Va. to link graduation rates with accreditation

Virginia schools will soon have to hit a graduation benchmark just as they do for academics in order to earn accreditation.

The state's Board of Education approved linking graduation rates to school accreditation yesterday — a major step in their effort to boost the number of students completing high school.

It places Virginia in the front wave of about 10 states that include graduation or dropout rates in their accountability system, according to Daria Hall, director of K-12 policy with The Education Trust, a nonprofit think tank.

"It's important to note that Virginia is not the first, but [is] in the first wave of states that are taking this on and saying, 'As a matter of state policy, we are going to communicate clear expectations that both achievement and graduation must go hand in hand,' " she said.

"We can't have some students achieving at high rates at the expense of other students who drop out."

The state's graduation and completion index will calculate the rate by awarding points for various credentials, ranging from 100 points for students who graduate in four years or less, to 75 for those who earn a General Educational Development diploma.

Students who do not graduate on time but stay in school would be assigned 70 points and those who earn a certificate of completion would get 25 points.

Beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year, high schools must earn 85 points on the index as well as achieve the required pass rates on state tests in English, history/social science, mathematics and science for full accreditation.

High schools that do not meet the graduation benchmark but attain the academic requirements can earn provisional accreditation until 2015 by meeting interim benchmarks, according to the Department of Education.

Board of Education President Mark E. Emblidge yesterday called the change groundbreaking, and said it was "some of the most important work that this board has done."

While heralded as a significant step to graduate more students on time and with a diploma, some say features of the plan need work.

Angela Ciolfi, an attorney for JustChildren, would prefer if all of the state's diplomas were not given equal points because, she said, they are not of equal value to students. Further, separating the data by smaller student groups, such as race or ethnicity, would allow state educators to better address achievement gaps, Ciolfi said.

"What we've seen over the years of standards-based and accountabilities-based reforms," Hall said, "is that if we don't have clear goals and expectations, not just overall but for all individual groups, some groups are likely to fall through the cracks."

The Board of Education yesterday also voted to require all students to have an academic and career plan, starting in middle school, and to require a course in economics and personal finance for several diplomas.

Olympia Meola is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.