All county schools achieve accreditation

By Gracie Hart
Review Staff Writer
Published: October 2, 2008

All eight Orange County Public Schools have been fully accredited making Orange one of the 96 school divisions in the state that have all of their schools receiving full accreditation.  The 36 other school divisions in the state were not as fortunate.
Accreditation is based on the Standards of Learning tests and looks at overall achievement in English, math, history and science.  For a school to be fully accredited, the state-established benchmark must be met.  In middle and high schools, there must be a 70 percent pass rating in all four of the subject areas for full accreditation.  In elementary schools, a 75 percent pass rate is required for grades 3-5 on English tests while a 70 percent pass rate is required in mathematics and on fifth grade science and history tests.  A 50 percent pass rate is required in third grade science and history.
Last year, two of the eight Orange schools were labeled as accredited with warning because of their scores in math.  The two schools were Locust Grove Middle and Prospect Heights Middle.  Locust Grove Middle had a 60 percent pass rate on the math tests while Prospect Heights had a 67 percent pass rate on the tests.  This year, both schools improved those scores to become fully accredited with Locust Grove Middle achieving a 73 percent pass rate, or 21.7 percent improvement in their math scores, and Prospect Heights achieving a 74 percent pass rate, or 10.4 percent improvement in their math scores.
According to Public Outreach director Ann Bledsoe, a focus was placed on aligning the curriculum and helping students improve their test-taking skills.
Other improvements include an 18 percent improvement in Orange Elementary’s fifth grade science test pass rates and a 10 percent improvement in their fifth grade history test scores. 
Some schools also had pass rates over 90 percent in some of the tests, including Unionville and Lightfoot Elementary Schools which achieved a 93 percent pass rate in third grade history.  However, those schools, which share testing data, also dropped 20.2 percent in their fifth grade history scores.  Their pass rate on the test went from 84 percent last year to 67 percent this year, though still passing.
Locust Grove Elementary also achieved a high pass rate with a 93 percent pass rate in the third grade history test and Orange County High School achieved a 91 percent pass rate in their history tests.
According to Bledsoe, the high school students’ scores exceeded the benchmarks in all four subject areas by an average of approximately 16 percentage points.
“The Orange County Public School system is proud of the improvement shown and looks forward to even more success,“ Bledsoe said.  “Our staff is dedicated to continuing to strive to address the areas that need improvement in a swift and effective manner.“
School board chairman Jerry Bledsoe agrees.
“I am very please and proud of our school system,“ he said.  “This shows that we are addressing the education needs of our students and that we are making progress.  We are meeting the benchmarks that we need to meet.“