36 schools in NOVA not fully accredited (Fairfax: home, middle school, statistics)

[JustinCaseIII]

I was surprised that so many schools in NOVA are not fully accredited. The list of all 36 are here: 36 Northern Virginia Schools fail to meet accreditation standards - The Bull Elephant

Are you all surprised by this list? I always heard that schools here are so good.

[CaliTerp07]

Here's the FCPS Press release on it:

FCPS - News Releases

You can download the spreadsheet from the VDOE for more details here:
VDOE :: Accreditation and Federal Reports, School Accreditation Ratings

If you filter the spreadsheet by county (division) you can look up the specific schools and find out why the didn't get accreditation. For example, in FCPS there are 13 schools. Of those, 2 are alternative schools: Fairfax County Adult High, and Kilmer Center "a Fairfax County Public School for students, ages 5-22, with intellectual disabilities (severe), autism, and intellectual disabilities." Neither of those has a typical population of students, so it seems odd to hold them to a typical set of standards.

That leaves 11 schools. Of those, 3 schools didn't meet the benchmark in math, and the rest missed it in science. Seeing as how science went to new (higher) standards this past year, increasing the rigor and type of questions on their end of year exams, it is not at all surprising that scores dropped in many schools.

Remember too that missing a benchmark could mean that 1 "subgroup" (single minority group, students with disabilities, english language learners) didn't meet the scores the state wanted to see, but all other groups of students did. My school got dinged one year because despite having a 96% pass rate on the algebra test overall, only 80% of our black students passed. (Side note: There were less than a dozen black kids testing...so each kid had a major impact on scores). One subgroup fails, the whole department (and therefore the school) fails.

It's a piece of information, but it definitely doesn't tell the whole story.

[JustinCaseIII]

Do you work for FCPS?

[CaliTerp07]

Yes, I teach in an FCPS middle school.

[jillybean720]

I'm not sure if it's the case for all of them, but I know one of the elementary schools near my home is "accredited with warning." Everyone I've talked to seems to be in agreement that the issue is the high number of ESL students. If you look at the actual scores and such for that specific school, the ONLY thing they missed the mark on was English. It doesn't mean the school is bad; it doesn't mean the teachers are bad; it doesn't mean the school is about to crumble to the ground; etc. I actually have a number of acquaintances whose kids attend that school and say they LOVE the teachers and are glad their kids go to that school. You have to dig a little deeper to get to the true story for a particular school.

[VRE332]

Loudoun's grade level reading and writing is a minimum of level 14 in the 1st grade. Prince William's is Level 2 !

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by VRE332

Loudoun's grade level reading and writing is a minimum of level 14 in the 1st grade. Prince William's is Level 2 !

On what scale?