Here we go, round three on the performance of Virginia school systems. In round one, we ranked the school systems based on the percentage of students who passed the Standard of Learning exams in all grades. In round two, we looked at the performance adjusted for the percentage of poor kids. Now, in round three, we’ll rank school systems by how far they deviated from the trendline.
Here we show the top over-achievers and under-achievers in the English SOLs, those showing a full standard deviation or more from the trendline shown in the previous post. (To view a ranking of all school systems, click here.)
The smaller, rural school systems show the most variation, both for good and ill. Highland County has the smallest school system in the state — so small it is not a viable fiscal entity. Yet, adjusted for the poverty level of its student population, it out-performs every other school system in Virginia in terms of passing English SOLs. On the other hand, rural Charles City County is the greatest under-performer.
Note also how the urban-core school districts — Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Manassas — stand out. They are severe under-performers. School board members for the bottom dwellers should take heed. You can’t blame the poverty of your student population for all of your sub-par performance. You have to look to other factors: funding per capita or, my guess, poor management.
Thanks again to John Butcher with The Cranky Taxpayer for cranking the numbers.
— JAB
