Richmond, VA – State officials said that the increase in federally identified schools is driven by the Virginia Board of Education’s September 2022 adoption of requirements to close achievement gaps for Virginia’s most at-risk students, which reflects the Board’s commitment to higher expectations for schools across the Commonwealth.
Under the State Board’s more rigorous expectations now incorporated into Virginia’s federal accountability framework, 247 schools were identified as needing support and improvement.
Conversely, Virginia’s state accreditation system reports 208 schools needing support.
This confusing mismatch in federal and state criteria of school performance reinforces the importance of the State Board of Education’s work to ensure state accreditation ratings clearly and accurately communicate the performance of every school.
Federal law requires Virginia to identify schools needing support and improvement in three categories using the state’s federal accountability system.
The Virginia Board of Education approves a Consolidated State Plan defining how schools are identified under the federal accountability system.
The latest CSP included the Board’s elevation of learning loss recovery across all student groups, increased expectations of performance targets in reading and math to reflect increased academic expectations for all student groups, and full inclusion of chronic absenteeism as measures of school performance.
