(Richmond) — For the first time in a decade, five Danville schools are fully accredited with the state.
The Virginia Department of Education this weekend released the new school quality profiles. It showed eight Danville Public Schools either make or maintain gains in student achievement.
“For the past several years, staff at DPS has been dedicated to improving outcomes for our students,” School Board Chair Ty’Quan Graves said. “This growth shows that their work is moving the division in the right direction, and we are closer to achieving our goals for all students.”
Five schools earned full accreditation. Galileo, Forest Hills and Schoolfield are back on the list. This time they’re joined by Westwood Middle School and Park Avenue Elementary. It is the first time in ten years that DPS has had five accredited schools at the same time. All other schools were listed as “accredited with conditions.”
On the SOL tests, Bonner and G.W. had major improvement in their reading and math pass rates. Also the new Activ8 STEM Academy had a 90% pass rate in both math and reading in their first year.
All Danville schools earned a Level One in the chronic absenteeism indicator. This means less than 10% of their students missed 10% or more of the school year.
Superintendent Doctor Angela Hairston credits their Saturday School and after-school programs with helping students make up for lost instructional time.
“We are incredibly proud of the growth we’ve seen across the district,” Superintendent Dr. Angela Hairston said. “Our administrators, teachers, and staff have worked diligently to reach or maintain accreditation, and we thank them for their efforts.”
Meantime, in Pittsylvania County, all 18 schools are fully accredited. Last year only Gretna Middle School missed the mark. They met the test score thresholds, but failed because of chronic absenteeism. This year, they regained full accreditation.
Pittsylvania County SOL scores were higher than the state average on all of the benchmark tests.