WASHINGTON — Virginia’s elementary, middle and high schools are about to get new grades under a revamped accreditation system released Tuesday.
The Virginia Board of Education’s labels conform to a new law requiring the board to recognize the progress of schools that are still falling short of goals for overall graduation rates or pass rates on the state’s Standards of Learning tests.
The revised standards take effect Thursday, and schools will get their ratings later this month.
In order to earn full accreditation, schools must have adjusted pass rates of 75 percent on English tests, 70 percent on math, science and history/social science tests.
High schools must also reach an 85 on the graduation and completion index, which assigns a point value to achievements such as a full diploma (100), GED (75), continuing to be in school (70) or dropping out (0) to each student expected to graduate that year. That total is divided by the number of students who entered the school who would be expected to graduate to reach a final number.
High schools that fall just one point short on the graduation and completion index, but who meet adjusted pass rate goals, will now be rated “Partially Accredited: Approaching Benchmark-Graduation and Completion Index.”
The adjusted pass rates for SOLs exclude English-language learners and certain other students.
Schools that fall “within a narrow margin” of meeting pass rates may get one of the new ratings that indicate they are close to meeting their goals:
- Partially Accredited: Approaching Benchmark-Pass Rate — Schools that are not Fully Accredited but that are within a narrow margin of the adjusted SOL pass rates required for full accreditation in one or more subject areas;
- Partially Accredited: Approaching Benchmark-Graduation and Completion Index — High schools that have attained the adjusted pass rates required for full accreditation and that are within a narrow margin of the Graduation and Completion Index (GCI) required for full accreditation;
- Partially Accredited: Improving School-Pass Rate — Schools that are not Fully Accredited, and do not qualify for a rating of Partially Accredited: Approaching Benchmark-Pass Rate, but that are making acceptable progress toward full accreditation;
- Partially Accredited: Improving School-Graduation and Completion Index — High schools that have attained the adjusted pass rates required for full accreditation, and that have improved their GCI by at least one point from the previous year, but that are not within a narrow margin of the GCI required for full accreditation.
Schools that are farther behind in test scores or graduation rates could face lower ratings, which replace the existing ratings of Accredited with Warning and Conditionally Accredited-Reconstituted School:
- Partially Accredited: Warned School-Pass Rate — Schools that are not within a narrow margin of, nor making acceptable progress toward, achieving the adjusted SOL pass rates required for full accreditation;
- Partially Accredited: Warned School-Graduation and Completion Index — High schools that have achieved the adjusted SOL pass rates required for full accreditation, but that are not within a narrow margin of, nor making acceptable progress toward, achieving the GCI required for full accreditation;
- Partially Accredited-Reconstituted School — Schools that fail to meet the requirements for full accreditation for four consecutive years and receive permission from the state Board of Education to reconstitute. A reconstituted school reverts to accreditation-denied status if it fails to meet full accreditation requirements within the agreed-upon term, or if it fails to have its annual application for Partially Accredited-Reconstituted School renewed.
A school denied state accreditation based on continued low ratings or for other reasons is required to agree with the state board on a plan aimed at turning things around, but the school would remain the responsibility of the local school system.
The ratings that will be released later this month are based on last year’s standardized test data that was released this summer.
The exact requirements to earn each rating are scheduled to be approved by the Board of Education Oct. 22.
Click here to learn more about the proposed criteria.
