After an appeal by Alexandria Superintendent of Schools Rebecca L. Perry, T. C. Williams High School has been fully accredited by the Virginia Department of Education.
"The scores were so close to accreditation that I felt we had to give the results one more review,” Perry said. “We are thrilled that T. C., Minnie Howard and STEP have earned their accreditation status.”
For the purposes of accreditation, the scores of the three secondary programs are reported as one high school.
The news came in a letter from state superintendent of public instruction, Jo Lynne DeMary, dated Jan. 30. “We recognize that you are continuing to make gains in student performance in your schools and commend you for doing so,” the letter said.
T. C. had missed accreditation by one point according to the results that were released by the state Department of Education in November. Accreditation requires a passing rate of 70 percent on all state standards of learning exams. Twelve of the city’s 16 public schools are now accredited.
“We are very proud of the work that our staff and students are doing,” said T. C. principal John Porter, in an earlier interview. “We will continue to work to increase student learning and performance on all of the SOLs.”