by Todd Truitt

Many Virginia school administrators, public officials and activists have been up in arms about the fact that the new Virginia school accountability system will include the academic achievement scores of English Language Learners (ELs) after one year of entering school in the United States. One activist group called it a “radical expectation.” In fact, it’s a 20+ year-old federal legal protection ardently supported by civil rights groups.

EL Inclusion in New Virginia School Accountability System

The Virginia Board of Education’s (VBOE) recent approval of a revamped accountability system is a substantial step toward greater transparency by providing clearer data on academic performance. This new framework is set to take full effect in the upcoming school year, and clearly separates federal accountability reporting standards from state accreditation reporting standards. As The Education Trust articulated, the federal accountability measures are designed to illuminate disparities and enable targeted support for struggling schools.

Despite the clarity offered by federal accountability standards, confusion remains among some Virginia school leaders and the press regarding the rationale for including ELs in the new accountability system after just one year. This misunderstanding demonstrates the significant shortcomings of the previous system.

Here was the recent press coverage of this issue at the August 2024 VBOE meeting by Anna Bryson, education reporter for the Richmond-Times Dispatch:

One contentious aspect of the new system is a change in when the performance of English learners from another country is counted in school ratings. In the current accreditation system, a student from another country who is learning English does not have his or her test scores factor into school ratings for 5 1/2 years, or 11 semesters. Under the new system, new English learners’ scores will count toward school ratings after the student has been in school in the U.S. for a year and a half, or three semesters.

An attendee at the meeting held a sign that said, “Youngkin try to learn a language in 3 semesters!”

Civil Rights Backing for EL Inclusion in Federal Accountability

It is important to note that the one-year exemption for ELs is not a new development but rather a requirement established by federal law since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) era. According to Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow for Education Policy at the Migration Policy Institute, civil rights groups strongly advocated for ELs’ inclusion in accountability then, and have continued to support such inclusion.

Pompa expressed concern regarding the misunderstanding in Virginia about the intent of the one-year EL exemption under federal law, considering she could not remember the one-year exemption for ELs ever being an issue since NCLB passed in 2002. Pompa was surprised to discover that opposition to a one-year exemption was coming from public officials claiming to represent the interests of ELs with such opposition.

Pompa emphasized that this inclusion of ELs in federal accountability standards is vital for directing resources to schools with ELs. Contrary to the claims of opponents of the new accountability system, their inclusion is not to punish schools for ELs’ performance.

Where Is Federal Accountability Data in Virginia’s Old System?

Virginia’s accreditation system has its roots in the 1990s during Governor George Allen’s administration. This system was supplemented by NCLB in 2002, which introduced a federal accountability framework. The U.S. Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) further evolved these requirements, sending accountability responsibility to the states with federal prescriptions on how states reported this data via school report cards.

To align with ESSA, Virginia established a combined accreditation and accountability system. However, this system often presented a considerably more favorable view of school performance by emphasizing achievement under state accreditation standards (with a summative rating under those state standards – e.g., Accredited, Accredited with Conditions, etc.) that are less rigorous than federal accountability requirements (with no summative rating under the federal standards). Under the previous system, EL achievement data was excluded from state accreditation data for 5.5 years, contrasting sharply with the one-year federal standard.

When viewing a school’s report card via Virginia School Quality Profiles, the home page says “Accreditation” with detailed metrics below (presumably the state accreditation data). The federal accountability data (including ELs’ inclusion after one year) appears to be in various tabs, but it is unclear. In a recent study of state accountability systems by the Center for Reinventing Public Education, the national expert authors “weren’t sure” which tabs on Virginia School Quality Profiles contain the federal accountability data, and mistakenly thought the federal data was part of the “Accreditation” main page.

The National Urban League provided a scathing assessment of the old system in its equity scorecard, highlighting its lack of user-friendly formats. When commenting about the old system in April 2024, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated on social media: “Lying to parents about how their children are doing academically is definitely the easier path, but it is always the wrong path.” Duncan’s support for Virginia’s accountability system revamp is even more noteworthy considering he was instrumental in the passage of ESSA while he served under President Barack Obama from 2009-2015 and was a Virginia public school parent during that time period.

New Focus on ELs, but Damage to Federal Civil Rights Protections

In response to the new accountability measures, Northern Virginia school districts with significant EL populations are adapting by focusing more resources and attention on these students. For instance, Arlington Public Schools (APS) has committed to a “laser-like focus” on ELs in light of the new accountability system. This newfound “laser-like focus” is even more remarkable considering approximately 25% of APS students are ELs and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with APS in 2019 over allegations that APS “provided inadequate help” to ELs.

Meanwhile, Virginia public officials continue to publicly criticize long-standing federal protections of ELs as some sort of Machiavellian power grab, thereby eroding public support for them. Hopefully Virginia public officials and the press will soon correct these misconceptions before further damage is done to these important EL civil rights protections.

Todd Truitt is a parent of two school-age children in Arlington County, Virginia. He is also the former Chair of the Math Advisory Committee for Arlington Public Schools and active in the Arlington Democrats.  He is a business transactions attorney and a Certified Public Accountant.

Update: The article has been amended to more accurately reflect Delia Pompa’s reaction to developments in Virginia.