72% of Virginia schools make grade

RICHMOND (AP) — Seventy-two percent of Virginia’s public schools met annual performance benchmarks in reading and mathematics under the No Child Left Behind Act, but two Richmond middle schools face drastic sanctions after years of failing to achieve those goals, officials said yesterday.

Preliminary figures show that 1,316 of 1,823 schools met all the “adequate yearly progress” goals in the 2006-07 academic year established under the federal education reform law, which took effect in 2002. The figures are largely tied to increased student success on the state Standards of Learning exams. The objectives weren’t met by 467 schools, and the status of 36 schools is pending.

The state Department of Education said that 64 of Virginia’s 699 Title I schools are subject to federal sanctions for failing to meet the benchmarks, compared with 63 last year. Title I schools receive federal funds to serve children from low-income families and are the focus of most of the law’s accountability measures.

Twenty-seven Title I schools failed to make adequate yearly progress for the second straight year, putting them in “improvement” status. Those schools must notify parents that their children have the option to transfer to higher-performing schools within the district.

Fourteen Title I schools are in their second year of improvement after missing progress benchmarks for three years and must offer transfer options and tutoring for students. Fourteen schools are in their third year of improvement status, which requires them also to take corrective action. That can include changing staff and curriculum as well as extending the school day or school year.

Six Title I schools — Hoffman-Boston Elementary in Arlington County; Tappahannock Elementary in Essex County; McNair Elementary in Fairfax County; J.E.B. Stuart Elementary and Peabody Middle schools in Petersburg; and Prince Edward Middle in Prince Edward County — are in their fourth year of improvement status. They must begin making alternative governance plans while offering transfers and tutoring and taking corrective action.

Two Richmond schools — Chandler Middle School and Elkhardt Middle School — entered the category requiring the most severe sanctions. Chandler missed making adequate yearly progress for the sixth year, and Elkhardt remained in this category after making benchmarks in the 2006-07 academic year. The city school division must choose among replacing school staff key to the failure to meet the benchmarks, turning over operations to a private company or becoming a charter school, the education department said.

Vernon Johns Middle School in Petersburg failed to make benchmarks for the seventh straight year. The school already is undergoing an alternative-governance plan to boost student achievement, education officials said. Also, the Department of Education last year appointed a chief academic officer for the Petersburg school division. As part of that strategy, the division is undergoing a correctional plan that aims to improve student performance.

Of the schools whose status has yet to be determined, 14 are Title I schools, the education department said.

Among all 132 school divisions, 58 made the annual benchmarks, compared with 72 last year. Divisions that failed to meet benchmarks for two consecutive years must expedite plans to raise student achievement.

As a state, Virginia met the benchmarks by meeting or exceeding 29 objectives related to statewide testing.

State education officials noted that a school could be improving overall but still be listed as failing to make adequate progress for falling short on just one objective.

The federal law requires that at least 95 percent of students overall and in subgroups — including black students, disabled students and economically disadvantaged students — take the state’s reading and math Standards of Learning tests.

At least 73 percent of students overall and in each subgroup had to pass the reading test for a school to be considered proficient for the 2006-07 school year, up from 69 percent the previous year. In math, it was 71 percent, up from 67 percent. However, schools that fall short can still make the grade if they reduce failure rates by at least 10 percent.

Improvements also are required in high school graduation rates and elementary and middle-school attendance and science achievement rates. Divisions must decide at the beginning of the school year whether to use attendance or science as an academic indicator for elementary and middle schools.