Making ‘No child left behind’ a reality,
not rhetoric

Photo by Jack Looney

By Sheri Trice

Gov. Mark R. Warner attended a reception at the Darden School’s Wilkenson Courtyard on June 26 to honor 10 new cohorts entering the Virginia School Turnaround Specialist Program. The VSTSP is a Warner education initiative, in which the Curry School of Education and the Darden School team up to help “turn around” poorly performing schools in the commonwealth. Warner participated in the program’s inauguration last year by attending University professor Alec Horniman’s business class with the first group of “turnaround specialists.” The administrative experts participating in the program are chosen for their reliability, outstanding contributions to their schools and their potential to lead their school systems in a new direction. Virginia school systems “continue to outperform on a regional and national scale, … but we have to make ‘you can’t leave any child behind’ more than rhetoric,” Warner said. “We can’t afford to leave any child behind, and school administration is a big part of that.”