Standards of Learning (SOL) results released by the state today show that scores for Alexandria City Public Schools remain consistent with recent years and that ACPS is on track to become a high-performing school division by 2020.
ACPS has seen noticeable academic gains across many content areas and increased achievement among subgroups in recent years. This year’s SOL results have kept pace with those previous gains, although results for some individual subgroups fell slightly this year. These changes include lower pass rates for Hispanic students and also in some content areas for students with disabilities. ACPS remains committed to the core work necessary to ensure that every student succeeds.
While these results are consistent with recent years, we will assess what is required to accelerate our growth. We will look at what we have been doing right and how we can replicate those practices across the school division in the coming year,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Lois F. Berlin.
This fall, ACPS will increase customization and personalization of student learning following a detailed school-by-school analysis of the data. The ACPS Department of Curriculum and Instruction will expand content academies for teachers to highlight best educational practices for diverse populations and increase the use of strategies that involve students in active learning. They will work with school staff to strengthen professional learning through teacher collaboration, as well as coaching and mentoring to enhance student motivation for learning.
Schools that are particularly successful in certain areas will work collaboratively to share their knowledge and best educational practices.
Charles Barrett Elementary School and Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy were both recently honored by the state for their consistently high performance. Lyles-Crouch was awarded a 2017 Virginia Board of Education Excellence Award for its consistently high pass rate over the past three years. The award honors schools that met all the state and federal accountability benchmarks and made significant progress toward goals for increased student achievement and expanded educational opportunities set by the Virginia Board of Education. Charles Barrett Elementary School was awarded a 2017 Virginia Board of Education Distinguished Achievement Award for meeting all state and federal benchmarks and making progress toward the goals of the governor and the board.
This is the beginning of the third year of the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan. ACPS met, improved upon or remained consistent across 93 percent of all key performance indicators in the first year of reporting of the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan and its six goal areas. Data for each goal area for the first year of ACPS 2020 can be viewed in the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan Progress Report on the ACPS website. Data for the second year of the plan will be released beginning in the fall.
The ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan aims to see every student succeed academically. The roadmap focuses across six goal areas, which include academic success, keeping students healthy and able to learn, and recruiting and retaining an exemplary staff to see ACPS become a high-performing school division.
Accreditation information for all schools will be released by the Virginia Department of Education on September 13