Albemarle staff outline new Virginia school performance framework; model data moves several schools into lower support tiers

Assistant Superintendent Pat McLaughlin told the Albemarle County School Board on Feb. 13 that Virginia has replaced its old accreditation system with a new school performance and support framework that combines mastery, growth and readiness measures into a single 100‑point scale.

The new framework, McLaughlin said, uses different weights by school level (for example, 65% mastery/25% growth/10% readiness at elementary schools and 50% mastery/15% graduation/35% readiness at high schools). He presented state model data showing how Albemarle schools would have scored if the system had been applied this year, and warned that several schools would move into lower categories once the framework is fully implemented.

The presentation mattered because the framework determines state accountability categories — "distinguished" (90+), "on track" (80–89), "off track" (65–79) and "needs intensive support"…