Virginia school ratings are changing under new accreditation system

Like many things in education, policy experts have long been divided over accountability and the best way to measure school success. Many believe it is important to give parents a more complete picture of how a school is performing than what is in the Virginia’s current system. But stakeholders are divided on what should be measured.

One point of difference is how much the state should measure “mastery” versus “growth” — essentially, whether schools should get more credit for students reaching benchmarks, or for helping students improve from where they are. In Virginia, the current proposal includes both, with mastery weighing more heavily in the evaluation.

Critics of the move, such as the Virginia Education Association, worry that favoring mastery will lead to schools being categorized by demographics. Statistically, they said in a press release, schools in affluent neighborhoods tend to perform better on standardized tests than schools in lower-income areas, and the rankings will reflect that.

“It will punish schools that show significant enrollment growth but serve students who fall further behind because of multiple educational barriers,” the state education union wrote. Thursday.

Other groups including the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia School Board Association and Virginia PTA raised concerns about several other aspects of the model at the recent state board meeting, including the use of categorical ratings such as “Distinguished.” They worry that the new system will unfairly paint some schools in a bad light.

“The bucket of ‘off the rails,’ which includes more than 50 percent of Virginia schools, is so large that it does not provide parents with crucial information about which student groups are struggling and which schools are underperforming at all levels,” said Jenna Alexander, president of the Virginia PTA.