Virginia Board of Education Honors Five FCPS Schools With Exemplar Awards

Five Fairfax County public schools have been awarded a 2024 Virginia Board of Education Exemplar Award. Two schools received the Highest Achievement Exemplar Award, and three received both the Continuous Improvement Exemplar Award and the Continuous Improvement Graduation and Completion Index and Dropout Rate Exemplar Award.

The schools receiving the Highest Achievement Award are:

• Sangster Elementary School
• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

The criteria for this award are:

• The school must be accredited (includes triennial waivers).
• The school meets state benchmarks in reading, math, and science (75% for reading and 70% for math and science) based on the current year pass rate on state assessments (not including growth or English learner progress).
• All student groups within the school meet state benchmarks in reading and math (75% for reading and 70% for math) based on the current year pass rate on state assessments (not including growth or English learner progress), and 
• For schools with two student groups, there is no more than five percentage points between the lowest performing group and all other students in the school; or 
• For schools with three or more student groups, there is no more than ten percentage points between the lowest performing group and all other students in the school. 
• School demonstrates a current year chronic absenteeism rate of 15% or lower.

For schools with a graduating class, two additional criteria apply:

• School demonstrates a current year Graduation and Completion Index of 88 points or higher; and
• School demonstrates a current year dropout rate of 6% or lower.

The schools receiving the Continuous Improvement Exemplar Award and the Continuous Improvement Graduation and Completion Index and Dropout Rate Exemplar Award are:

• Lewis High School
• South Lakes High School
• West Potomac High School

To receive these awards, the school can be Accredited or Accredited with Conditions and must meet at least one of the following criteria: 

• The school demonstrates an increase in the combined rate for math, reading and science for each of the past three years (for 2023-2024 only, the three years are 2018-2019, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023), with a total increase across the three years of ten points or more;
• The school demonstrates an increase in the combined rate for two or more student groups in reading and math for each of the past three years (for 2023-2024 only, the three years are 2018-2019, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023), with a total increase across the three years of ten points or more; or
• The school demonstrates an increase in the Graduation and Completion Index (GCI) for each of the past three years (for 2023-2024 only, the three years are 2018-2019, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023), with a total increase across the three years of 4% or more; and the school demonstrates a decrease in the dropout rate for each of the past three years (for 2023-2024 only, the three years are 2018-2019, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023), with the total reduction across three years of 15% or more of the first year’s dropout rate.

Note: The Continuous Improvement Award criteria was amended for 2023-24 to remove chronic absenteeism criteria, since only one year of chronic absenteeism data was available (2022-23). 

Find more information about the Virginia Board of Education Exemplar Awards.

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