News release: The Virginia Board of Education is honoring 55 Title I schools and one school division for raising the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students. The awards are based on student performance on Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. Each school and division will receive a certificate celebrating its status and achievement. The board recognized nine schools as Title I Highly Distinguished Schools, including Snow Creek Elementary in Franklin County. To qualify for the distinction, schools must exceed all state and federal accountability benchmarks for two consecutive years and achieve pass rates on reading and mathematics SOL tests at or above the 85th percentile.
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The nine Title I Highly Distinguished Schools are as follows, by division:
- Amherst County — Temperance Elementary
- Bath County — Millboro Elementary
- Franklin County — Snow Creek Elementary
- Norfolk — Willoughby Elementary
- Richmond — George W. Carver Elementary
- Scott County — Yuma Elementary
- Smyth County — Rich Valley Elementary
- West Point — West Point Elementary
- York County — Bethel Manor Elementary
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act — which Congress reauthorized last month through passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 — authorizes federal funding for programs to raise the achievement of students identified as being at risk of academic failure.
The federal education law also encourages states to recognize schools and school divisions that exceed annual performance objectives in reading and mathematics.
