New VA school rating system in 2025-2026 SY

[Anonymous]

Washington Post gift link: https://wapo.st/4d08Kzy

“ Currently, Virginia combines accountability and accreditation into one measurement and awards schools a simple rating: accredited or accredited with conditions.”

“ Under the new plan, the board of education decided to break up the two measurements.”

“ Schools will still earn accreditation based on whether they meet basic state requirements. But now, they will receive a separate accountability ranking based on other metrics like mastery of topics and how much student performance has improved over a time period. It also will measure student readiness based on factors — which are still being finalized — such as chronic absenteeism and advanced coursework. The four categories for accountability will be: Distinguished, On Track, Off Track and Needs Intensive Support.”

Interestingly, it is estimated that 50-60% of schools are going to fall into the lower two categories of “off track” or “needs intensive support” because mastery is going to be weighted more than “growth” on the new rating system. I know we have a lot of troubled schools in the state and most are outside of FCPS and NoVa in general. I foresee a big, annoying push for attendance even more than this past school year, since that is something the schools feel they can push back on the parents.

What are your thoughts and how will this affect FCPS? Wonder if GreatSchools will take this into account in their rating mechanisms. The finalized regs are linked in the WaPo article - I only skimmed but am wondering if safety/weapons issues factors into the ratings at all.

[Anonymous]

Changing the labels or metrics doesn’t change the underlying issues that lead to poor school outcomes. The issue isn’t that schools aren’t held accountable, it’s that parents and students aren’t …

[Anonymous]

This rating scale, like all rating scales and testing will boil down to the SES level of the kids in the school.

[Anonymous]

It’s just amazing to me how far FCPS has fallen since the mid-90s. It would have been unheard of before then to have any schools in those lower two categories.

Massive illegal immigration and far-left Democrats on the SB are all responsible for this decline and it’s shameful.

[Anonymous]

Some schools are likely going to lose accreditation using these metrics. This dovetails nicely with all the talk of redoing school boundaries to force MC/UMC kids to poor performing schools. It's looking more likely now. I wonder if the SB knew this was coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington Post gift link: https://wapo.st/4d08Kzy

“ Currently, Virginia combines accountability and accreditation into one measurement and awards schools a simple rating: accredited or accredited with conditions.”

“ Under the new plan, the board of education decided to break up the two measurements.”

“ Schools will still earn accreditation based on whether they meet basic state requirements. But now, they will receive a separate accountability ranking based on other metrics like mastery of topics and how much student performance has improved over a time period. It also will measure student readiness based on factors — which are still being finalized — such as chronic absenteeism and advanced coursework. The four categories for accountability will be: Distinguished, On Track, Off Track and Needs Intensive Support.”

Interestingly, it is estimated that 50-60% of schools are going to fall into the lower two categories of “off track” or “needs intensive support” because mastery is going to be weighted more than “growth” on the new rating system. I know we have a lot of troubled schools in the state and most are outside of FCPS and NoVa in general. I foresee a big, annoying push for attendance even more than this past school year, since that is something the schools feel they can push back on the parents.

What are your thoughts and how will this affect FCPS? Wonder if GreatSchools will take this into account in their rating mechanisms. The finalized regs are linked in the WaPo article - I only skimmed but am wondering if safety/weapons issues factors into the ratings at all.

I foresee angry parents, a beleaguered board and principals getting fired. I will continue to let my kids miss when our school goes into full remediation mode after most kids fail SOLs the first time around

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me how far FCPS has fallen since the mid-90s. It would have been unheard of before then to have any schools in those lower two categories.

Massive illegal immigration and far-left Democrats on the SB are all responsible for this decline and it’s shameful.

Fairfax County was smaller than, teachers were better, admins were better, there were less standards, etc....

Or FCPS stopped the spin machine and it has always been bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools are likely going to lose accreditation using these metrics. This dovetails nicely with all the talk of redoing school boundaries to force MC/UMC kids to poor performing schools. It's looking more likely now. I wonder if the SB knew this was coming.

No more now than before. Sounds like you don't understand what these new "school grades" are supposed to do/show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools are likely going to lose accreditation using these metrics. This dovetails nicely with all the talk of redoing school boundaries to force MC/UMC kids to poor performing schools. It's looking more likely now. I wonder if the SB knew this was coming.

It’ll certainly be harder for the school board to argue that all FCPS schools are great when the state starts implementing these metrics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools are likely going to lose accreditation using these metrics. This dovetails nicely with all the talk of redoing school boundaries to force MC/UMC kids to poor performing schools. It's looking more likely now. I wonder if the SB knew this was coming.

I wasn’t going to say it because I don’t want this thread to end up like the others but I was thinking the same.

There is no way the SB and other SB’s throughout the state didn’t know this was coming. It went through the formal regulatory process which generally takes about a year, and has public hearings and public comment periods associated with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me how far FCPS has fallen since the mid-90s. It would have been unheard of before then to have any schools in those lower two categories.

Massive illegal immigration and far-left Democrats on the SB are all responsible for this decline and it’s shameful.

Fairfax County was smaller than, teachers were better, admins were better, there were less standards, etc....

Or FCPS stopped the spin machine and it has always been bad.

No it wasn't. Robinson was still a school and Westfields was towards the end of this timeframe. The system has created I think one high school since then. As a nation our standards have decreased. FCPS is just one of the first to get on the bandwagon with any new approach regardless of its endurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some schools are likely going to lose accreditation using these metrics. This dovetails nicely with all the talk of redoing school boundaries to force MC/UMC kids to poor performing schools. It's looking more likely now. I wonder if the SB knew this was coming.

No more now than before. Sounds like you don't understand what these new "school grades" are supposed to do/show.

It sounds like they’ll still be “accredited” if they meet the bare minimum state standards. Are the standards changing? I actually don’t know which is why I’m asking. But even if they are accredited, they could still fall into one of the lower rating buckets of off track or needing intensive support.

Wonder if FCPS will display the schools’ state ratings or if you’ll have to go digging through the state board of education’s website to find it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me how far FCPS has fallen since the mid-90s. It would have been unheard of before then to have any schools in those lower two categories.

Massive illegal immigration and far-left Democrats on the SB are all responsible for this decline and it’s shameful.

Fairfax County was smaller than, teachers were better, admins were better, there were less standards, etc....

Or FCPS stopped the spin machine and it has always been bad.

No, it actually was an excellent school district. The spin is what we see today, when FCPS pretends to still be excellent and “world class,” as they like to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me how far FCPS has fallen since the mid-90s. It would have been unheard of before then to have any schools in those lower two categories.

Massive illegal immigration and far-left Democrats on the SB are all responsible for this decline and it’s shameful.

Fairfax County was smaller than, teachers were better, admins were better, there were less standards, etc....

Or FCPS stopped the spin machine and it has always been bad.

No it wasn't. Robinson was still a school and Westfields was towards the end of this timeframe. The system has created I think one high school since then. As a nation our standards have decreased. FCPS is just one of the first to get on the bandwagon with any new approach regardless of its endurance.

It was only 5-10 years ago that Arlington was the progressive school district and Fairfax was the stodgy, conservative, traditional school district. There are still plenty of experienced administrators and teachers around for whom that is still the case. The posters who ding FCPS for jumping at every new edu-fad are either young or very very cynical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools are likely going to lose accreditation using these metrics. This dovetails nicely with all the talk of redoing school boundaries to force MC/UMC kids to poor performing schools. It's looking more likely now. I wonder if the SB knew this was coming.

Nice then that something your beloved Glenn Youngkin's Board of Education did aligns with something the FCPS school board is doing.