Gov. Terry McAuliffe awarded $1.6 million in grants Wednesday to 29 schools in 13 divisions to support existing year-round education programs and help schools implement new programs in the 2014-15 or the 2015-16 school years.
Schools which were awarded these grants, such as the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts in Richmond, A.P. Hill Elementary in Petersburg and Hurt Park Elementary in Roanoke, were chosen based on an application process which took into account past grants and current state accreditation ratings.
“The 2014 Appropriation Act gives first priority to those school divisions awarded planning grants in fiscal year 2014 and the College Readiness Center pilot and next priority to schools ‘based on need, relative to the most current state accreditation ratings or similar federal designation,’” Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven Staples said in a press release.
School accreditation ratings in Virginia reflect the results of Standard of Learning assessments and other competency tests in areas such as English, social sciences, mathematics and science. Virginia Department of Education spokesperson Charles Pyle said VDOE identified and awarded grants to schools which showed minimal levels of competency in these areas.
“The accreditation system identifies those schools that need help — yes, they get a warning — but with those labels, they don’t lose state funding,” Pyle said. “If anything, they get additional help from the state, because the object isn’t to punish the school. The object is to correct the problem within the school and to help the educators at the local level implement the best practices and strategies that are going to help students achieve at a higher level.”
Year-round schooling was found to have no significant improvement in the test scores of the general student population in a 2012 report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. The Commission, however, did identify improvement within traditionally low-scoring subgroups of students — a positive change Justin McLeod, a Roanoke City Public Schools spokesperson, said he witnessed firsthand.
“The research shows over and over again that urban kids tend to slide during the summer,” McLeod said. “We are finding preliminary data that [says] kids who participate in the program make better grades, do better on SOL testing and have fewer behavior problems.”
Though VDOE supports the adoption of year-round education, Pyle said local school districts make the choice to implement a program.
“What the state is doing is providing funding so that school divisions have the resources to approach this in a thoughtful and methodical way, then have the resources to actually make it happen,” Pyle said.
Schools which have already implemented year-round education will use the grant money to maintain and improve these programs. For example, Roanoke’s summer program, RCPS+, plans to use the funds for expansion. Currently, the program offers optional summer enrichment for all K-8 students to ease the transition from one grade to the next. About 2,500 students opted to participate in the program last summer — a number which could possibly rise with the addition of Hurt Park Elementary as an RCPS+ site.
Fellow grant recipient Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts in Richmond also plans to expand their current, more traditional year-round program, which includes a six-week summer and a remedial intersession at the end of every nine-week period.
Petersburg County has decided to follow the trend, implementing their own year-round program this school year. PCPS spokesperson Nicole Bell-Van Patten said the school went through a year-long process of transitioning to the year-round system. The process consisted of conducting a YRS feasibility study, hosting several community forums and information sessions, conducting parental and community surveys, receiving school board approval and gaining approval to begin the school year prior to Labor Day.
Pyle said the year-round education program could help solve a statewide issue.
“I think everyone’s interested in what works, and if you’re the principal of a school and you see a school that’s very similar to yours enjoying success after employing something new, then that’s something you’re going to take a serious look at,” Pyle said.
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