Hampton Roads residents can weigh in Wednesday on the state’s development of a new accountability system for schools.
A listening session will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 at Indian River High School, 1969 Braves Trail, in Chesapeake. Those who want to attend can register at doe.virginia.gov.
After months of discussion, the Virginia Board of Education this summer began revising the system. A June report from the secretary of education and the superintendent of public instruction recommended that Virginia divide its current program into two systems — one for accountability and one for accreditation — similar to what most other states have. The board voted in September to develop the metrics.
The current system looks at numerous academic achievement indicators, as well as whether schools are complying with requirements around areas such as the programs they offer, staff licensure and building safety. The state then rates schools as accredited, accredited with conditions or not accredited.
Critics of the system say it masks changes in achievement, such as not reflecting lower scores after the pandemic. For example, a school’s test scores could drop but it could still receive the highest accreditation rating because the scores didn’t drop enough to be considered “below standard.” The June report states that all the achievement indicators in the current system “are enshrouded in incredibly complex calculations that prioritize growth in performance over the achievement of true proficiency.”
“While student growth is meaningful, proficiency is critical,” the report says.
In an interview last week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons said growth remain a big part of the system. The plan will expand the definition — reflecting the growth of all students not just students who are considered “below proficient,” as the current process does. Proficiency is a measurement of demonstrated “mastery” of a subject.
Coons said the accountability system will measure student growth, achievement and readiness. Readiness can refer to whether a student is prepared for the next academic level, such as whether a student can read, or postsecondary pursuits, such as college or career readiness.
The separate accreditation system would focus on the “inputs,” such as compliance with programming and building safety.
Part of the push for a new system has been about providing transparency to parents, educators and other stakeholders. The current system, including the school quality profiles, can be difficult to understand, Coons said. The department will also create a “placemat,” or a reporting tool to replace the school quality profile.
Coons said one of the things officials hope to find out through the listening sessions is what kind of information would be most useful for stakeholders to see on this placemat — and how “granular” people would like the data to be.
“We want to make sure we’re not building a report for us, we’re building a report for the stakeholders in the community,” she said.
The listening session in Chesapeake is one in a series the board is hosting across the state. Another round of public comments is expected in the spring before the board approves the system in the summer. The Department of Education would then begin collecting data in the 2024-25 school year and release the first report in August 2025.
Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com
