TAZEWELL, VA (LOOTPRESS) – The Virginia Department of Education recently announced that all Tazewell County Public Schools (TCPS) are fully accredited for the 2022-2023 academic school year.
Jillian Balow, Virginia’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction says that despite deep learning losses caused by the closure of most schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, the percentage of Virginia’s public schools meeting the state Board of Education’s accreditation standards dropped by only three points compared with pre-pandemic performance. Eighty-nine percent of schools earned full accreditation for 2022-2023, compared with 92% in 2019-2020, the last year for which the Virginia Department of Education calculated school ratings before the coronavirus pandemic.
Chronic Absenteeism was also waived for all Virginia schools for the 2022-2023 accreditation year due to ongoing quarantines and remote learning days throughout the state. Tazewell County School Board Chair, Donna Whittington says, “Our focus for this academic year is on attendance and bringing down chronic absenteeism in our schools. During the height of the pandemic while quarantines were in place our absentee rates mirrored that of the rest of the state which was exceedingly high. We’ve launched a H.E.R.O campaign on our division website. H.E.R.O stands for, “ Here Everyday, Ready, On-Time” and we are using that acronym to remind our community how important it is for students to be in school all day every day.”
TCPS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Stacy added, “Our teachers, administrators, and support staff across the division have worked tirelessly to help children regain academic excellence in Tazewell County. Their efforts throughout the pandemic are to be commended.”
School by school accreditation ratings and school quality indicator data has been made available on the School Quality Profile Reports available at schoolquality.virginia.gov and on the Virginia Department of Education website doe.virginia.gov.