New Kent schools remain above state average, Charles City schools expect full accreditation after latest release of SOL scores

Charles City Public Schools showed a significant gain in the history and social science areas while New Kent Public Schools continue to remain ahead of the statewide average as Standards of Learning (SOL) scores were released to the public on Aug. 15.

In Charles City, all history and social sciences scores eclipsed the 80-point passing mark, including a perfect score of 100 percent in World History II. A perfect score was also achieved in chemistry, which jumped 29 points from a 71 percent pass rate from last year.

Charles City Public Schools saw improvements in 13 of the 28 testing areas. School scores surpassed the 70 percent plateau in 18 of those areas and the 80 percent plateau 12 times. In comparison to the state average, Charles City surpassed the mean in eight of the tested areas.

The most significant gains were made in the areas of reading for grade five (70 to 80), writing in grade eight (54 to 64), geography (78 to 92), Virginia and U.S. History (75 to 94), Virginia studies (84 to 95), grade four mathematics (72 to 82), and chemistry (71 to 100). High advance pass rates were achieved in the areas of grade five reading (20 percent) and Virginia Studies (29 percent).

Charles City superintendent of schools David Gaston commented on the scores at the Aug. 15 regular school board meeting, saying the hard work by staff will more than likely return both schools to full accreditation.

“We made a shift from looking at grade levels to looking at individual students,” Gaston commented. “Our teachers have been receiving diagnostic information, taking samples, and helping students build progress to provide them with assistance where they needed it.

“When we absorbed the middle school, we had to adjust curriculum and instruction in order to be effective,” he continued, pointing to the consolidation of schools three years ago. “Because of the staff’s dedication and the hard work put in by our students, we will more than likely see full accreditation at all schools for the first in five years.”

Gaston said while SOL scores continue to improve, he wants them to become more consistent across the board.

“We still have some work to do in math and reading, but we have had some productive meetings and have put some things in place that we will be focusing on this year,” Gaston concluded.

In New Kent, SOL scores continue to stay above the state average as the school system continues to remain strong.

While most areas saw minor drops in points, 28 of the 29 subjects surpassed the 70-point passing rate and 20 topped the 80th percentile. The areas of Geography, Virginia Studies, Algebra I, Algebra II, and Chemistry all saw a 90 percent or greater passing rate. Improvements were gained in the areas of grade four reading (81 to 88), World History II (85 to 88), and grade seven mathematics (79 to 86).

In comparison to the state average, New Kent exceeded the mean in 18 areas. Virginia Studies saw the greatest number of advance passing scores, with 53 percent of students completing the test with high marks. Other advance passing rates of 20 percent or more were achieved in the areas of grade three reading (22), grade four reading (26), grade five reading (26), grade seven reading (20), grade eight writing (20), civics and economics (23), World History II (26), Algebra II (20), grade four mathematics (29), grade five mathematics (28), and grade seven mathematics (20).

New Kent superintendent of schools Dave Myers spoke about the scores and the continuing exceling of education in the school system during an Aug. 16 interview.

“It is pleasing to see that we are still competitive and that we are at or above the state average in a lot of categories,” Myers said. “In order to meet those marks, we challenged teachers to take our instructional framework to get students thinking.

“Teachers spent a lot of time and still knew that there would be some students who would need additional help through remediation efforts,” he continued. “They looked at data points and the communication between teachers and remediation instructors has helped our efforts.”

Myers added comments saying that while SOLs were important to a school’s accreditation, instruction was being geared towards a different direction in order to prepare students for real-life situations.

“Our focus for the past couple of years has to been to provide students with 21st century skills,” Myers said. “Skills such as thinking, problem solving, and collaboration are what is needed to succeed.

“Taking a 40-question test is just a moment in time for students,” he continued. “With the new accreditation standards, we are going to have to lean more towards the SOLs, but we are still going to maintain and focus on providing these students a quality education.”

In conclusion, Myers said that while some areas saw a one to two-point fluctuation, a lot of unknown factors could determine the pass rate of a subject area.

“An example would be our eighth-grade writing,” the superintendent said. “That one grade level determines the entire score of our district whereas if you go to another division, they may have several schools with two-to-three times as many students taking that test. One or two questions [by one student] here or there could be the determining factor where it would many more elsewhere.

“I am proud of the growth we are having and as we face additional challenges, I rather have a community and school district that is growing than seeing people department,” Myers said as he wrapped up his dialogue. “I embrace this challenge whole-heartedly and I want to push this school system to be better.”

Both schools in Charles City and all four schools in New Kent are expected to be fully accredited when formal information is released in September.