More Virginia public schools earn full accreditation

Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School, formed over the summer, received conditional accreditation because it is a new school.

Charlottesville City Schools, Fluvanna County Public Schools and Orange County Public Schools divisions have every school listed as fully accredited based on Standards of Learning test scores, among the 38 school divisions in Virginia to do so.

Three Newport News schools were denied accreditation for the 2015-16 school year, according to data released Tuesday by the Virginia Department of Education. In 2014, 30 percent of schools missed the mark. Almost 340 schools received a few level of partial accreditation. Past year the school was “Accredited with Warning”.

Denied accreditation – A reconstituted school becomes denied if it fails to meet full accreditation standards within an agreed upon period, or fails to have its “partially accredited, reconstituted school” application renewed. That number remained the same this year. The requirements for full accreditation haven’t changed.

For schools to be fully accredited, at least 70 percent of students must pass state standardized tests in math, science and history, and at least 75 percent must pass state English exams. High schools must also meet a graduation index.

The state also rolled out a new state accountability system this year. Another 46 are partially accredited: approaching benchmark, pass rate.

Partially accredited: improving school, pass rate – Schools that missed full accreditation but showed acceptable SOL progress, as determined by the state. In the past, these schools would all have been labeled “accredited with warning”.

Northern Virginia schools did considerably better than the state, with just 7 percent of schools falling short of full accreditation.

But for 2015-2016 year, the Board of Education has revised its Standards of Accreditation. For this school, its English test scores fell just below the benchmark. In Richmond, Amelia Street School and Richmond Alternative School, L. Douglas Wilder Middle School in Henrico County, and in Petersburg, Peabody Middle School.

William H. Wetsel Middle School in Madison County and the rest of the schools in Albemarle County are fully accredited.