Virginia Weighs Wider Index to Certify Schools

Graduation Rates Would Be Tied to Points System

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) is reviewing a plan that would require all Virginia high schools to meet certain graduation-rate requirements by 2014 to receive accreditation under a new assessment system.

Under the proposal, state officials would use a computer system to track students throughout their academic careers to determine the number of diplomas, GEDs and other certificates that schools award during any given year. Schools would receive accreditation based on those results. Current accreditation standards are based on pass rates on the annual Standards of Learning exams.

As part of the accreditation process, schools would be rated on a points system. For instance, schools would be awarded 100 points for each student who received a diploma; the school would earn 75 points if a student received a general equivalency diploma. If a student earned a certificate of completion, given to those who don't earn high-school diplomas or their equivalent, the school would receive 60 points.

The aggregate numbers would be used to calculate a composite index. A school would need a graduating class with a minimum of 80 percentage points and would be required to meet SOL pass rates to be fully accredited.

Schools would be eased into the system over several years. If the plan is adopted, schools would be allowed to earn a score of 75 starting next year to receive provisional accreditation; by 2013-14, they would be allowed to score 79 points to receive the provisional credit.

After 2014, any school that failed to score at least 80 points on the index would be accredited with warning. After three consecutive years of accreditation with warning, a school would lose its certification for not having achieved minimum standards.

State Board of Education officials said the plan seeks to award credit for a broad range of educational achievement. The board approved the plan late last year and sent it to Kaine's office for review. It will be subject to public comment. If approved, the change would begin with the 2009-10 academic year.

"It attempts to strike that balance to provide full credit for the ideal: students who graduate with a diploma," said Charles Pyle, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Education. "But it also offers recognition, although lesser credit, for successful efforts to keep children in school, like a GED. Because if students are not in school, they can't learn."

Pyle said Virginia's data-management computer system has evolved to the point where it can track each of the state's 1.2 million public school students with a unique 10-digit number. The system tracks students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, tallying attendance, test scores and whether students drop out early and, if so, what happens to them.

Some critics said the new system would give too much credit for GEDs and other alternative certificates, reducing the impetus to push students to do better. They said 75 points is too high a credit for a student receiving a GED. Under the proposal, they said, a school with a graduating class of 100 could be awarded full accreditation if it records 80 GEDs and only 20 diplomas.

Angela Ciolfi, a lawyer with a Charlottesville-based advocacy group, JustChildren, said GEDs and other credentials do not offer as many opportunities for students after high school.

"Some of these credentials leave students without real options," she said. "We have to be careful that we don't create unintended consequences by putting a lot of weight to last-resort options."

Ciolfi said the new system could award credit to schools that graduate students who are not fully prepared for college. She cited a state study released last year that found that a student who earns a standard diploma, one of the most awarded certificates in Virginia in the 2006-07 school year, can graduate without having taken classes recommended for admission to most of the state's public colleges and universities. Many of these schools require or recommend two or more years of foreign-language courses, but there is no such requirement to earn a standard diploma.

Princess Moss, president of the Virginia Education Association, said she is concerned that students might be shuffled into GED programs because there is only a small difference between the points that schools would receive for GEDs compared with full diplomas. She said that would give schools little incentive to push students to earn full diplomas.

"What we don't want is more students going into the GED track, students who with appropriate attention could just as easily be placed in the standard track," she said.