See How Alexandria Schools Improved According To New State Ratings

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Alexandria City Public Schools' performance improved for the 2025-2026 school year, according to Virginia's School Performance and Support Framework. Only three of the division's 17 schools met or surpassed expectations, though most scored higher than their final rating because of how individual student groups are assessed.

Virginia's School Performance and Support Framework assesses schools on students' mastery of skills, year-to-year growth, readiness for advancement, and, if applicable, graduation, and assigns point values for performance. The state's system gives a distinguished rating to schools that score 90 points or above. Schools meeting expectations earn 80 to 89 points and the threshold for Approaching Expectations starts at 65 points.

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However, ACPS pointed out that a school's overall performance category may drop a level if a particular student group, such as students from low-income backgrounds or students with disabilities, does not meet expectations. This appears to be the case in every ACPS school rated as Approaching Expectations or Needs Intensive Support.

According to an ACPS release, overall SPSF scores improved at 16 schools, with an average increase of 3.5 points.

School performance increased in reading, mathematics and science in increments of one to two percentage points. Chronic absenteeism declined from 13.8% to 12.0%, with 11 of 17 schools improving their rates and the percentage of English learners meeting language growth targets increased from 50.7% to 54.0%, with gains at 13 of 17 schools.

One school, Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, was rated as Distinguished. Three schools, the Cora Kelly School for Math, Science and Technology; the Mount Vernon Community School; and Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School, moved out of the Needs Intensive Support category.

The district lost ground in schools rated Meeting Expectations, with two this year compared to three the prior year. However, the number of schools tagged as Needs Intensive Support dropped from four to two, and the number of schools approaching expectations rose to 12 from nine.

Not all student groups are achieving the same success, however. In Alexandria schools, students with disabilities and English learners are performing well under state targets across the board.

ACPS says it is pleased with its progress and has included stronger supports for English learners and students with disabilities in its plan to continue improving.

The school board was scheduled to discuss the results at its meeting Thursday night.

See more from ACPS's assessment here.