School accreditation waived for another year

August 11, 2020

State public education Superintendent James Lane has waived annual school accreditation requirements for the 2021-22 academic year, the Virginia Department of Education announced Aug. 4.

Schools will be assigned a rating of “accreditation waived,” the same rating assigned schools for 2020-21 under a waiver issued in April.

Accreditation ratings are based on performance during the previous school year. The statewide closure of schools in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the cancellation of spring Standards of Learning testing. Student performance on SOL tests in English, mathematics and science are key metrics under the state Board of Education’s school accreditation standards.

Without spring 2020 SOL results, there is insufficient data to calculate accreditation ratings for the 2020-21 school year, a press release explained. And because year-to-year growth in English and growth in mathematics are also accreditation metrics, VDOE won’t have sufficient data to calculate ratings for 2021-22. Even if students are able to take tests next spring, the department won’t have baseline data from 2019-20 for measuring growth.