Prince William County Public Schools

The Virginia Board of Education recently announced that Alvey, Bel Air, McAuliffe, Minnieville, and River Oaks Elementary Schools are being recognized for high student achievement under the board's new exemplar performance recognition program. They have earned the Board of Education's Highest Achievement Award. This is the second consecutive year Bel Air and Minnieville Elementary Schools have received this distinction.

Antietam, Belmont, Dale City, Glenkirk, Kerrydale, King, Lake Ridge, Springwoods, and Mary Williams Elementary Schools, Bull Run, Fred Lynn, Hampton, Lake Ridge, and Marsteller Middle Schools, Brentsville, Charles J. Colgan Sr., Freedom, Osbourn Park, Patriot, Potomac, and Stonewall Jackson High Schools, and Pennington Traditional School, have earned the Board of Education's Continuous Improvement Award. The is the second consecutive year Springwoods Elementary has been awarded.

The Board of Education established the new recognition program for schools in 2019. The exemplar performance school recognition program recognizes schools that excel in the state's accreditation system focusing on test performance, achievement gaps, graduation rates, absenteeism, dropout rates, and more.

To earn the Board of Education's Highest Achievement Award, the school must earn a state accreditation rating of Accredited, and meet the following benchmarks:

• 70 percent pass rate on state assessments in science and mathematics;
• 75 percent pass rate on state assessments in English reading and writing;
• No more than five percent gap (for schools with two student groups) or a 10 percent gap (for schools with three or more student groups) in English reading and writing, and in mathematics, between the lowest-performing group and all other students in the school.

To earn the Board of Education's Continuous Improvement Award, the school must earn a state accreditation rating of Accredited or Accredited with Conditions and meet at least one of the following benchmarks for improved performance on accreditation-related indicators:

• A cumulative 10-point increase over three years in the combined rates for reading and mathematics and in the pass rate for science, with improvement each year on each indicator;
• A cumulative 10-point increase over three years in the combined rates for reading and mathematics for two or more student groups, with improvement each year for each group on both indicators;
• A cumulative 15 percent decrease in the chronic absenteeism rate over three years, with a decrease each year; or
• For schools with a graduating class, a cumulative four-point increase in the Graduation and Completion Index over three years, with an increase each year, and a cumulative 15-percent decrease in the dropout rate, with a decrease each year.

Each school in PWCS has earned accreditation status from the Virginia Department of Education. These schools' persistent dedication to making continuous strides in improvements and exemplary accomplishments demonstrates students receive a World-Class Education. To learn more about the Exemplar Performance School Awards, visit the Virginia Department of Education's website.