Charleston, W.Va. - The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) on Thursday reviewed a schedule of 2014-2015 onsite visits for schools across the state. The Office of Education Performance Audits (OEPA) will be visiting all schools over the next two years.

Recently, the WVBE adopted a new policy and process for accrediting schools in the state. The first step in the process requires the OEPA to conduct an initial audit of schools over the next two years. The initial audits will begin the week of September 15 in the counties located in Regional Educational Service Agency 7. The initial audits will provide Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, the West Virginia Legislature and the WVBE an overall view of how all schools are performing. Focus areas and performance expectations include:

• high quality standards adopted by the WVBE;
• identified resource, capacity building and professional development needs;
• best practices that provide evidence of improving student and school performance; and,
• compliance with West Virginia Code and WVBE policies.

"The overarching theme of this new accreditation process is to determine the quality of each school's performance through feedback from the onsite review process," said Dr. Gus Penix, director of the OEPA. "The goal of the audits is to foster continuous improvement in all schools."

The results of these audits will also be used as part of the West Virginia A-F School Grading System. Beginning in the 2015-2016 school year, every school will receive a letter grade. The A-F School Grading System gives parents, students, educators and communities clear and concise information on how well their schools are doing. This system is a new and better way of measuring and reporting school performance each year. The new measurement West Virginia uses to assign A-F letter grades considers the things that matter most when judging how well a school is doing: student performance, year-to-year growth in individual student learning, accelerating learning for all students and high school graduation rates.

For a complete schedule of school visits click here: http://oepa.state.wv.us/.

For more information, contact Liza Cordeiro in the WVDE Communication Office at 304-558-2699.

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