ANALYSIS: Spanberger's Pick for Secretary of Education Energizes Public School Educators
Dr. Jefferey Smith marks a 180-degree turn from his predecessor, Aimee Guidera, and the policies of Gov. Glenn Youngkin who appointed her. That's good for public education in Virginia.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Email Martin
Under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, public education has been on a four-year roller coaster ride.
His pick for Secretary of Education, Amy Guidera, enjoyed a respected career in Washington, D.C., but her time in Richmond has been marked by a rotating door in the Superintendent for Public Instruction’s office, and the delayed rollout of new history standards the Virginia Literacy Act.
Further, Youngkin’s leaning into culture wars turned parents against educators, while his push for vouchers and charter schools created distrust between educators and the governor’s office.
Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger’s commitment to public education and her pick for Secretary of Education mark a 180-degree turn from Youngkin and Guidera.
Dr. Jefferey Smith was today named Spanberger’s pick as Secretary of Education and his selection creates immediate trust between professional educators and the incoming administration.
Spotsylvania Schools Superintendent Dr. Clint Mitchell told the Advance in an early-morning phone call that Smith is “one of the most respected superintendents in the Virginia.” Not only is he a former Superintendent of the Year in Virginia, but, Mitchell adds, “he has done some amazing work supporting superintendents and school boards.”
Smith is best known for his work with Hampton City Schools, where he oversaw a dramatic academic turnaround between starting in July 2015 and the end of the 2023 academic school year.
A majority-minority district, Hampton City Schools’ enrollment in 2022 was 48% Black and 7% Hispanic. Thirty-eight percent of students were white.
When Smith took over, the on-time graduation rate was 88%, the dropout rate was 5.1%, and the district’s 32 schools had never all been fully accredited.
Four years later, each of the division’s 32 schools and centers were fully accredited and have remained fully accredited, on-time graduation rose to 97.64%, and the dropout rate fell to 0.62%.
Matt Hurt, director of the Comprehensive Instructional Program, told the Advance via email that “every year except one (2022 …) Hampton improved SOL ranking under his leadership. Noting from whence they came to where they ended up, this was nothing short of amazing.”
In a recorded interview, Smith described the transition and the district’s adoption of an academy model of learning. This approach gives students at the high school level an opportunity to explore career options their freshman year, and then select a track that nurtures and ties their interests to both academics and credential-building. (This is similar to the model that Caroline County Public Schools recently adopted and the Advance recently wrote about.)
During his time in Hampton Smith also greatly grew the district’s dual-enrollment program with Virginia Peninsula Community College, and he strengthened ties with the businesses community, which is necessary for an academy-model school to be successful.
Finally, under his leadership, Hampton City Schools became the first and only Ford Next Generation Learning Community in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Smith’s record of achievement is why, Mitchell told the Advance, “Every person [he has talked to] … is excited about the pick.”
Stafford Schools Superintendent Dr. Daniel Smith shares Mitchell’s enthusiasm, honing in on the incoming Secretary of Education’s deep connections to Virginia.
“I’m thrilled to see a Virginia superintendent serving in this role,” he told the Advance. “As a colleague, I know he understand the needs of Virginia schools and students.
While Spanberger’s pick for Secretary of Education has energized school leaders, there’s a great deal of work ahead of him in undoing the damage Youngkin and Guidera caused between parents and schools.
The Advance will be watching to see what steps Smith takes to deal with the concerns that fired up the Parents’ Rights movement in Virginia four years ago, and how he deals with these challenges in a political environment where the Trump Administration is actively interfering in state school systems to limit speech, curtail access to literature, cut funding, and undermine efforts to teach a broad range of ideas.
Mitchell points to two areas that he believes Smith will need to tackle early in his tenure.
First is the need to “make some tweaks and changes to the current accountability and school performance framework,” he told the Advance. “That’s something a lot of people are grappling with.” Mitchell hopes that Smith will “champion” the corrections recommended by the JLARC review of the new accountability system.
Second is the need to address the “continued shortage that we have regarding teachers in the commonwealth,” Mitchell said. “We need more opportunities to get teachers to be certified trough alternate pathways because we have … a major crisis” in this area.
For now, Virginia educators have a pick for Secretary of Education that they can stand behind. “He will be a true champion for children and education in the commonwealth,” Mitchell said.
Convincing Parents’ Rights and School Choice advocates that he is the best choice will be a more-demanding challenge.
The best way to do that? Bring the success enjoyed by Hampton City Schools to the Commonwealth. When schools are working as they should, critics tend to retreat.
This piece was updated January 6, 2025, at 7:54 pm to include information from Matt Hurt.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”