This year, a quarter of the public high schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, located just outside of our nation’s capital, are likely to lose state accreditation. The declining performance of students, particularly concentrated in six failing high schools, coincides with the rising number of non-English speakers in the district after the board of supervisors passed a sanctuary policy titled “The Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy (Trust Policy)” in January 2021. By 2023, students classified as English-language learners accounted for 26.5 percent of the district’s students.
Fairfax County is among the last places one would expect to see failing schools. It is an affluent area with a median household income of about $145,000. Within commuting distance to Washington, D.C, the county is home to a high percentage of residents with advanced degrees, has one of the largest public school districts in the nation, and is one of the top per-pupil public school district spenders (totaling about $20,000 per student in fiscal 2024). For decades, Fairfax County has drawn families in search of quality K-12 public education for their children.
A look at Virginia’s accreditation metrics and the recent arrival of students who are not proficient in speaking and reading English sheds light on the significant decline of Fairfax County’s public schools. In Virginia, public school districts are assessed on the following school quality indicators: academic achievement, academic achievement gaps, chronic absenteeism, dropout rates, the Graduation and Completion Index, and the College, Career, and Readiness Index.
Each school is graded in every category on a level one to level three rating. A performance rating of level one indicates “at or above standard” and level three means a school is performing “below standard.” Any school that earns........