Student achievement across Alexandria City Public Schools appears to be hovering steady compared to last year, according to new state data, but the district’s numbers still linger behind the commonwealth.
In the 2024-2025 school year, 62% percent of ACPS students passed state reading tests, up one percentage point from the year prior, according to Virginia Department of Education’s accountability system, the School Performance and Support Framework.
Math and science numbers remained the same from the previous school year, hovering at 55% and 53% passage rates, respectively. History scores, meanwhile, dropped just two percentage points from 64% to 62% in 2024-2025.
VDOE’s framework measures students’ mastery, growth, post-secondary readiness and graduation rates. New data on these categories and more is reflected in the district’s updated School Quality Profile.
While scores appear steady across the district, ACPS still lags, mostly in double-digits, behind the state — 12 percentage points behind in reading, 17 points in math, 18 in science and four in history.
The new data “will guide our ongoing work to strengthen the supports that help students grow,” Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said in a press release yesterday (Tuesday).
“The state’s new accountability system raises the bar for all school divisions by emphasizing high expectations for every student, which has always been our focus,” Kay-Wyatt said. “This shift does not signal a decline in performance, but an intentional strengthening to ensure students are challenged and engage in rigorous, high-quality instruction.”
VDOE also categorizes each school in the district through performance level, with schools designated as “Distinguished,” “On Track,” “Off Track,” or “Needs Intensive Support.” ACPS shared some of its highlights in the release.
- ACPS has one school as Distinguished, which is Lyles-Crouch
- ACPS has three schools, Alexandria City High School, George Washington Middle School and Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School, which showed marked improvement and are On Track schools.
- All five schools identified last year for needed improvement in specific student group areas showed improvement and met targets in those areas.
ALXnow has reached out to an ACPS spokesperson for more information about the improving schools.
In total, the state deemed nine ACPS schools as “Off Track,” and another four as in need of intensive support: Cora Kelly School for Math Science and Technology, Ferdinand T. Day Elementary, Mount Vernon Elementary and William Ramsay Elementary.
All schools are conditionally accredited under new Standards of Quality checklist items, which were introduced by the state over the summer, according to the report.
ACPS utilizes a “comprehensive, division-wide school improvement framework” to satisfy needs reflected in testing results, subgroup data and chronic absenteeism data from VDOE, according to the release. More information from ACPS is available, below.
ACPS employs a continuous improvement cycle in which school division staff meet with schools in weekly division-wide monitoring meetings to provide targeted support in reading, mathematics and subgroup performance.
Through the Collaborative School Improvement Team (CSIT) Targeted Support Model, central office improvement teams serve as direct partners to schools, attending monthly comprehensive school improvement progress monitoring meetings, coordinating support after each implementation cycle, and providing guidance to ensure alignment with school division initiatives.
Schools regularly engage in structured, data-driven monthly monitoring with administrators, teachers and support staff. Meanwhile, central office teams reinforce the implementation of evidence-based strategies, prepare schools for quarterly progress reviews and coordinate specialized support. Additional supports include professional learning and coaching in specially designed instruction (SDI), co-teaching, tier two and three intervention, and robust English Learner services such as explicit English Language Development, Guided Language Acquisition Design, and project-based learning. This multilayered system ensures schools receive the differentiated resources, leadership coaching and instructional support necessary to sustain improvement and address performance trends identified in the VDOE School Quality Profile.
