under the new state accountability guidelines.
Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Roanoke County Public Schools is earning high marks in the Virginia Department of Education’s 2025 School Quality Profiles, with no schools labeled as needing intensive support and all five county high schools rated at the top performance level.
The Virginia Department of Education recently released the updated School Quality Profiles, which provide statewide data on student achievement, school performance, safety, teacher quality and other indicators. The profiles are designed to give families, educators and community members a clearer picture of how schools and school divisions are performing across the commonwealth.
The profiles include both division- and school-level data on measures such as performance on the state Standards of Learning assessments, college and career readiness, program completion, school environment and teacher quality.
This year’s release reflects the state’s new accountability system, the School Performance and Support Framework. Under the framework, schools are evaluated across several categories, including mastery of academic standards, year-over-year student growth, readiness for the next stage of learning or employment, and graduation rates for high schools.
Schools are assigned performance labels on a 100-point scale, ranging from “Distinguished” for scores of 90 or higher to “Needs Intensive Support” for scores below 65.
Ten schools in Roanoke County received a “Distinguished” rating, including all five county high schools: William Byrd, Cave Spring, Hidden Valley, Glenvar and Northside. Fifteen additional schools were rated “On Track,” while one school was labeled “Off Track” by less than one point. No Roanoke County schools were categorized as needing intensive support.
“The School Quality Profiles give us a benchmark, but our purpose goes far beyond test scores,” Superintendent Ken Nicely said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure every student is opportunity-ready — prepared with the knowledge, skills and mindset needed for success after graduation. These results affirm that our students are gaining the skills, confidence and curiosity they need to thrive.”
Nicely also addressed the single “Off Track” designation, saying the label does not accurately reflect the progress being made.
“The ‘off track’ label misrepresents the hard work and progress made by our teachers and students,” he said. “They are doing all the right things and, despite the label, are very much on track toward continued improvement.”
Nicely credited the division’s C-Change Framework for the results, pointing to an emphasis on high-quality instruction and a positive learning culture.
“The progress reflected in this year’s profiles shows how our C-Change Framework is working in classrooms every day,” he said. “Our teachers are creating deeper learning experiences that build real-world thinking, collaboration and problem-solving.”
The full School Performance and Support Framework data for Region 6 is available through the Virginia Department of Education.