All County schools to make SOL accreditation

By Bob Stuart

Published: September 4, 2008

VERONA — All 21 Augusta County schools will likely achieve full state Standards of Learning accreditation based on last year’s testing, the school district’s testing coordinator told the Augusta County School Board on Thursday.
  The school board was given a preliminary report. Official accreditation results from the Virginia Department of Education are expected later this month or in early October.
Testing Coordinator Gordon Mowen said other notable achievements on the 2007-08 testing included strong performances in elementary social studies testing and elementary and middle school math and improved scores for both disabled and minority students.
Mowen said 70 percent of the school district’s third graders had advanced passing scores on the social studies tests.
All third and fifth-graders at Craigsville Elementary passed the social studies tests.
Elementary math scores showed a nearly 90 percent pass rate, and included more than 50 percent of students with advanced passing scores.
Mowen said the middle school math scores at both the sixth- and seventh-grade levels increased 16 percent over the prior year.
Among students with disabilities, Mowen reported that reading pass rates increased 14 points and math 18 points.
The school district’s minority students increased reading scores 5 points and math 10 points, Mowen said.
Mowen and Augusta County Schools Superintendent Gary McQuain said the test results show the amount of work teachers and students are doing.
“The teachers have a pretty good idea of what the kids are supposed to know and they have aligned the curriculum with the standards provided by the state,’’ Mowen said.
School Board Chairman Chad Shomo said the school district testing results showed that “we have made significant leaps in several areas.”
Shomo said he had encouraged new county teachers to make a difference when addressing them before the start of the school year, and said these test results showed the work of county teachers.
One of the ongoing issues with SOL testing is what it does to the creative portion of teaching.
“The SOLs have limited the amount of time for creative and teachable moments,’’ said McQuain.
He said teachers are constantly aware of the amount of material that they must cover with students. 

before they take the tests.
As reported last week, the Augusta County Schools made the adequate yearly progress on testing as a school district required under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Mowen said both Riverheads Elementary and Beverley Manor Middle School narrowly missed meeting the AYP requirement.