SOL scores show progress made in most cities

NORFOLK

For all but a few Hampton Roads schools, the news is good:  They passed the state Standards of Learning benchmarks and secured full accreditation.

However the hammer came down on Norfolk’s Lafayette-Winona Middle School, which was stripped of accreditation by the state Department of Education for its consistently poor performance. Lafayette-Winona is one of only four schools statewide that  lost accreditation.

Two other Norfolk schools were  warned by the state that they need to do better.

Portsmouth came up one school short of attaining full accreditation throughout the division. Brighton Elementary barely missed the mark and was issued a warning.

All Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach  schools made the grade.

Failing to earn accreditation can hurt a school division’s reputation  but rarely results in more than bad publicity.

Schools are given lots of time and leniency to improve test scores. The state has never pulled funding or forced a low-performing school in South Hampton Roads to close.

Lafayette-Winona’s failure is the first  for Norfolk since the state began denying accreditation to chronically under performing  schools in 2006. Other failing schools  have included some in Petersburg and Sussex County.

Norfolk school officials said Wednesday that they have already made a number of changes to improve student performance at Lafayette-Winona. The middle school was embroiled  in a cheating scandal last school year that involved an alternative accreditation test in 2009- 10. Its principal and department heads have  been replaced.

Norfolk leaders were elated that two of the schools that missed accreditation last year, Lake Taylor and Northside middle schools, passed the latest round of tests. The accomplishment was especially rich for Lake Taylor, which has not met state SOL benchmarks since the assessments were instituted in the 1990s.

In all, 45 of the division’s 48 schools are fully accredited.  Norfolk’s Ruffner Academy and Lindenwood Elementary are  accredited with warning.

“We are thrilled with their efforts, and we want to see that replicated at all of our schools,”   Superintendent Richard Bentley said.

Brighton Elementary’s failure to make the grade was a disappointment in Portsmouth. Last year, the school division celebrated after all of its schools were accredited for the first time in its history.

Norfolk leaders must now submit a plan to the state for raising Lafayette-Winona’s performance.

“We have a lot of work to do at Lafayette, and through the corrective action plan, we’ll put resources in place and personnel necessary to help them reinvent Lafayette this year,” chief academic officer Christine Harris  said.

According to Norfolk leaders, Lafayette-Winona struggled with test pass rates in history, although the school met state benchmarks in English, math and science. Lafayette-Winona earned a 59% pass rate in history.

In middle schools and high schools, a pass rate of at least 70 percent in all four subject areas – English, math, science and history  – is required for full accreditation.

The state requires that within 30 days, the division must notify parents in writing of Lafayette-Winona’s accreditation denial. It must also give parents a copy of its proposed corrective plan, including an implementation timeline. School leaders must also give the public an opportunity to comment on the plan before it is adopted by the School Board.

Norfolk’s board and the state Board of Education must agree on the plan by Nov. 1. After that, Norfolk leaders will need to file periodic status reports with the state.
Because the school no longer is accredited, Norfolk also has the option of closing the school, combining it with a higher performing school or reconstituting it. Reconstitution could include restructuring the school’s administration, instruction, employees or student population.

But Harris said that with the installation this summer of new leaders at Lafayette-Winona, “in essence, we have already reconstituted the leadership.”

All three Norfolk schools that did not meet full accreditation standards have new principals this year, and Ruffner and Lindenwood have received $4 million each from the state for school improvement.

The division said Tracey Flemings, Lafayette-Winona’s new principal, met with the school’s staff Wednesday morning to talk about the SOL results. Flemings is the former principal of the fully accredited Rosemont Middle School.

“It’s a new year,”  Flemings told the staff. “We are going to have great things happen this year.”

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com