VDOE asking for feedback on new school accreditation system

SALEM, Va. (WDBJ) - The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is requesting feedback about its new school evaluation system.

Over the past two years, the Virginia Board of Education has focused on redesigning Virginia’s accreditation system. State Superintendent, Lisa Coons, said the goal is to focus on the overall health of schools.

“You’re trying to make something clear and transparent, that is complex. It’s about how a school’s health is. And it’s not just how students are doing today. It’s how they’re growing over time. Are they meeting this standard? And are they mastering things they need to master?” said Coons.

The main idea is to allow transparency and access to actionable information to build trust with the community.

“What we know is our current system, 93% of our schools were accredited before the pandemic, 90% were accredited after the pandemic, it didn’t show the needs, where our schools were struggling and how to support them,” added Coons.

The new system has two structures to focus on student outcomes. The school performance is broken into three categories for the elementary, middle, and high school levels: growth, readiness and mastery.

However, one concern is how the categories affect the challenges some minority students bring to school.

“If the premise is that we are not labeling schools A through F, or whatever, the public will already do that, based on these colors and these categories,” said one person who attended the meeting. “It’s strong to a label to using the previous wording that doesn’t really provide an accurate picture of the progress being made.”

The Mastery is calculated based on the student’s test results; the growth uses prior SOL test results to estimate an expected score, and readiness differs between school levels.

Coons said they are looking to understand where the support for students is needed.

“The intent of this school is not to negatively impact, but instead call out the health of the school, what the school needs, regardless of the student groups, or if there are particular student groups that need help and make sure that we are providing the supports and advocating for the supports, through a structure that truly tells the story of the school,” said Coons.

If you have any feedback for the board, you can do so on the board’s website.

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