For the second year in a row, the Patrick County School division ranked 9th in the state for Standards of Learning (SOL) performance, according to Superintendent Jason Wood, who noted that the division’s total pass rate improved from 81.4 percent to 82.4 percent.
“We are very proud. Of the top ten schools, three of those are in Southwest Virginia, and all three of us have an economically disadvantaged number, over 50 percent,” he said.
While there is typically a correlation between SOL performance and the economically disadvantaged number, Wood said Patrick County and two other school divisions in Southwest Virginia with more than 50 percent are overcoming that barrier.
In English, Wood said the division is nine points above the state average at 82, and 14 points above the state average in Writing at 90. In math, the county received 90, which is 12 points above the state average of 71. Wood said the score for science was 13 points above the state average at 81, and 15 points above the history state average at 80.
“Speaking with the director of the Instructional Consortium. He wants to come present at a school board meeting to showcase. I’m hoping he comes to our next school board meeting to show the trendline” compared to typical SOL performance based on economically disadvantaged numbers, “and Patrick County is one of the top three outperforming that trend line,” he said.
Despite the high SOL scores, Wood said he believes the school system still has room for improvement, especially in returning to pre-COVID-19 standards.
“I think every school has room to continue improving,” Wood said, but “I think we are approaching pre-pandemic performance faster than most of our surrounding school divisions. I think that’s just a testament to the hard work of every employee.”
While he knows it takes more than just classroom teachers, Wood said the division builds a family atmosphere every day for its students, “from the time they get on the bus with the bus drivers greeting them with a smile to making sure we give them free meals for breakfast and lunch, and amazing nurses taking care of physical needs.”
Wood added SOL performance is also not the only thing the school system focuses on, for instance, the Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs at Patrick County High School (PCHS) are extensive.
“We have a lot of opportunities for our students to prepare them for careers. We’re excited about SOL performance, but that’s just one thing that I feel makes our school division top notch and one of the best in the state,” he said.
The school division also achieved a Level 1 accreditation rating, the highest possible in Virginia. To determine a division’s accreditation rating, Assistant Superintendent of Learning Andrea Cassell said both state and federal measurements have benchmarks set for areas including academics, the graduation rate, and the attendance rates.
“We’re fortunate in Patrick County that we continue to not only meet expectations, but we’re exceeding the state and federal expectations. It’s from all of our staff members, and the support and instruction that they’ve always provided,” she said.
Cassell said she thinks since the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly last year, staff members put in a lot of effort to specific, intensive interventions for students.
“We’re seeing that pay off both in our results and what we see every day when we’re in our schools in talking to our students, seeing how they’ve grown both emotionally and how they’ve grown academically, and in talking to our staff members,” she said.
A release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin illustrated the need to ensure students have great school attendance, and according to Wood, “some of the most powerful statistics they put out were that chronically absent students have 19 percentage points lower in reading, and 26 percentage points lower in math.
“We’re still urging families to help us to ensure we have great school attendance because we know once we have the students in our classrooms, in our schools, they’ll feel loved, cared for, and then that ultimately makes a great learning environment where they’ll succeed,” he said.
Wood said the chronic absenteeism rate for 2023-2024 was calculated internally to be 11.58 percent, compared to the 2022-2023 rate of 18.4 percent.
The chronic absenteeism indicator improved for Blue Ridge Elementary School, from 23.68 percent to 13.18 percent. At Hardin Reynolds Memorial School, it went from 10.23 percent to 6.28 percent, and at Patrick Springs Primary School, from 27.59 percent to 16.24 percent.
Wood said at Meadows of Dan Elementary School, chronic absenteeism dropped to 2.4 percent from 2.8 percent, and at Patrick County High School (PCHS), it dropped by more than 10 percent, from 27.59 percent to 16.24 percent.
At Stuart Elementary School, it decreased from 15.06 percent to 10.34 percent, and at Woolwine Elementary School, from 10.85 percent to 7.09 percent.
