Northern Virginia’s school systems are urging the Virginia Board of Education and the Virginia Department of Education to delay for at least a year the implementation of the state’s new School Performance and Supports Framework.
The framework outlines how schools are performing and then ranks them as Distinguished, On Track, Off Track, or Needs Intensive Support. The state school board approved the framework in August and launched an online hub earlier this month.
School board chairs from Alexandria, Arlington County, the City of Fairfax, Fairfax County, City of Falls Church, Loudoun County, City of Manassas, and Prince William County asked for the delay, saying the state needs to do more to successfully implement the measures.
“We want to be good partners with the state in our shared mission to foster the success of each and every student; however, we are concerned that school divisions have not been provided that appropriate amount of time to address the new accountability requirements the Commonwealth has established,” a statement from the eight school systems said.
Those school districts account for one-third of the state’s more than 1.26 million students, 33 percent of students with disabilities, and 60 percent of students who are acquiring English language skills.
“One-quarter of the 2024-25 school year has already passed, and many of the Framework’s measures have still not yet been fully defined nor has detailed modeling been shared with school divisions. Additionally, the Commonwealth has yet to identify the types of support it will provide to schools in need of improvement and secure the necessary related funding,” the school systems said.
Recommendations of NoVA School Boards
The NoVA school boards recommend five actions before the policy is implemented.
The schools want the state to reinstate student knowledge growth and alternative measurement alongside mastery as key components in the framework.
They want the state to fully build out and transparently vet all new components, including the calculations and underlying algorithms that are used, as well as providing time for professionals and parents to review and comment.
NoVA school leaders said the fully built-out framework to be tested and validated.
They want to know the components of any memorandum of understanding that will be required of low-performing schools and school divisions. As part of that, they want tiers based on school division size to be created, rather than straight scores used, to determine when changes are triggered.
For any school considered off track or in need of intensive support in the School Performance and Supports Framework, NoVA school leaders said the state department of education needs to “prioritize an immediate increase in appropriated funding,” as well as “for comprehensive professional development related to the new Framework, for all school divisions based on their actual number of instructional FTEs (full-time equivalents).” Longer-term funding is also needed, they said.
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
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