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Thursday, October 09, 2008
Smyth County school officials anticipated a development that the
Virginia Department of Education has confirmed. The division is among the 95
percent of school districts across the state to be accredited by the Virginia
Board of Education on the basis of 2007-08 assessments in English, mathematics,
history and science.
The statewide achievement is a benchmark in its own right in a decade-old
program of setting standardized benchmarks for students, their schools and
school systems. The 95-percent accreditation rate is the highest seen in the 10
years that Standards of Learning have shaped Virginia education.
The state accreditation comes two months after news that three county schools,
and thus the school division as a whole, failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress,
or AYP, a standard under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.
Marion Intermediate, Marion Primary and Sugar Grove Combined schools did not
meet target scores that are raised by 4 percent every year.
While it seems incongruous that a school division that did not meet AYP
standards could be accredited, Smyth School Superintendent Dr. Mike Robinson
said the measures are “two paths” of achievement. AYP, he said, 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, Robinson said.
“It’s two different formulas,” he said.
“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.”
http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/smyth_schools_earn_state_accreditation/news/3726/
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