Governor McAuliffe's Standards of Learning Innovation Committee has held its inaugural meeting, and its members now have their marching orders.
One of their long-term goals is revise the school standards to be more interesting and far more inclusive.
Secretary of Education Anne Holton says Virginia remains a leader in K-12 education, but there's always room for improvement.
Holton has said consistently that when it comes to bridging the achievement gap, some children are still being left behind, and that's unacceptable.
Holton emphasizes that the joys of teaching and learning have diminished because there's been such a focus on test- taking, especially multiple-choice exams geared toward recognition and recall but not creativity, problem-solving, and team work. That's another challenge the committee will be addressing.