Test Results Mixed In Rockbridge County
The Virginia Department of Education has awarded a “distinguished” rating to eight of the Rockbridge area’s 12 public schools, the highest designation a school can achieve under the VDEO’s new accountability system.
The department announced on Oct. 7 that all four Buena Vista public schools, both Lexington schools, and two Rockbridge County elementary schools, Fairfield and Mountain View, have earned the state’s top rating.
The “distinguished” rating is awarded when a school exceeds state expectations in mastery, growth and readiness. It’s the second year that schools are ranked this way under Virginia’s new School Performance and Support Framework (SPSF), which replaced the state’s previous accountability system. Schools earn points based on how they perform on each component and are then placed into one of four categories: distinguished, meets expectations, approaching expectations and needs intensive support.
Mastery and growth account for 50 percent or more of each school’s potential points and include Standards of Learning (SOL) and Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) assessments. The VAAP test evaluates students from third grade to eighth who have significant cognitive disabilities. Only 12 students across all three of Rockbridge area’s divisions participated in VAAP tests last year.
The new VDOE assessments combine both scores in order to evaluate each division.
Breaking Down Assessment Scores
Virginia’s statewide SOL and VAAP scores have either ticked up or remained steady in the last three years. The most notable gains statewide in 2026 were in math, which increased from a 66 percent pass rate to a 70 percent pass rate. Reading, writing and science scores held steady while history also ticked up a point from 72 percent to 73 percent in 2026.
Lexington and Buena Vista school divisions surpassed state-wide results in most subjects aside from a dip under the state average in writing skills for Buena Vista. Rockbridge County was slightly below the state averages in every category but science, where the division topped state averages by a fraction.
Virginia children start SOL testing in third grade and only complete the writing portion of the test in high school. Scores are based on the percentage of students who pass the tests.
Here’s a breakdown of how each division fared:
In Buena Vista
Buena Vista City Public Schools has a lot to be proud of this year as every school was given a distinguished rating this year. Only 14 school divisions in the state, including Lexington City Schools, have seen all schools earn a distinguished rating.
Parry McCluer Middle School scored 96.67 points, Parry McCluer High School scored 92.95, Enderly Heights Elementary School scored 92.66 and F.W. Kling Jr. Elementary scored 92.25.
“Every staff member has a part in this celebration,” Superintendent Dr. Heather Ault said. “Their dedication, skill and care for our students, together with the support of our families, made this achievement possible. Having all four schools earn Virginia’s highest rating is an extraordinary accomplishment that we are excited to celebrate.”
The division is also above the state average across every subject except for writing for 2026 and made significant gains in other areas.
Reading pass rates were at 77 percent compared to the state average of 74 percent, history was up to 78 percent compared to 70 percent statewide, math scores were 76 percent, up from 73 percent across the state and science scores were 72 percent compared to 71 percent.
Writing scores were at 69 percent compared to 76 percent statewide. But in every category except for math, BVCPS has made gains over the last three years. Writing scores in 2024 were at 56 percent, marking a 23 percent increase this year despite falling short of the state average. History scores have also risen more than 17 percent since 2024.
Enderly Heights was the only elementary school to participate in assessments since Kling only goes through first grade. EHES beat out state average scores in nearly every category but math, with reading at 76 percent, history at 80 percent, math at 72 percent and science at 76 percent. The school’s biggest gain in the past three years was in history, which rose 40 percent from 57 in 2024 to 80 in 2026.
PMMS outpaced or matched the statewide average in all three subjects students were tested in at 77 percent in reading, 84 percent in math and 79 percent in history. The school has seen a slight, steady decline in reading scores over the past three years but remains steady in math and history.
PMHS was more of a mixed bag when it came to comparisons with state averages. Reading and math were slightly above state scores at 77 and 74 percent, respectively. Writing and science scores were lower than the state average, both at 69 percent. Reading and writing scores have trended upward over the last three years while science and math trended downward.
In Rockbridge
Two out of RCPS’s six schools earned a distinguished ranking.
Mountain View Elementary School earned the top spot among RPCS under the VDOE’s new accountability system with a score of 94.91. Fairfield Elementary School came in a close second with a score of 93.08 and also earned a distinguished ranking.
Natural Bridge Elementary School, Maury River Middle School and Rockbridge County High School all earned a ranking of “meets expectations” and Central Elementary School was ranked “approaching expectations.”
-When it comes to assessments, despite trending mostly below average state scores, RCPS saw scores increase across the board from last year with some big gains across a few subjects.
The biggest improvement in RCPS by far was in history – which has historically been the county’s weakest subject – where scores jumped from 62 percent in 2025 to 67 percent in 2026. Since 2024, those scores have increased more than 12 percent.
STEM subjects have also seen increased scores in RCPS over the past three years: Science jumped from 63 percent in 2024 percent to 72 percent in 2026, a nearly 13 percent increase, and math jumped from 66 percent to 69 percent, which represents a 4 percent increase.
Reading and writing scores saw small increases to 72 percent and 73 percent, respectively, from 2025 to 2026. Reading and writing skills still slightly trail 2024 pass rates, when 74 percent of students passed in both reading and writing.
Timothy Martino, RCPS’s assistant superintendent of instruction and administration, said teachers work hard to go through the Standards of Learning and prepare students for what they will be tested on.
“We certainly made some improvements and we’re proud of our colleagues who are in the classrooms and are building leaders who are working hard every day to raise student achievement,” Martino said. “Of course, there’s always more work to do, and we want to grow and get better. But we did see some positive gains in some different areas this year.’
Among Rockbridge County elementary schools, Mountain View stood out with scores in every subject higher than the state average. MVES scored a whopping 94 in history and had strong scores across the board, with 77 percent in reading, 82 percent in math and 84 percent in science. Scores in history have increased more than 36 percent since 2024 and more than 12 percent in science. Reading scores have seen a marked improvement since 2025 but are still lower than scores in 2024.
Fairfield Elementary was a close second in every category except science, and showed huge improvement in some subjects over a three-year period. FES has made a quantum leap in its history and social science scores in the last two years, increasing scores by 74 percent in that area from under 49 to 85 percent. Reading scores were at 74 percent in 2026, up from 65 percent in 2024, which is more than a 20 percent increase. Math was at 86 percent this year, up from 68 percent in 2024, an overall 26 percent increase. On the other hand, Fairfield saw a decline in science scores over a three-year period from 70.5 percent in 2024 to 63.9 percent in 2026.
Central Elementary trended higher than state averages in every score but reading, which had a 64 percent pass rate compared to 74 percent statewide. Reading scores have also trended downward year-over-year, from 73 percent in 2024 to 64 percent in 2026.
CES has improved over the last years in every other subject, rising from 66 to 89 percent in history since 2024, 65 to 74 percent in science and 73 to 75 percent in math.
NBES came in well below the state average in every subject but history, where it matched statewide results. The school had a 48 percent pass rate in reading, down from 77 percent statewide and also down from the 66 percent pass rate in 2024. Math had a 51 percent pass rate compared to 69 percent statewide and down from the 2025 score of 57 percent. Science scores at NBES were at 45 percent compared to the state average of 71 percent. Science scores have waffled significantly in the last three years, with scores at 60 percent in 2024, dropping to 39 percent in 2025 and rising to 45 percent this year.
NBES did make one big gain in the last few years, though, with a nearly 86 percent increase in history scores from 38 percent in 2024 to 70 in 2026.
Maury River Middle School was above state scores in every category but math, but either saw gains or remained steady in the last three years.
RCHS was a mixed bag when compared to scores across the state: Reading scores were above state averages, writing scores matched and history, science and math scores were below state average.
Only one area, history, showed marked improvement – but the scores still remain dismal – up to 27 percent from 23 last year.
In Lexington
Both of LCS schools, Waddell Elementary and Lylburn Downing Middle School earned a distinguished ranking this year. Only Waddell was ranked distinguished last year.
Waddell got an overall score of 100.33 and LDMS got a score of 99.99.
“Our distinguished rating highlights the heart and dedication our teachers bring every day,” said the division’s director of testing, Jen Hall. “As a small school division, our teachers wear many hats, from managing division pacing guides and daily lesson planning, to providing remediation, intervention and enrichment programs for students. Our administrators work hard to ensure our teachers have the resources necessary to meet students’ needs.”
Waddell lost some ground in all subjects since last year except for in science, which went from 87 percent in 2025 to 92 percent this year.
Reading scores dropped from 94 to 88 percent year-over- year, math dipped from 94 to 93 percent and history dropped from 94 to 91 percent.
LDMS saw gains across all subjects over a three-year period: a 20 percent increase in math scores, a 13 percent increase in history scores, a 12 percent increase in science and a slight uptick in reading scores.
Superintendent Rebecca Walters said that based on a statewide evaluation of school division pass rates, LCS as a whole earned a No. 1 ranking out of Virginia’s 132 school districts this year.
“Strong classroom instruction, responsive interventions and student support programs, along with professional learning and collaboration between our schools and families have helped our schools and students continue to thrive,” Walters said. “We are looking forward to another great year for our Lexington City Schools, and we sincerely appreciate the support of our community stakeholders.”
Walters said that this year, both LCS schools have adopted new instructional materials in math and reading and spent the summer developing pacing and curriculum plans and that she was pleased with the test results.
“We are very proud that our students continue to exceed the state’s pass rate average,” Walters said. “Our teachers and principals continue to work hard ensuring strong alignment of instruction to the Standards of Learning, regular assessment and monitoring of student mastery and growth, and adjustment of interventions and support strategies to meet individual student needs.”
