Smyth schools earn full state accreditation

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

The Virginia Department of Education released its school accreditation report Wednesday, and Smyth County’s public schools are among the 98 percent statewide to be fully accredited.
“All schools in Smyth County are fully accredited,” Smyth County Superintendent Dr. Mike Robinson said Wednesday, meaning the division is among the 117 divisions with all schools accredited. Virginia has 132 school divisions.
Accreditation means a school met state standards for achievement in English, mathematics, history and science based on 2008-2009 assessment results, DOE said.
The 98 percent full-accreditation rate is the highest percentage since the commonwealth began accrediting schools based on student achievement 10 years ago, DOE said. Students in 1,826, of the commonwealth’s 1,867 schools met or exceeded state objectives on Standards of Learning (SOL) tests and other statewide assessments in the four core academic areas last year.
“Virginia’s public schools have accomplished what many 10 years ago thought was impossible,” Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said. “With the sustained support of governors, legislators and policy makers from both parties, teachers and other educators have met the challenge of higher standards and students are achieving at significantly higher levels in nearly every school in the commonwealth.”
Ninety-eight percent of Virginia’s elementary schools and 98 percent of the commonwealth’s high schools are now fully accredited.
The percentage of middle schools achieving full accreditation increased again as the performance of students on rigorous grade-level mathematics tests introduced four years ago continued to improve. Ninety-six percent, or 299, of Virginia’s 312 middle schools are now fully accredited compared with 87 percent last year and 69 percent two years ago.
“All but a handful of schools are now meeting or exceeding state standards even though the rigor of the commonwealth’s SOL accountability system has increased,” Virginia Board of Education President Mark E. Emblidge said. “The board will maintain its focus on raising achievement in schools that have yet to earn and maintain full accreditation.”
Around the region, Bland, Russell Tazewell, and Washington counties’ school divisions are fully accredited, but the Wythe and Grayson divisions are not, according to DOE.
Under Virginia’s accountability program, DOE said, a school that has been on academic warning for three consecutive years and fails to meet state standards for a fourth consecutive year can apply to the Board of Education for conditional accreditation — if the local school board agrees to reconstitute the school’s leadership, staff, governance or student population. A reconstituted school can retain conditional accreditation for up to three years if it is making acceptable progress toward meeting state standards.
In middle schools and high schools, a pass rate of at least 70 percent in all four subject areas is required for full accreditation.  In elementary schools, a combined pass rate of at least 75 percent on English tests in grades three through five is required for full accreditation.  Elementary schools also must achieve pass rates of at least 70 percent in mathematics, grade-five science and history, and pass rates of at least 50 percent in grade-three science history, DOE said.
Accreditation ratings may reflect adjustments made for schools that successfully remediate students who failed reading or mathematics tests during the previous year. Adjustments also may be made for students with limited-English proficiency and for students who have recently transferred into a Virginia public school, DOE said.
The accreditation announcement follows by a little more than a month the release of figures showing Marion Primary and Intermediate schools did not make AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, as measured by standardized tests given last spring. AYP is a benchmark under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, for the second consecutive year.
But like this year, the county division was accredited last year in what seems on its face to be an incongruity in measuring school performance. In 2008, Marion Intermediate, Marion Primary and Sugar Grove Combined schools did not meet target AYP scores that are raised by 4 percent every year.
“This is a completely separate measure,” Robinson said Thursday.  “It does use SOL test scores as its basis just like AYP but the standard is not a moving, increasing target. There is a set benchmark that we have to meet.  Also accreditation does not break achievement into subgroups.”
AYP considers students’ reading, math and language proficiency, while state accreditation reflects performance in a broader selection of subjects including history, social studies and science.
Accreditation also counts remediation efforts brought to bear on scores that fell below AYP requirements and pools all schools’ scores.
The NCLB act requires school districts to allow parents of students in schools that miss AYP goals two years running to decide whether to place their children in other schools the following year. At the start of the school year, Robinson said only a few parents exercised that choice.
On Thursday Robinson said 16 students—four from Marion Primary and 12 from Marion Intermediate—participated in the public school choice option.  Of the 16, 15 chose to attend Atkins Elementary and one chose Sugar Grove Combined School.
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)