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New Virginia school accountability framework shifts focus from pass/fail to mastery and growth, VDOE official says
Summary
Prince George school officials heard a detailed overview of Virginia's school performance and support framework, which will grade schools on mastery, growth and readiness and replace the old accreditation pass/fail model starting with 2025–26 ratings.
The Prince George County School Board received a detailed briefing Jan. 13 on Virginia’s new school performance and support framework, which shifts evaluation from a pass/fail accreditation approach to a 100-point performance rubric based on mastery, growth, readiness and graduation.
Wade Clevenstein, who presented the overview, told the board the framework splits indicators by school level and uses weighted points for assessment outcomes rather than a binary pass-fail standard. He said students can earn 1.25 points for advanced passing scores, 1.0 for passing, and lower weights for lower outcomes — moving evaluation toward an “achievement” mindset.
Clevenstein described major changes to the growth measure: growth will now be measured for students in grades 4–8 (not grades 3–8) because of new state analytics, and growth applies to all students whether they passed or failed a Standards of Learning (SOL) test. “Now we’re not talking about if a student failed the SOL test, did they grow. Now we’re asking the question, did you grow whether you passed the SOL test or not?” he said.
Readiness indicators will vary by level: elementary and middle schools will include a federal pilot for performance tasks, middle schools have an advanced coursework indicator (for math acceleration), and high schools will use a “3‑E” model — enrollment, employment and enlistment — that awards cumulative points for credentials, CTE completion and ASVAB performance.
Clevenstein said the framework yields four performance tiers on a 100‑point scale: distinguished (90+), on track (80–89), off track (65–79) and needs intensive support (below 65). He told the board the Virginia Department of Education has supplied hypothetical school placements using current data so divisions can see where schools would have fallen under the new system.
Board members asked whether local data could be plugged into the model; Clevenstein said the department has posted estimates and that more detailed results will be shared in the fall when state data for the 2024–25 year are finalized.
