The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) presented its findings after reviewing the new K-12 school accountability system implemented by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.
JLARC found the new approach is more effective and useful than the state’s previous one, but still needs refinement.
The new accountability system changed the way schools are classified. It publicly ranks each Virginia school in one of four performance categories: Distinguished, on track, off track, or needs intensive support.
The ratings were just released: 23% of Virginia schools are distinguished, 42% are on track, 22% are off track, and 12% need intensive support.
While saying the new system is an improvement, the JLARC report offers several suggestions to refine it.
One complaint from school districts, as reported in this Richmond Times-Dispatch story, is that the new accountability system places much more weight on proficiency than on growth.
Proficiency measures whether a student meets academic standards, while growth measures how much a student’s performance improves over time.
“Growth completely masked achievement realities,” Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Education Emily Anne Gullickson said during the JLARC meeting. “That’s limited our ability to really deliver the right support to meet individual students’ needs.”
JLARC reported that this difference prevents the system from fully capturing schools’ contributions to student learning and increases the impact of student demographics on scores.
“We want to make sure that students are making annual progress, that they are moving and that students are getting towards grade level or exceeding the grade level,” Gullickson said in response. “But growth cannot be more important than ensuring that students are truly prepared on the grade level content and are able to succeed and prosper upon graduation. We want that diploma to mean even more.”
Commission Chair Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, questioned Gullickson about why growth and proficiency do not carry equal weight.
“When you blur the lines on growth and readiness, then we can’t really deliver and focus on where students are not yet on grade level and need those additional supports,” she responded.
Youngkin touted the release of the first set of school rankings in a social media post last week.
“On day one we committed to delivering the most transparent K-12 accountability system in the nation, with the highest expectations for every student,” he wrote. “Our Student Performance and Support Framework is doing just that, providing timely, trustworthy data so we can target support to the students, schools and communities who need it most, and we can all learn from our Distinguished top-performing schools.”
Youngkin is leaving office next month as Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger takes over. Spanberger has not publicly commented on the accountability system recently. However, Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi, who chaired the Senate Education and Health Committee, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch she wants greater emphasis on growth.