How the VaHome School Score is calculated

The inputs

Every input is a figure VDOE publishes for the school on its School Quality Profile (schoolquality.virginia.gov) and in the statewide download behind it. Nothing is surveyed, modeled or taken from reviews.

• Test results. Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates in English reading, mathematics, science and history, for the latest test administration. For high schools the English figures are the end-of-course tests and are compared with the state's end-of-course rates, not the all-grades rate.
• Academic progress (elementary and middle schools). VDOE's growth rates — the share of students who showed year-over-year growth in reading and in math (the ESSA growth indicators).
• College and career readiness (high schools). On-time graduation rate for the latest graduating class, the share of students earning Advanced Placement, dual-enrollment or career-and-technical credentials, advanced-diploma share, dropout rate and the college-enrollment rate of the most recent cohort VDOE has followed (that cohort lags several years by design).
• Attendance. The chronic-absenteeism rate — the share of students who missed ten percent or more of the school year. Lower is better.

From inputs to a score

1. Rank each component statewide, level against level. A school's test, progress, readiness and attendance results are each converted to a percentile among all Virginia public schools of the same level ( elementary, middle or high). The 2025–26 reference groups are 1,074 elementary, 337 middle and 321 high schools. Midrank percentiles are used, so ties share a rank.
2. Weight the component percentiles.
   • Elementary and middle schools: test 50% · academic progress 30% · attendance 20%.
   • High schools: test 40% · college and career readiness 40% · attendance 20%.
3. Map the weighted percentile to a score. score = 1 + 9 × weighted percentile, shown to one decimal. A school at the statewide median scores 5.5; the ceiling is 10.0 and the floor is 1.0.

On each profile the score is labelled above state average (6.5 and higher), around state average (4.5 to 6.4) or below state average (below 4.5), and every component's percentile is printed next to the school's own figure and the state figure.

Quality gates

• A subject table is shown only when the tested cohort has at least 20 students; a “standout” statement about a subject needs a cohort of at least 30 and a gap of at least 10 points from the state — small cohorts produce 100% pass rates that do not mean much.
• Schools with no SOL-tested grades, special-purpose centers, alternative programs and closed schools are not scored; their pages carry the published facts without a rating.
• A figure VDOE has not published for the school is left blank, never estimated. Each school page names the data year of every figure it shows.

What changed for 2025–26

• Academic progress now uses VDOE's growth rates. Through 2024–25 the progress component was Virginia's accreditation combined rate for English and math, a series VDOE retired. From 2025–26 it is the published growth rates in reading and math.
• High-school progress weight moved to attendance. Virginia publishes no growth measure for high schools, so the 20% that was progress is now the chronic-absenteeism component (test 40 · readiness 40 · attendance 20, as above).
• Attendance is the current year. The absenteeism figure is now the same school year as the test results.
• Last year's score is kept as published. Each profile shows the 2025–26 score beside the 2024–25 score it published last year, with the change. The prior score is not recomputed under the new method, so the change includes the method change as well as the school's own results. The full table is on 2025–26 score changes.

What the score is not

• It describes a school's published results. It says nothing about a neighborhood, a street or the people who live there, and it is not a recommendation of where to live.
• Student demographics, household income, race, language and disability figures are not inputs and are not shown on VaHome.com school pages.
• Attendance zones are set by each school division and change; a home's zoned school should be confirmed with the division before any decision.

Sources and refresh

Virginia Department of Education, School Quality Profiles and the statewide download (assessments, college-and-career readiness, learning climate, ESSA indicators, enrollment). Scores are recomputed once a year after VDOE's fall release; the 2025–26 set was computed in October 2026. Division and school pages link from the schools directory; all data sets on this site are listed on Data sources & methodology.