As part of Governor Terry McAuliffe’s education round table, 16 Chesterfield County teachers were given the opportunity to address the governor, directly, on Monday with recommendations for Virginia’s education system.
The first of an eight stop tour around Virginia, the Bellwood roundtable focused heavily on the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. Under the McAuliffe administration, Virginia has eliminated five of the 34 tests which is well above the national minimum of 17.
Teachers made several recommendations for the SOLs including providing more and fairer prompts for the writing tests and making the test shorter because students become fatigued.
The governor asked teachers; if they were governor, what action would they take? Responses included smaller class sizes, greater access to Pre-K, parent academies, year-round school, and mentor programs for new teachers.
There were several ideas given to McAuliffe and he vowed to look into them all, saying, “I don’t have meetings just to have meetings and we will improve Virginia’s education system.”
