became concerned that if their subjects were not tested by the SOLs, then it would no longer
be emphasized. Additionally, this bill now allows classroom teachers to design an assessment
that would replace the SOL test. This is an advantage for teachers and students alike due to
the extremely negative stigma associated with high-stakes testing.
High-stakes testing gained popularity in the United States at the beginning of the 21st
century. During this time national education reform was underway and was being spearheaded
by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. This law required annual testing by all
states by the 2005-06 school year, increased academic progress by the 2013-14 school year,
and highly qualified teachers by the end of the 2005-06 school year (“No Child Left Behind).
Virginia was slightly ahead of the game due to the fact that the SOLs were established in the
mid-1990s. Since this time, education has been driven by the standards and teachers have
geared instruction exclusively around passing the test (Sutton, 463). Although the use of high-
stakes test were intended to help students and improve education systems, ultimately it hurt
them.
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House Bill 930 now allows teachers to teach the curriculum, outlined by the state in
the Standards of Learning, and assess it in an organic and appropriate form. Diane Kern, a
professor of Education at the University of Rhode Island credits the high-stakes testing
movement for creating “a zombie-like narcissistic K-12 public school system” (98). Kern
goes on to explain that a narcissist is a person who is concerned with becoming perfect, but
the job of educators and policymakers to realize that today learners are not perfect, and this is
okay (98). The main reason high-stakes tests are put in place to ensure that students are ready
for their next education step, whether that be entering the 4th grade, high school, college, or
even the workforce. In order to guarantee that our students are properly prepared we need to
rethink our thinking about assessment; this is exactly what the General Assembly is doing
with the passage of HB 930.
