SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND SUPPORT FRAMEWORK - Spotsylvania County Public Schools
An overview and analysis of Spotsylvania County Public Schools' rating on the newly released state ratings.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Overview
The School Quality Profiles for Spotsylvania County Public Schools should be handled with caution. Parents, educators, and students need to understand the intricacies of the scoring system and not rely on top-line data to draw conclusions about the quality of education in any given school.
All schools are accredited — 16 are Fully Accredited and 13 are Conditionally Accredited. In the new system, accreditation is not related to academic performance, but to compliance issues.
Academic performance is now measured by the School Performance and Support Framework, which assigns each school a summative rating of either Distinguished, On Track, Off Track, or Needs Intensive Support. These ratings are based on scores, which in turn are based on points schools receive for three indicators—mastery of academic subjects; growth, and readiness at the elementary and middle school level; and mastery, readiness, and graduation at the high school level.
In Spotsylvania, one school earned Distinguished, 13 are On Track, 11 are Off Track, and 4 are Needs Intensive Support. A Needs Intensive Support or Off Track ranking frequently are tied to one subgroup underperforming and does not necessarily reflect the academic performance of the entire school.
Accreditation
“Accreditation” in this system is not tied to academic performance. Rather, it is tied to schools checking a series of compliance boxes. Sixteen of Spotsylvania’s 29 schools are Fully Accredited, while 13 are identified as Conditionally Accredited. In each case, it’s not because schools are struggling academically, but because they didn’t favorably check a compliance box.
One negative box is sufficient to lower a school’s accreditation. That’s what happened in Spotsylvania’s 13 Conditionally Accredited schools. Each was penalized a ranking level for the same reason: One or more counselors in each school failed the so-called 80-20 rule. School counselors must spend 80% of their time with students, and 20% on other tasks.
Superintendent Clint Mitchell said that the district checked “No” because at each of the schools identified as Conditionally Accredited there was at least one counselor who was spending slightly less than 80% of their time with students.
Some three other districts in Virginia — Gloucester, Lancaster, and Essex — were similarly penalized.
Mitchell told the Advance that the district is “in the process of adjusting the time” counselors spend with students.
Academic Performance
Four schools in Spotsylvania were identified as Needs Intensive Support: Cedar Forest Elementary, Courtland Elementary, Spotsylvania Elementary, and Wilderness Elementary.
In each case, the schools had earned enough points to be identified as Off Track. However, because each school had one low-performing subgroup, they were federally identified for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI). Consequently, each schools’ overall rating was dropped one level to Needs Intensive Support. At Cedar Forest, Spotsylvania, and Wilderness, the subgroup was special needs students, and at Courtland, it was English Language Learners.
Three additional schools also had their ratings dropped due to subgroup performance. Battlefield Elementary’s framework score qualified it for On Track status, but it was lowered to Off Track. The same happened to Salem Elementary and Smith Station Elementary.
Mitchell told the Advance that “We have already started the process of supporting those schools so that they get on track for next school year by using the resources in the Office of School Performance and Core Curriculum” which is led by Dr. Maria Lewis.
This involves “monthly school impact checks to review data, visits to classrooms, and providing feedback to the principals,” Mitchell said.
He also said that “TSI Schools have to write a school improvement plan.”
At this point, Mitchell said, it’s not clear what the state will require or what resources it will provide to assist schools that are labeled Needs Intensive Support. “We’re waiting to see what the state is going to do,” he said, “but we know what we’re going to do.”
In addition to Battlefield, Salem, and Smith Station elementary schools mentioned above, eight additional schools were identified as Off Track. Those schools are Harrison Road Elementary, Livingston Elementary, Spotswood Elementary, Battlefield Middle, Chancellor Middle, Post Oak Middle, Spotsylvania Middle, and Thornburg Middle.
The remaining schools were rated On Track, with the exception of Spotsylvania High School which was rated as Distinguished.
Top 5
The Virginia Department of Education also produced a list of the Top 5 schools in a number of areas for each of the Superintendent Regions in the state. The schools in the Advance’s readership area, including Spotsylvania, are a part of Region III which includes 17 school districts.
The following schools earned Top 5 ratings in Region III:
Brock Road Elementary
#5 Elementary School by Total Points
#3 Top 5 Growth in Math
Berkeley Elementary
#5 Top 4 Readiness - Chronic Absenteeism
Chancellor
#5 Top 5 Mastery - Reading
Courtland High School
#4 Top 5 Mastery - Reading
#5 Readiness 6-year Graduation
Freedom Middle School
#4 Top 5 Mastery - Science
#5 Top 5 Readiness - Chronic Absenteeism
#5 Top 5 Growth - Reading
#3 Top 7 Advanced Coursework
Ni River Middle School
#2 Top 5 Middle Schools by Total Points
#2 Top 5 Mastery - Reading
#3 Top 5 Mastery - Math
#3 Top 5 Mastery - Science
#6 Top 7 Advanced Coursework
Riverbend High School
#3 Top 5 Mastery - Reading
#3 Top 5 Mastery - Science
Bottom Line
For individual school profiles, visit the Virginia Department of Education page for Spotsylvania County. Top-line scores are presented below.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
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