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Wythe County officials explain new state accountability framework and how schools are scored
Summary
District staff walked the board through the state's new School Performance and Support Framework, explaining mastery, growth and readiness components, the redistribution of ELL points, and readiness measures including chronic absenteeism, dual enrollment, CTE credentials and ASVAB-based enlistment points.
Doctor James (presenter) briefed the board on the new state accountability and accreditation framework that will determine school performance levels under four categories: Distinguished, On Track, Off Track and Needs Intensive Support. The presentation explained the three-component model — mastery, growth and readiness — and how the components are weighted differently at elementary, middle and high school levels.
Doctor James described the mastery index as a weighted point system in which "advanced" performance yields 1.25 points, "proficient" yields 1 point, "basic" yields 0.75 points and below-basic yields 0.25 points for a school. He illustrated the calculation with hypothetical student counts and showed how the resulting mastery score contributes to overall accreditation.
The presenter explained that English-language proficiency (ELL) points are subject to a "magic number" of 15 students; because individual schools often lack that count, Wythe County redistributes ELL weight across mastery and growth categories for the division. Readiness measures vary by level; for the 2024-25 year, chronic absenteeism counts as the readiness component (10% of the readiness measure), and later years will split readiness across chronic absenteeism and a performance task.
For high school readiness, the district noted expanded emphasis on college- and career-readiness including dual-enrollment credits, CTE completion and an enrollment/employment/enlistment model. Enlistment points are tied to ASVAB scores, with explained thresholds (for example, an ASVAB score of 65 or higher yields 1 point; 50'64 yields three-quarters of a point; 31 yields a half point).
Staff said Wythe County's preliminary calculations using available data show most district schools "on track," with several elementary and secondary schools classified as "distinguished" in the initial sandbox analysis used for planning. Fort Chiswell High School was highlighted as ranking in the top 10 of statewide high schools in the sample data.
Next steps: staff said they will continue training principals and counselors on the new data system and will refine contested calculations with the state where discrepancies appear.
