BDES partially accredited

Published 9:57 am Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Bacon District Elementary School (BDES) is no longer on the TBD list.

Back in September, BDES was the only school in Charlotte County whose accreditation status from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) was listed as TBD — “to be determined.”

At the time, BDES met benchmarks in mathematics, history and science but received a warning for a 60 percent pass rate in English. TBD status indicates a school is in its fourth consecutive year of not meeting accreditation standards and has applied to be placed into a “partially accredited – reconstituted” status rather than being denied accreditation. These schools must submit an application to VDOE showing SOL improvement and their goals and actions to continue progress to become fully accredited.

“I am very proud of the progress that Bacon District Elementary has made and I am so glad that VDOE finally implemented a system that recognizes progress,” Superintendent Dr. Nancy Leonard said. “Bacon met all benchmarks in math, history and science and now has been recognized for their gains in reading. Bacon is an outstanding elementary school that does so many great things for their children. I am glad that VDOE has recognized that achievement.”

VDOE Director of Communications Charles Pyle confirmed Tuesday that BDES is now partially accredited – reconstituted.

According to BDES’ latest VDOE report card, generated on Friday, the school met all benchmarks for mathematics, history and science. The accreditation benchmarks for those subjects at the elementary level is a 70 percent passing rate and are examined from both 1-year results and 3-year average results.

For math, BDES enjoyed a 78 percent 1-year passing rate and a 69 percent 3-year passing rate. For history, the 1-year passing rate was 89 and 83 for the 3-year passing rate. In science, BDES had a 79 percent 1-year passing rate and an 85 percent 3-year passing rate.

However, for English, BDES only counted a 60 percent 1-year passing rate and 56 percent 3-year passing rate. The benchmark is 75 percent passing. The scores are relatively consistent when compared to the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years.

The 2016-17 passing rates led VDOE to rate the English benchmark at BDES as “NO-W,” meaning it did not meet the benchmark or criteria for narrow margin or improvement.

In September, Eureka and Phenix elementary schools, Central Middle School and Randolph-Henry High School (RHHS) all received “fully accredited” status for meeting their benchmarks in all four subjects.

The performance rankings are based on Standards of Learning (SOL) tests during the 2015-16 school year.

There is an additional criterion for high schools: Attaining a point value of 85 or greater according to the Graduation and Completion Index (CGI). RHHS’ CGI was 93 for the 1- and 3-year ratings.