Publications by Julia Stewart

How you do manage to provide instruction for 4,580 English as Second Language (ESL) students who speak some 87 languages? Loudoun County Public Schools ESL Supervisor Alessio Evangelista replied, “We’re good.”

Four Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) students–Hammad Yousuf of Farmwell Station Middle School, Partha Narasimhan of Mercer Middle School, Adriel Sumathipala of Dominion Trail Elementary and Christopher Miller of Harmony Intermediate School–finished in the top 10 at the Virginia State Geography Bee held last weekend at Shenandoah University in Winchester.

Loudoun County is one of 31 Virginia school divisions that will receive a one-time credit this July 15 against their debt service. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) recently announced $4.1 million in refinancing savings from the issuance of Virginia Public School Authority (VPSA) of $114.2 million in School Financing Refunding Bonds, Series 2009, completed March 12, 2009. Savings will be distributed to the localities on July 15, 2009, in the form of a one-time credit against debt service.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday evening, March 24, the Loudoun County School Board realigned the school system’s middle and high school grading scale from a seven-point to a ten-point scale. The “90 is an A and 60 is a D’ grade scale becomes effective with the 2009-2010 school year. Although there was considerable discussion, a majority of members rejected a motion to apply the new grading scale retroactively. The new grading scale provides no comfort to the Class of 2009.

Gifted, Gifted and Talented, Talented and Gifted, Advanced Academic Aptitude–whatever the moniker used for gifted education programs across the country–the effort formally began in 1958, with the federal passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), and $1 billion for public education with an emphasis on science math and technology.

Thus, the launch of the satellite “Sputnik” by the Soviet Union focused America’s attention on public education, and identification of gifted students to study science, math and technology. Yet today, there is no federally mandated gifted education program or federal funding for gifted education, as there is for Special Education under the auspices of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Some states including Virginia have enacted mandates regarding gifted education programs, although specific funding mechanisms do not accompany many of the mandates.

The landscape of Special Education in American public school systems is dotted with acronyms–EACHA, IDEA, FAPE, LRE, IEPs–and measured by processes, timelines, screenings, evaluations and referrals. Special Education is framed with increased accountability and costs, and historically federally under funded–yet tasked to serve an increasing percentage of school-age students.