Last month, Virginia’s Board of Education approved new accreditation standards for the state’s public schools. In addition to the existing school quality indicators — academic achievement, academic achievement gaps, chronic absenteeism, the Graduation and Completion Index, dropout rates, and the College, Career, and Readiness Index — the state wants to make sure local districts are bringing their English learners up to grade standards.
Under the previous accreditation system, the state granted students who are classified in Fairfax County as “multi-language learners,” or previously, “English language learners,” 11 semesters of exemption from certain accreditation standards, such as standardized tests in reading. Now, English learners will be included in each school’s accreditation analysis after only three semesters. Public schools that do not fully adopt and fail to implement the state’s required corrective actions to address level three school-quality indicators will be denied accreditation.
