Prince William County Schools believes a local news media story published by another online media outlet in the county “missed the mark” on accurately reporting how Prince William County Schools scored on their Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) this past school year.
According to Community Relations Supervisor Irene Cromer’s response to the article published on the Prince William County Schools website, it is not accurate that only 41 percent of schools met federal standards, and that to say so “paints a potentially misleading picture.”
Cromer said it would be more correct to say 41 percent missed one or more of all standards. This is because new regulations for accountability try to encourage improvement in schools by identifying when schools miss even one target.
“Despite meeting the targets identified in Virginia’s plan, several schools fell short of achieving all Annual Measurable Objectives only because a specific subgroup pass rate- however strong and however high above the published targets-did not increase from last year,” Cromer responded.
According to Cromer, the Virginia Department of Education put these benchmarks in place which are “designed to promote continuous improvement and close the gap between high performing student groups and others who have traditionally not performed as well.”
However, the downside of this system is that it can also obscure the successes of a school or its district.
“Overall 79 percent, 68 out of 86 PWCS schools actually evaluated by the Virginia Department of Education met or exceeded the established subgroup performance targets in math, reading and graduation rate,” Cromer wrote.
Additionally, no Prince William County schools were added to the Title I Priority or Focus Schools lists, and two were “singled out by the state for meeting all AMOs.”
Cromer said this is “a big accomplishment.”
“Ellis, Vaughn, West Gate and Yorkshire elementary schools received the focus status last year and promptly put special measures in place to aid all students. [In 2013], all four met the federal AMO objectives in reading for all subgroups,” Cromer stated in “No Additional Listed Schools=Good News.”
Of schools meeting all standards there were 33, while 15 schools did not meet one or more in a target area.
According to Phil Kavits, Director of Community Relations for PWCS, while it is generally not the Communication Office's protocol to comment on news articles, they wanted to make sure parents saw the whole picture.
“[We get] the sense people have looked at either you’ve made the grade or you didn’t. This year what the state is trying to do is tell a broader story here,” Kavits said.
He also does not want parents to misinterpret the failure to improve in one or more targets in one or more subgroups as a failure for the school, because on other accounts, schools could be meeting most of their AMO targets.
“ there is a single group that still needs extra work," said Kavits, who adds that in those cases the schools will provide additional assistant to those students.
Cromer expressed her dismay that the school system did not get a chance to provide information or answer questions prior to the writing of the article, saying it was “published without comment or context from local experts.”
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