Five NNPS Schools Recognized as Exemplar Schools
Posted: October 25, 2024
Deer Park Elementary School earned a Highest Achievement Award, and Hidenwood Elementary School, Katherine Johnson Elementary School, Huntington Middle School and Woodside High School earned Continuous Improvement Awards through the Virginia Board of Education Exemplar School Recognition Program.
"I am extremely proud of the achievement at Deer Park Elementary, Hidenwood Elementary, Katherine Johnson Elementary, Huntington Middle, and Woodside High schools," said Dr. Michele Mitchell, superintendent of Newport News Public Schools. "With the dedicated efforts of our teachers, staff, families and the community, our schools are championing teaching and learning at all levels. Across the school division, we are experiencing notable improvement."
Highest Achievement Award
Deer Park Elementary School earned a 2024-2025 Board of Education Highest Achievement Award for demonstrating high levels of success across all school quality indicators, including narrowing achievement gaps and achieving high pass rates in reading, mathematics, and science based on the student pass rate for the "all students" group in the school and for each student subgroup in the school, and maintaining a low chronic absenteeism rate.
Deer Park students exceeded the 75% reading benchmark, and the 70% math and science benchmarks, boasting a 91.8% pass rate in reading, a 97.1% pass rate in math and a 95.2% pass rate in science for the 2023-2024 school year. In addition, all subgroups of students exceeded the state benchmarks in reading, math and science.
To earn a Highest Achievement Award, schools must be accredited; meet state benchmarks in reading, math and science; meet state benchmarks for all student subgroups in reading and math; and maintain low achievement gaps and chronic absenteeism.
Board of Education Continuous Improvement Award
Hidenwood Elementary School, Katherine Johnson Elementary School, Huntington Middle School and Woodside High School earned Continuous Improvement Awards in recognition of continuous improvement based on student performance during school years 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024.
Hidenwood Elementary School is noted for continuous improvement in reading achievement among several student subgroups: economically disadvantaged students increased pass rates from 67.33% to 76.38%; Black students' performance increased from 64.67% to 76.83%; White students' performance increased from 77.42% to 79.66%; and the performance of Hispanic students increased from 73.33% to 76.92%.
In math performance, students with disabilities increased their performance from 43.33% to 58.54%; economically disadvantaged students pass rates increased from 64% to 73.23%; Black students' performance increased from 62.34% to 74.25%; the performance of White students increase from 80.95% to 88.14%; and Hispanic student performance increased from 69.23% to 80.77% over the assessment period.
Students at Katherine Johnson Elementary School made notable increases in reading pass rates: economically disadvantaged students increased performance from 70.11% to 77.78%; students with disabilities increased performance from 51.85% to 58.62%; pass rates for Black students increased from 67.79% to 77.3%; and Hispanic student performance increased from 65.63% to 82.14%. In math, economically disadvantaged students increased pass rates from 71.59% to 82.63% and Black student performance increased from 67.33% to 83.8%.
The reading performance of Huntington Middle School students increased in several student subgroups: students with disabilities increased their performance from 31.82% to 41.07%; Black student performance increased from 47.23% to 64.47%; and economically disadvantaged students pass rates increased from 48.14% to 61.83%. Huntington students' math performance also increased: students with disabilities increased performance from 39.74% to 44%; Black student pass rates increased from 52.48% to 56.13%; Hispanic student pass rates increased from 52.17% to 75%; and economically disadvantaged students increased performance from 51.23% to 55.95%.
Woodside High School students made notable increases in reading pass rates: economically disadvantaged students' pass rates increased from 83.37% to 89.76%; pass rates for Black students increased from 82.11% to 91.82%; the performance of Hispanic students increased from 92.86% to 93.75%; and Asian student performance increased from 92.31% to 100%.
In math, students with disabilities increased pass rates from 70.89% to 82.61%; English Learners experienced a 14-point increase from 81.82% to 96.55%; economically disadvantaged students pass rates increased from 80.49% to 86.28%; Black student performance increased from 82.07% to 86.87%; the performance of White students increased from 89.81% to 91.26%; and Hispanic student performance increased from 81.25% to 90.63%.
Exemplar Performance Awards recognize Virginia public schools recognize schools that exceed board-established requirements or show continuous improvement on academic and school quality indicators.
