Thirty-five of Norfolk’s 45 schools have met or exceeded Virginia Department of Education benchmarks for full accreditation. The VDOE released official accreditation ratings on Thursday, September 29, 2011.

Two high schools are provisionally accredited, a new designation from the VDOE for schools that met all academic benchmarks but were slightly below a new "Graduation and Completion Index" instituted for this year. Without the graduation index, all five Norfolk high schools would have been accredited based upon their SOL pass rates. Maury and Lake Taylor high schools missed the state’s 85 percent graduation and completion requirement by 1 percentage point each.

This is in line with the ongoing work by the School Board and administration, which have made improving on-time graduation a top goal, called Achievable Result #1.

Six schools are accredited with warning, including Lake Taylor Middle School, which earned full accreditation last year. Lake Taylor fell short of full accreditation this year by 2 percentage points in math. Other schools accredited with warning are Granby and Booker T. Washington high schools, which met all academic benchmarks but missed the new Graduation and Completion Index, Ruffner Academy and Campostella and Tidewater Park elementary schools.

Norfolk Public Schools has applied to the Virginia Board of Education for conditional accreditation for Lafayette-Winona Middle and Lindenwood Elementary schools, based upon their improvement efforts during the last school year.

At Lafayette-Winona, a new principal made significant organizational changes, including staff and scheduling shifts.

Lindenwood Elementary made significant gains in reading and history scores - 7 percentage points and 12 percentage points respectively. The school missed accreditation by 2 percentage points in English, which is the combined reading and writing score, and 6 percentage points in fifth-grade science.

 "More than anything, these results highlight the need for us to become very focused on our three Achievable Results, which are improving on-time graduation, earning full accreditation for all of our schools and engaging the entire community in our students’ achievement," said Dr. Richard Bentley, Superintendent of Schools.

"We must improve student learning every, single day, and when we do that, the scores and accreditation will follow," he said. "It requires rigorous, daily classroom instruction based on proven best practices."

One important way to improve student learning is by spreading such best practices across the division, Dr. Bentley said. A new "Blue Summit" designation for schools such as Larchmont Elementary, which has scores above 90 percent in all subject areas, will spotlight teaching and learning that work for children.

The division also will focus on improving student attendance; intensive data review to spot opportunities for program improvement; teacher collaboration; and power-planning sessions for staff, during which teachers can review data and tailor lesson plans for student needs. Students will be encouraged to own their own learning, and all families will be encouraged to become active in their school communities.

NPS Accreditation Facts (in Adobe Acrobat PDF Format)