SCHEV announces new WBL training modules for educators, students and employers

The State Council of Higher Education in Virginia launched its first two online "readiness" courses. 

The two sets of modules are “Developing an Internship Program” for employers and “Developing Career Readiness Skills” for students (high school and college). 

The student modules are best experienced with the assistance of teachers, faculty and staff at the student's educational institution or support from an internship supervisor or other mentor. 

They hope educators will review the content of the modules and find ways to incorporate them into current interactions with students. 

Instructions for accessing the modules can be found here: https://virginiatop.org/course-catalog/ 

The project was led by Dr. Sam Ratcliffe of VMI. 

New statewide agency focused on Workforce

Perhaps in response to the Chips and Science Act, and related NSF priorities, workforce development is getting more attention.

from Cardinal News    by Markus Schmidt     November 10, 2022

Youngkin to propose new agency for workforce development

The state Labor Secretary made the announcement at a conference in Roanoke.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will propose establishing a new, centralized state workforce agency to administer workforce development and training programs that currently are distributed across multiple agencies, Virginia Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater told a group of community college staffers and partners at the Hire Ed Conference at the Hotel Roanoke on Thursday.

“As the governor has been saying, workforce development is not operating like it should,” Slater said in an email to Cardinal News after the annual conference, where workforce leaders gather to explore the ways in which Virginia’s community colleges respond to the needs of businesses and individuals in the commonwealth.

With over 113 workforce providers, 250 training providers, and 1,500 training programs across the commonwealth, Virginia needs to centralize its workforce training, Slater said. “We are working to create a workforce operations structure that reaches more Virginians, prioritizes workforce development, and efficiently trains and places Virginians in jobs,” he said.

Jim Babb, the spokesman for Virginia’s Community College System, said that Slater announced that the Youngkin administration will ask the General Assembly to establish the new state workforce agency. 

“The proposed changes may impact about 30 employees at our system office in Richmond. These are people who have responsibilities for administering several federal workforce

More details on teacher hiring and departures.

 from Virginia Mercury.

Virginia report shows more teachers leaving the workforce than entering it.

Data shows school divisions have relied on provisionally licensed teachers to fill vacant positions.

By: Nathaniel Cline - November 7, 2022 6:22 pm

Virginia has more teachers leaving the workforce than newly licensed teachers entering it, according to a report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. 

Data show that 10,900 teachers left the workforce ahead of the current school year, while only 7,208 teachers with first-time licenses were hired. 

The finding was part of a broader study by the commission on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on students and staff in K-12 public schools.

“This is a major, substantial report from a nonpartisan arm of our legislature and it clearly points to the fact that significant new investments are needed to meet student needs and address our major teacher shortage,” said Chad Stewart, a policy analyst for the Virginia Education Association. “And the administration will show us how seriously they’re ready to respond to these recommendations based on what they choose to put into their update to the budget come December.”

JLARC found that “prior to the pandemic, there were about 800 vacant teaching positions statewide, on average.” That number rose “substantially” to about 2,800 vacant positions in October 2021 and 3,300 as of mid-August 2022.

“The majority of divisions (86 of 131) had higher teacher turnover between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school year when compared with before the pandemic,” JLARC found. Turnover increased the most in Highland, King and Queen and Southampton counties, while vacancy rates in fall 2021 were highest in Franklin City, at 32%, and Norfolk, at 17%. 

School divisions have relied on provisionally licensed teachers to fill vacant positions, JLARC found. During the 2021-22 school year, 9.5% of the overall teacher workforce were provisionally licensed teachers, up from 7.7% pre-pandemic. Out-of-field teachers, or those who teach a subject matter that differs from their area of certification, grew from 2.4% of the workforce pre-pandemic to 6.2% in 2021-22.

To address teacher shortages, the commission recommended providing additional funding to school

Virginia reports steep learning loss, teacher departures

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch

by Michael Martz

Virginia report documents steep learning loss, teacher departures

Virginia must make up for steep learning losses in public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state is losing teachers far faster than it is replacing them, a new study concluded on Monday, challenging lawmakers to invest more funds to retain school staff, while boosting math and reading achievement.  

The study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission confirmed steep declines in 4th grade math and reading achievement, but also documented a widening gap between the number of qualified teachers leaving and entering the profession that's on the front line of helping students recover from their losses.

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