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Grading Virginia's Schools - A Failing Idea?

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In Virginia, lawmakers are taking action to REPEAL a system of assigning every school in the commonwealth with a letter grade.  

Is your neighborhood elementary school an A school? Or would it earn a C? Parents may never know because lawmakers are moving forward with an effort to spike a system that would have issued a grade to each school. It's an idea that dates back two years ago, when the General Assembly passed the original effort. Then last year they delayed it. Now the House Education Committee is moving forward with an effort to kill it. 

"Frankly, when this process started I thought that the A through F was too simplistic and it was a concept that I opposed."

That's Democratic Delegate Dave Bulova of Fairfax Station, who says the new system will be more comprehensive.

"A parent can now take a look and see a whole range of mechanisms for what goes into a school, how it's achieving, how it's performing and the resources available."

Republican Delegate Mark Cole of Fredericksburg voted against the bill to repeal the A to F grading system.

"To just completely abandon it, I think, is wrong. I think parents and taxpayers have a right to see some type of grading system on how their schools are doing."

The bill abandons the A to F grades in favor of offering parents a wider variety of benchmarks to judge individual schools.

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