More than half of Henrico's public schools ranked as ‘off track’ or in need of ‘intensive support’ by new state system

More than half of Henrico schools fell into the bottom two performance categories – “off track” and “needs intensive support” – under the state’s new accountability system released Dec. 9.

The Virginia Department of Education’s new school rating system categorizes schools into four groups: “distinguished,” “on track,” “off track,” and “needs intensive support.” The new rankings are based on schools’ Standards of Learning scores, improvement in SOL scores, chronic absenteeism and graduation rates. 

Across the state, about 65% of schools were ranked as “distinguished” or “on track” – but in Henrico, only 44% of schools fell into these categories. Ten Henrico schools were labeled as “distinguished,” 20 as “on track,” 24 as “off track,” and 14 as “needs intensive support.”

Eight of those 14 are Eastern Henrico schools, which traditionally have faced more challenges because of socioeconomic factors.

Compared to the previous accreditation system, which categorized the large majority of Henrico schools as “fully accredited,” the new ratings may be confusing to some parents, but schools falling from “fully accredited” to “off track” does not necessarily indicate a big dip in student achievement, said HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell.

“The idea that something has changed drastically within a school from the former system to now isn’t necessarily the case,” she said. “It’s important to understand that the new rankings are different and separate from the rankings they may have previously seen, and that the new system takes into account different factors.”

The state’s previous accreditation system ranked schools based on academic performance, achievement gaps between student groups, student engagement, chronic absenteeism, and other factors.

Elementary schools

Middle schools

High schools

Several high-performing schools in Henrico were ranked as some of the top schools in the Central Virginia region; Rivers Edge was the second-highest rated elementary school, Pocahontas the third-highest rated middle school, and Deep Run the fifth-highest rated high school. All schools are located in Western Henrico.

But almost two-thirds of schools ranked as “off track” or “needs intensive support” are located in Eastern Henrico, demonstrating lasting inequities that HCPS has worked to address through targeted staffing initiatives such as the “Opportunity Schools” program, according to Cashwell.

“We know that student achievement gaps exist, but [we want] all students to get the support they need, no matter which school they’re sitting in, no matter where it’s located,” she said. “We’ve seen some really early success with our Opportunity Schools initiative. . . and we’re working to provide schools with things like math coaches and reading specialists and additional staff to provide intervention and support.”

Each school has unique challenges, said Cashwell, but “common threads” among schools that struggle with performance include higher poverty rates, more staff vacancies, lack of access to early childhood education, and more students with mental health conditions. More than 40% of students in the division are economically disadvantaged. 

“These are schools that may have higher vacancy rates, they may have more provisionally-licensed teachers,” Cashwell said. “We look at what degree does poverty play a role here, and how are we meeting those gaps? And we know that mental health and trauma may be a factor in some school communities.”

Regardless of performance or rating, HCPS equips all schools with continuous improvement plans, based not only off of state rankings but also several other datasets, according to Cashwell. 

The new rankings are likely not surprising to individual schools, said Cashwell, because staff continuously look at various student data throughout the year. Cashwell also said that the new system will not cause HCPS to rethink any of its major goals or strategies, but instead prompt the division to make some adjustments when challenges are identified.

“We’re not seeing anything that would cause us to change direction as a system,” she said. “I think this is a new opportunity to examine the factors that may be at play related to this accountability measure and look uniquely at each school and find out if there’s an area we hadn’t previously identified that may require us to double down on.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.