Rulings Clarify Benchmarks for Schools’ Pass Rates (VA)

August 3, 2010

Until a few days ago, Virginia’s schools didn’t know what it would take to be labeled as passing or failing for the upcoming school year.

Several rulings from the U.S. Department of Education have cleared up that uncertainty. Two of them – concerning graduation rates and special-education scores – will make it harder for schools to make "Adequate Yearly Progress." The third – affecting math and English pass rates – will make it easier. School-by-school results are expected to be released in the next two weeks.

The department gave the nod for Virginia to hold its passing rates at 79 percent in math and 81 percent in English for a second year, instead of the 83 percent in math and 85 percent in English that would otherwise have been required. Schools will not be able to round up scores. They will need to reach the target or reduce failure by 10 percent to pass.

At the same time, tougher graduation rates, which are expected to mark a third of the region’s high schools as failing, were approved.

The state will hold public high schools accountable for graduating about 80 percent of students in four years, up from 61 percent.

Schools also will be able to pass by showing they have met that rate over time or have reduced failure by 10 percent. An earlier proposal that would have counted a variety of diploma types and GEDs was rejected by the federal government.

The federal education department also reaffirmed that automatic bonus points added on to special-education scores will no longer be permitted in any state, making it likely that more schools will miss targets for special-education students.

Schools in Virginia where special-education students scored below all other groups had been able to tack 15 percentage points onto Standards of Learning reading pass rates and 16 percentage points onto math pass rates through what’s known as a proxy percentage.

There is much uncertainty this year as Congress debates what to do with rules governing school accountability. Current goals requiring schools to bring all students up to grade level by 2014 are widely seen as unrealistic.

Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said the state reached a tipping point where it was going to be extremely difficult for schools to reach the benchmarks.

"You don’t say ‘Where we are is good enough,’" he said. However, the state also wanted to avoid a situation where most schools fail.

Schools that accept Title I federal funding can be forced to offer tutoring and school choice and can face restructuring after repeated failures to meet targets. Schools that don’t take that funding aren’t sanctioned, but their school divisions are expected to step in and make changes.

Virginia plans to move to an accountability model measuring schools on how they improve student performance over time, Pyle said. Howe ver, the current system only allows the state to compare how groups of students, such as third-graders, performed against previous groups taking the same test.