Preliminary results show the Williamsburg-James City County Schools and York County School District consistently scored higher than both state and federal averages on Standard of Learning tests last year. But the Virginia and U.S. departments of education said that’s not good enough.
It has to do with a standard introduced over the summer – after SOL tests had been taken – called Meeting Higher Expectations.
Each year, Virginia students take the SOL tests, which show student progress in math, English, science and history. SOL pass rates are meant to be a measure of how schools are performing. The percentages of students who pass the test in those subjects are further refined into subgroups, like race, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students.
When they receive the results, the state and federal government treat the numbers in different ways. The state decides, within the bounds of their own standards, if a school should be accredited. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Education – within the bounds of their own standards – decides whether each school meets all Annual Measurable Objectives that consist of target SOL pass rates for student subgroups.
The newly introduced MHE standard was developed by the state and federal governments as part of the federal AMO system specifically for schools that outperformed or met all the previous year’s targets. The MHE rule says if any student subgroup backslides on its pass rate by more than 5 percent of the previous year’s scores — even if it is still above the current year’s target — the school has not met the AMO.
The new standard is causing problems for local school districts: Five of 15 WJCC schools met all federal AMOs when 13 of 15 would have without the MHE standard.
It’s not just a problem in the WJCC school district. In York County, nine of 19 schools met all federal AMOs when 16 would have without the MHE standard. The new rule sparked a request from YCSD for a piece of legislation that would require a re-examination of the school accountability system.
“We have now experienced a significant increase in the number of schools that did not meet [federal] AMO,” WJCC Superintendent Steven Constantino said during Tuesday’s school board meeting. “Not because we performed less ably, but because we previously met our targets and are now being penalized by a new set of rules.”
Magruder Elementary School is an example of why local school board members are unhappy with the new MHE provision.
This year’s federal target pass rate for the mathematics portion of the test was 41 percent for students with disabilities. Despite an increase in rigor introduced last year to the portion of the test, 67.39 percent of students with disabilities at Magruder Elementary passed the test.
Because of the new MHE provision, the U.S. Department of Education said Magruder failed to meet the AMO in math for students with disabilities. That’s because the group’s score last year was 71.42 percent and, while it’s score this year was only about a 4 percent drop in total, it backslid to less than 95 percent of last year’s score.
The group would have needed a score of 67.84 — more than 26 percent above the target pass rate — to meet the federal AMO. Schools that failed to meet all AMOs last year would need to meet the 41 percent standard using average pass rates from the past three years.
The education departments introduced the provision this year to try and close achievement gaps in schools across the state. For now, it’s a scarlet letter school districts like WJCC and YCSD have to bear, something Dr. Dave Gaston, WJCC’s senior director for accountability, quality and innovation, called “frustrating.”
“We’ll work through it like we have to, just like other divisions,” Gaston said.
The schools who did not meet all AMOs this year because of the introduction of MHE are:
WJCC
- Berkely Middle
- Clara Byrd Baker Elementary
- James River Elementary
- Jamestown High
- Matoaka Elementary
- Norge Elementary
- Stonehouse Elementary
- Toano Middle
YCSD
- Bethel Manor Elementary
- Coventry Elementary
- Magruder Elementary
- Seaford Elementary
- Queens Lake Middle
- Tabb Middle
- Yorktown Middle
