Sixteen county schools fall short

SCPS meet AYP mark as division

STAFFORD — Fifty-three percent of Stafford County’s public schools have failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards.

Despite the figure, the number represents a small boost in the number of local schools meeting AYP from a year ago.

Public schools and school divisions in Virginia are annually assessed by the Adequate Yearly Progress standard of the No Child Left Behind law. To make AYP, a school or school division must meet 29 individual benchmarks defined by No Child Left Behind. 

For each AYP benchmark, a school or school division is rated against an annual measurable objective. The objective percentages will increase each year until ultimately reaching 100 percent in 2013-14, according to No Child Left Behind. 

The following individual schools — 16 of 30 Stafford public schools in all — did not make AYP for 2009-10, based on Virginia Standards of Learning test performances from 2008-09: A.G. Wright, Edward E. Drew, T. Benton Gayle, Shirley C. Heim and Stafford middle schools; Anthony Burns, Conway, Ferry Farm, Hampton Oaks, Hartwood, Kate Waller Barrett, Park Ridge, Rocky Run, Stafford, Widewater and Winding Creek elementary.

The following individual schools were successful in making AYP for 2009-10, based on Virginia Standards of Learning test performances from 2008-09: Brooke Point, Colonial Forge, Mountain View, Stafford and North Stafford high schools; Dixon-Smith, H.H. Poole and Rodney Thompson middle schools; Falmouth, Garrisonville, Grafton Village, Margaret Brent, Moncure and Rockhill elementary schools.

Additionally, Stafford County Public Schools made AYP as a school division, according to a press release circulated last week. 

To make AYP as a school, school division or the state, at least 81 percent of students overall and students in all subgroups — white, black, Hispanic, limited English proficient students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged — must be proficient on Standards of Learning and reading testing, and 79 percent must pass state math testing.

All results are preliminary until they are finalized by the Virginia Department of Education.

Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School, which did not make AYP for 2009-2010, will be offering “school choice” — essentially a transfer option to a school better-scoring school — for the 2009-2010 school year. Falmouth Elementary School, which did make AYP for 2009-2010, will continue to offer school choice for the 2009-2010 school year. This is because sanctions are imposed on schools that receive certain federal funds, but don’t make AYP for two or more years in a row in the same content area. Also, Rocky Run Elementary School, which did not make AYP, no longer has to offer school choice, thereby exiting “school improvement” status, because it met its requirements for the past two years. 

In addition, the Virginia Department of Education this week released its 2009-10 preliminary accreditation ratings for its public schools. All 30 of Stafford’s schools earned full state accreditation for 2009-2010, based on Standards of Learning test results from the past three school years in the academic areas of English, History, Mathematics, and Science. 

The state accreditation benchmarks are 70 percent for most categories. In elementary school, there is a 75 percent benchmark for English, while the benchmarks for third-grade history and third-grade science are 50 percent.

In Virginia, the state and 71 percent of the Commonwealth’s public schools met or exceeded its No Child Left Behind objectives.

Tracy Bell is managing editor for the Stafford County Sun. Reach her at .