Hayfield Secondary, Lee Miss Education Benchmark

Though over 90 percent of Fairfax County Public students passed Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) test last school year, about half of all schools in the county did not meet testing goals laid out by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Officials praised the school system’s performance on the SOL tests, while warning that federal yearly progress goals for schools are not an adequate measure of success.

Ninety-two percent students in the county earned a passing SOL score for mathematics, while 93 percent passed the reading test, according to the school system.

Of 190 schools in the county 94 of them did not meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals set by the No Child Left Behind Act, according to data recently released by the Virginia Department of Education. Last year, 52 schools did not meet their progress goal, representing a 22 percent increase.

In Virginia, only 697, or 38 percent of the 1,839 schools in the state, made AYP based on last school year’s test results, while 61 percent made AYP during the previous ratings cycle.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that states set annual student achievement goals in reading and math, which will lead to 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

Schools that did not meet “Adequate Yearly Progress” this year include Hayfield Secondary, Franconia Elementary, and Lee High School.

This year, for a school to meet its Annual Yearly Progress goal, at least 86 percent of students overall and students in each racial and socio-economic subgroup must have demonstrated proficiency in reading, while 85 percent must be proficient in math. Last year, the proficiency goals for reading and math were 81 percent and 79 percent, respectively.

Student groups held to this standard include whites, blacks, hispanics, students with limited English proficiency (LEP), students with disabilities and those who are economically disadvantaged. The legislation also takes into account a number of other benchmarks, including attendance and graduation rates.

In light of the results, Virginia officials said Thursday AYP was an inadequate measure of school performance.

“We don’t believe that it’s a very helpful indicator of school success,” said FCPS spokesperson Paul Regnier. For instance, he said one of the highest-performing schools in the county  “did not make AYP because of the numbers of students with disabilities.” 

Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said in a statement that she will recommend that the Board of Education ask Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a waiver from No Child Left Behind Act requirements and the ability to create a new accountability system for the commonwealth.

“Accountability is not advanced by arbitrary rules and benchmarks that misidentify schools,” she said.

Over the last three years, the achievement gap between Black and White students in Fairfax County in math narrowed from 15 to 13 percentage points, while the Hispanic-White achievement gap decreased from 16 to 11 percentage points. 

The achievement gap between black and white students in reading decreased from 13 to 10 percentage points over the last three years, while the White-Hispanic gap increased by one percent.

To look up individual schools performance on SOL tests over the years click here.