Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Accountability topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Westmoreland schools earn full accreditation; high school rated 'distinguished' under new state framework
Summary
The Westmoreland County Public Schools superintendent told the board the Virginia Department of Education—ramework rated the district—ully accredited, with elementary and middle schools 'on track' and Westmoreland High School 'distinguished'; no federal subgroup identifications were reported.
Miss Rice, the division superintendent, told the school board that under the Virginia Department of Education—irst-year performance-and-support framework every Westmoreland County Public School is designated fully accredited and that the district—oasts one distinguished high school and other schools s 'on track.'
The superintendent explained the new framework separates accreditation (compliance) from accountability (performance) and measures mastery, growth, readiness and, at the high school level, graduation. "Every 1 of Westmoreland County Schools is designated fully accredited," Miss Rice said, noting statewide context in which about 23% of schools were labeled distinguished in the first rollout.
Why it matters: the new ratings are intended to show how well schools are preparing students academically and for life beyond high school. Miss Rice said the district had no federal identifications this year, a status that avoids automatic downgrades under the framework and indicates subgroups were not identified as lagging relative to the whole student body.
Details: Miss Rice outlined how the four framework pillars are weighted differently by school level: elementary and middle schools place greater emphasis on mastery and growth while high schools add readiness and graduation indicators. She highlighted Westmoreland High School's regional placement on several leaderboards and singled out Coppell Elementary and Montrose Middle for high marks in particular indicators.
Board reaction and next steps: trustees congratulated staff and principals for the results. Miss Rice said principals would present deeper school-level profiles at a future meeting to identify areas for continuous improvement and celebrate successful practices the division can scale.
The board took no new formal action on the ratings at the meeting; principals and staff said they would return with more detailed school improvement work in January.
