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The academic performance of students in Eastern and northern Henrico can improve if parents take more proactive roles at home and foster better reading skills in their children – and if students show up more frequently.
That was the message from a panel of Henrico County Public Schools officials, principals and teachers during a public forum Sept. 1 hosted by Fairfield District School Board member Roscoe Cooper at Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church, where he is pastor.
Cooper called the forum to address academic performance among students in his district and the Varina District – which traditionally lags behind that of students in Henrico's West End – and to field questions from attendees.
Henrico Superintendent Amy Cashwell, about to begin her second year at the helm of the division, conceded that standardized test scores in the two districts are not at the levels that anyone would like.
Only eight of the 25 schools in Eastern Henrico had schoolwide pass rates on at least one Virginia Standards of Learning exam of 80 or above during the 2018-19 school year, according to SOL results released last month by the Virginia Department of Education. By contrast, all but one of the 41 schools in the West End did.
No Eastern Henrico school achieved a pass rate of higher than 86 on any schoolwide SOL exam last school year – but 25 West End schools had pass rates of 90 percent or higher on at least one such exam.
"This is something we all take very seriously," Cashwell said. "We're committed to doing better."
At the same time, she said, students at many of those schools are making progress; she displayed slides that showed 11 schools in the two Eastern Henrico districts saw pass rates on two or more SOLs increase by at least 5 percentage points last school year.
"You've seen the headlines [about low test scores], and what those headlines don't often paint is where we're having some successes," she said.
Those successes begin with the fundamentals of learning, a number of school officials told the 200 or so audience members.
"Reading ability determines success in school and standardized tests," said Henrico High School Principal Karin Castillo-Rose.
But in order for all of those plans to make an impact, students must be present. Rose urged parents to ensure that their students make it to and from school every day – a message that other administrators echoed frequently throughout the forum.
"My teachers last year came up with amazing remediation plans [for students who were behind academically]," Castillo-Rose said, "but at the end of the year we found that the same students who needed extra support were also on the chronically absentee list.
"All of these wonderful programs that my teachers had created were to no avail if the students weren't there. I need for the community to stress attendance – it has to be a mind shift that attendance matters. Attendance is the difference. If you are present in a Henrico High School classroom, we will get you through. But I need you there."
Holding students accountable
To address reading deficiencies, the school system this year has added five new reading specialists to work with students who need extra help and will have a reading specialist in each elementary school within five years, Cashwell said.
School leaders have developed a new curriculum for elementary school students, she said, and students in grades 3 through 5 will be challenged with exercises that require deep thinking and written responses.
Cashwell praised County Manager John Vithoulkas and Henrico's Board of Supervisors for providing funding in the current fiscal year budget that allowed the School Board to implement changes and address inequities at schools countywide. For example, Cashwell said, officials have completed a number of small physical changes at Glen Lea Elementary School to enhance the school, which isn't scheduled for a full renovation in the near future.
Principals urged parents to be as involved as possible with their students at home.
"I don't necessarily need you in the building [volunteering]," Castillo-Rose said. "I need you to hold them accountable every night. Even if [they] don't have physical homework, you have something to review. You have to check up after them."
Castillo-Rose described her own eighth-grade son as a reluctant reader. She spoke with his teachers and together they found books that were of interest to him, which helped him develop a stronger interest in reading.
Monica Manns, Henrico Schools' director of Equity and Diversity, told the audience that her office has been working on a list of nearly 20 tasks developed from meetings with the citizens to improve diversity in the school system. Chief among them: working with administrators to redevelop curriculums to ensure that they take all perspectives into account.
As a result, Cashwell said, school system officials have made sure that "culturally relevant materials" are housed in every school library in the county, not just a few.
This year, each high school also will have student "equity ambassadors," Manns said, and they'll begin a series of podcasts.
Schools implement new initiatives
During the forum, principals from several other schools in the Fairfield and Varina districts described a variety of recent initiatives they've implemented to improve academic success among students.
At Fairfield Middle, Principal Jamel Gibson and his team cut out-of-school suspensions by 40 percent and have engaged students in the school's on-campus garden while requiring students to keep their cell phones out of sight during class.
At Brookland Middle, every teacher has a planning period built into his or her schedule, students take double blocks of reading and writing classes and the school has a full-time psychologist on staff to help students who have needs that go beyond the classroom, Principal Nick Barlett said.
At the alternative Academy at Virginia Randolph, high school students with specific needs receive mentoring from community partners, and each student leaves with a post-graduation plan, said Principal Jesse Casey.
At Wilder Middle School, absenteeism dropped significantly last year and the school witnessed more students playing afterschool sports, principal Deia Champ said. This year, the school will debut its Community Learning Center, which will offer a variety of extracurricular lessons and activities for students, she said.
Chamberlayne Elementary School is nearing the conclusion of its three-year renovation, and Principal Dwight VanRossum is excited that the new cafeteria will provide more natural light to a school that lacked it.
Involving faith communities
Thirteen people addressed Cashwell and school system officials during the forum, asking questions about what the school system is doing to ensure its buildings are safe, how it might work with immigrant parents who don't speak English and how parents might best involve themselves in the schools, among others.
Several of the principals on the panel urged parents to join their schools' PTA or PTSA and follow its activities to learn more about school happenings and volunteer opportunities.
The school system conducts annual safety audits of every facility and trains employees about how to respond in emergencies, Cashwell said. It's also making a strong effort to let students know "that there are caring adults there to hear their concerns and that teachers and staff members are prepared to create safe spaces," for those who have emotional or other needs, she said.
Responding to questions about why textbooks are being phased out, Cashwell and several other school officials said that while there is still a place for some, teachers are using different methods to reach students.
"The more traditional routes of teaching are changing," Varina High School English teacher Kavetta Anderson told the audience. "I don't think that because of that that students are not learning. They're learning differently."
Anderson echoed earlier comments about the importance of reading.
"It can be very very disheartening when a student makes it all the way to high school without being able to read and write well, because I know that that kid's opportunities after high school are going to be limited."
The final speaker, Arthur Garthright, praised the meeting and efforts of school officials and those who attended, while acknowledging that perhaps he seemed out of place.
"I'm sure you're all wondering, 'What's this old white guy doing here?'" he joked to the mostly African-American audience. "This is a fantastic meeting, but we're talking to the choir. Those folks who live in the old Essex Village or Section 8 apartments, they are struggling to survive. They don't have time to go to meetings."
Garthright urged school officials to engage churches countywide to assist with volunteer efforts at schools – particularly those that have significant needs, like Glen Lea – where his late wife worked for three decades.
Cooper praised Cashwell for inviting every Henrico church to her first meet-and-greet last year at Libbie Mill Library and said the school system is working on a faith-based coalition.
