All Stafford public schools fully accredited

By ANDREA RUSSELL
Published: October 1, 2008

STAFFORD — All 29 Stafford County schools have earned full state accreditation for the 2008-09 school year, the schools system recently announced.

These preliminary accreditation results, as reported by the Virginia Department of Education, are based on Standards of Learning test results from the past three school years in the academic areas of English, history, mathematics and science, a news release states. 

Shirley Heim Middle School, the county’s newest school, was given conditional accreditation, a rating given to a new school for one year in order to allow for SOL tests to be given, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

In order to earn full accreditation, a school must meet or exceed minimum benchmarks for SOL passing rates in English, history, mathematics and science during the previous school year or cumulatively over the past three school years, according to the release. 

The state accreditation benchmarks are 70 percent for most categories, including elementary school mathematics, fifth-grade history, fifth-grade science and all content areas in middle school and high school. At elementary school, there is a 75 percent benchmark for English, while the benchmarks for third-grade history and third-grade science are 50 percent, the release states.

Last year, all Stafford schools were fully accredited with the exception of Dixon-Smith Middle School, which received a 64 percent in math. This year, the school earned a 77 percent in math, said Doug Schuch, executive director of strategic planning and accountability for Stafford County Public Schools.

“It’s a very solid improvement over last year,” said Schuch. “The school system spends time with teachers and staff. These ratings allow us to focus our resources and attention where we need improvement.”

Ninety-five percent of Virginia’s public schools are fully accredited, the Virginia Department of Education recently announced. This is the highest percentage of schools reaching full accreditation since the statewide testing began 10 years ago.

“Nearly all Virginia children now attend schools that are exceeding the commonwealth’s minimum

expectations for student achievement,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Billy K. Cannaday Jr. “That so many schools are now moving beyond minimum standards for competence and proficiency and towards academic excellence is a credit to the educators, elected leaders, policy makers and parents whose sustained support for reform has been essential in raising student achievement.”

Last week, Stafford County Public Schools received 2008-09 preliminary Adequate Yearly Progress results from the Virginia Department of Education. Based on the Virginia SOL test performance from the 2007-08 school year, the results indicated that 16 of the county schools made AYP for 2008-09, while 13 did not.

“One of the major differences between accreditation and AYP is that AYP comes from the federal government and accreditation comes from state of Virginia,” said Schuch.

In order to make AYP, a school or school division must meet 29 individual benchmarks as defined by No Child Left Behind, a news release states. Of these 29 benchmarks, 28 relate to student participation and performance on state reading and mathematics tests from the previous school year. Additionally, schools must meet or exceed the “Other Academic Indicator,” which is defined as graduation rate at the high school level and can be state history, science or writing test performance or attendance rate at the middle and elementary school levels.

“What’s good about AYP is not who makes it or who doesn’t make it. It’s the fact that it requires us to really be accountable for all of our students. It’s about what we as the stakeholders … are doing with that data to improve instruction areas for years to come,” Schuch said. “What I’m celebrating is our commitment to school improvement that we’ve shown over the years.”