By John R. Butcher
VDOE posted the 2017 SOL data yesterday. They are bad news for Richmond, particularly for the middle schools.
Here, for a start, are the middle school reading pass rates.
I’ve included Franklin, which has middle school grades, but the numbers there are not directly comparable because the high school grades are included in the Franklin averages.
Notice that Elkhardt and Thompson disappeared in 2016, being merged into the new Elkhardt-Thompson. That didn’t do anything for the pass rates but it did create a “new school” that can’t be denied accreditation for another two years.
Franklin aside, none of these schools made the accreditation cutoff of 75%. Henderson, Boushall, Elkhardt-Thompson, and, especially, MLK all are disastrously below 50% (i.e., above 50% failure rates).
The writing scores improved this year, from appalling to merely terrible.
Again, Franklin aside, no school made the accreditation cutoff.
The history & social sciences numbers are better: Three schools, other than Franklin, made the 70% benchmark.
The math scores are another disaster, with only AP Hill (barely) making the 70% accreditation cutoff.
Two schools (other than Franklin) beat the science benchmark.
The average of the five subject pass rates shows three schools below 50% with Boushall barely above that and headed the wrong way.
I said “bad news” at the top of this post. That is far too weak. I’m not sure there are words that are acceptable in polite company that describe the magnitude of this assault on Richmond’s schoolchildren.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Remember: I will review all comments before posting and if you wish your information to remain confidential, please know that I will honor your request.