CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’ll be late November at the earliest before the first report cards for the Mountain State’s public schools from the new West Virginia A-F School Accountability System are released to students, parents and school communities.
The state Department of Education is pushing back a previously scheduled Nov. 10 announcement date for those grades at the request of county school officials, according to Kristin Anderson, department communications director.
“When we go public with this information, we want to make sure that it’s completely accurate and correct,” she told MetroNews.
Since Friday, Oct. 14, local school officials have been going through a “validation process,” which is a full review of the determined grades. Appeals are being filed for any necessary corrections or adjustments.
“This time period has just been used for quality assurance so that schools and districts can really take a close look at their data, take a look at what is in the system, what’s showing in the system and confirm if there are any inaccuracies,” Anderson explained.
“What we were hearing as the appeal window was about to close from our districts is that they really were requesting more time.”
The West Virginia A-F School Accountability System was initially created in the 2013 education reform law to track and hold schools accountable for student learning, growth and achievement.
Areas of success and areas needing improvement are being identified utilizing the following criteria:
Performance
– The percentage of students who met grade level expectations in math and English-language arts on state assessments. Reading achievement for 3rd graders and math achievement for 8th graders is also measured.
Improvement
– The percentage of students who are improving and the percentage of students on track to reach grade-level expectations in math and English-language arts.
Persistence
– The percentage of students participating in learning opportunities and graduating on time as measured by attendance and graduation rates, and the reduction of the number of students at-risk for dropping out.
Post-Secondary Readiness
– The percentage of students passing Advanced Placement of International Baccalaureate tests, scoring well in college-credit bearing courses, or completing a Career and Technical Education concentration.
The individual grades break down like this:
A: Schools with distinctive student performance
B: Schools with commendable student performance
C: Schools with acceptable student performance
D: Schools with unacceptable student performance
F: Schools with lowest student performance
For more on the West Virginia A-F School Accountability System, CLICK HERE.
Because this is the first year for the grades, “There have been a lot of questions. How exactly does it work, how it’s calculated, points possible,” Anderson said. “All that information’s on the website.”