Virginia's superintendent of public instruction today called for an overhaul of No Child Left Behind after fewer state schools and divisions made Adequate Yearly Progress as defined by the 2001 federal law.
Just 38 percent of Virginia schools – 697 out of 1,839 – met or exceeded benchmarks based on 2010-11 Standards of Learning assessments. Only four of 132 school divisions met the benchmarks.
In central Virginia, just 105 of 276 schools in 21 localities in the Richmond region met the federal benchmarks. No schools in Sussex, Amelia, Caroline, Cumberland and King and Queen counties and the city of Hopewell made adequate yearly progress.
In the region’s four-biggest school divisions:
Henrico: 26 of 46 schools made AYP;
Chesterfield: 20 of 61;
Richmond: 19 of 44;
Hanover: 15 of 23.
West Point, which has three schools, was the only one of the 21 districts among the four statewide to make adequate yearly progress as a division.
One struggling school division saw minor improvement from last year. Petersburg had one school, J.E.B. Stuart Elementary, make AYP after none attained the benchmark last year.
However, Peabody Middle and Vernon Johns Junior High schools failed to make adequate yearly progress, even after the school division contracted with Cambridge Education to come into those schools and boost student achievement.
According to the contract between Petersburg and Cambridge, the contractor guarantees both schools will make adequate yearly progress in all three years of the contract.
For a school, school division or the state to make Adequate Yearly Progress, more than 86 percent of students must have demonstrated proficiency on state tests in reading, and 85 percent must have passed state tests in mathematics.
Students in all subgroups — white, black, Hispanic, limited-English proficient, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged — must also meet the benchmarks.
State Superintendent Patricia I. Wright said she will recommend that the Virginia Board of Education ask U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a waiver from what she called the increasingly unrealistic requirements. On Monday, Duncan announced he will provide a process for states to seek relief from key provisions of the law, with the specifics to be announced next month.
"During the coming weeks, I will begin a discussion with the state board on creating a new model for measuring yearly progress that maintains high expectations for student achievement, recognizes growth — overall and by subgroup — and accurately identifies schools most in need of improvement," Wright said.
To make Adequate Yearly Progress last year, schools' pass rates must have been greater than 81 percent in reading and greater than 79 percent in mathematics based on 2009-10 SOL testing.
No Child Left Behind calls for all schools to reach 100 percent pass rates by 2014.
