Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The Montgomery County school system is reporting six of its 20 public schools meet the highest standards announced in a Virginia Education report.
The numbers show all county schools are fully accredited, but several have some work to do under the current state marks.
Dr. Amanda Weidner, Interim Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, presented the report to the Montgomery County School Board at a special work session this past week. The overall state report is to provide a single, aligned view of school performance.
The accreditation categories are: Fully Accredited, Conditionally Accredited, Accreditation Denied, New School and Accreditation Withheld.
Fully accredited is defined as meeting all requirements set by the state. Conditionally shows that some areas need to be fixed to regain full status.
Accreditation denied means the school has not made the required fixes.
New school deals with the temporary status for newly opened schools for one year, and Accreditation withheld is used if there is a serious testing issue and results cannot be validated.
Again, under the state system, accreditation is not related to academic performance but is based on the compliance of standards.
Six Montgomery schools (Gilbert Linkous Elementary School, Harding Avenue Elementary, Kipps Elementary, Margaret Beeks Elementary, Auburn High School and Blacksburg High) received the “distinguished” ranking.
Schools that meet expectations and are on track included Auburn Elementary, Belview Elementary, Christiansburg Elementary, Christiansburg Primary School, Auburn Middle School, Blacksburg Middle, Christiansburg High and Eastern Montgomery High.
Falling Branch Elementary, Prices Fork Elementary and Christiansburg Middle were all listed as being “off track”, thus showing the individual school ranks below expectations and needs more state support.
Eastern Montgomery Elementary and Shawsville Middle are listed as needing intensive support, ranking below expectations.
The Virginia Department of Education’s Office of School Improvement will provide training later this month to support school divisions in meeting federal requirements for the identified schools.
