ALEXANDRIA, Va. (7News) — The superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools is voicing criticism and concerns about a new Virginia Department of Education report released late last week.

Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his top education officials released the 34-page report on Thursday, May 19.

The report, titled “Our Commitment to Virginians, High Expectations and Excellence for All Students," says Virginia public school students are falling behind national education standards, and in part, blames state policy choices made by previous administrations and leaders in the Commonwealth.

"Decisions made at the state level created confusion in Virginia education and downplayed troubling trends," Jillian Balow, Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction, wrote in the report. "It is noteworthy that the rhetorical emphasis on equity coincided with the widened gaps in student achievement. And now, decisions at the state level must correct those errors and reverse these disturbing trends."

The report also says Virginia is "facing declines in student performance that started long before the pandemic and were illuminated and exacerbated over the last two years."

7News spoke to Youngkin and VDOE officials about the report last week. Now, we're hearing the perspective of a Virginia school district superintendent.

"I think the biggest concern is how the information was shared out. It was in a sense very misleading, especially when we are talking about NAEP data," said Dr. Gregory Hutchings, who has served as superintendent of Alexandra City Public Schools since July, 2018.

NAEP is the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Hutchings said he feels the VDOE "cherry picked" NAEP data for this report.

"NAEP is the nation's report card. I think it's important for anyone referencing NAEP to not cherry pick the data. When you do that, you're going to tell whatever story you want, and I think that is where it can be misleading," Hutchings said. "Any person can look at the NAEP information for themselves, and you will see that Virginia consistently is scoring higher than most states across this country, and I think that's a key point."

7News took that criticism to Youngkin's office and the Virginia Department of Education.

In an emailed response, VDOE Director of Communications & Constituent Services Charles Pyle defended the data used in the department's report:

But the data is just one element of the report that Hutchings says he takes issue with.

In a news conference announcing details of the report last week, state education officials pointed to widening achievement gaps for students of color and students who are from low income households.

"The pandemic also exacerbated long-standing achievement gaps, resulting in Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students falling farther behind," the report says.

Hutchings agrees with those findings, but he also says it's not a new problem.

"We have known that we've had disparities between our Black and Brown students and their white counterparts throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia for several years," Hutching said, adding that work was done under the administration of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to try to begin to address the issue. "Part of the work that our EdEquity Virginia program did was specially looking at those inequities as well as data showing a huge achievement gap, so this is not new information."

He feels the VDOE report fails to outline a specific plan to address those inequities.

"The question I have is, 'where are the conversations around what we do about this work?' Because the former administration did seek to find results and solutions for this data, and specifically it focused on equity. And unfortunately, I didn't hear the word equity used at all last week, which is very concerning to me," Hutchings said.

The governor's office and VDOE did not provide a direct answer to 7News' inquiry asking for a response to Hutchings' concern about the importance of focusing on equity in schools.

"Leaders changed definitions, they lowered expectations, and they reduced the importance of proficiency in determining school quality and accreditation. And they often did this in the name of equity," Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera said during

Thursday's news conference, referring to previous state leadership in Virginia. "President Bush used to refer to this as the soft bigotry of low expectations. I call it plain wrong."

On the website for Alexandria City Public Schools, the school district says ACPS "places racial equity at the center of everything that we do as a school division." Hutchings says that work will not be deterred.

"In Alexandria, we define it as meeting students where they are," he said. "I think we also need to understand that equity is going to ensure that a child's circumstance and specifically their race does not define what they can or can't do. And it doesn't define their future. And that requires us to do different things for different students."

Hutchings said he would welcome the governor and Virginia Department of Education officials to visit Alexandria and see the equity work being done within the ACPS school system.

"Come and see the school systems that are taking action, and leading with racial equity at the heart of their work," he said. “I would love to be able to have a seat at the table to work with your administration to provide a different perspective. It doesn’t mean that everything I have to offer is the only way, but I think it gives a different perspective that needs to be heard, so that we can make a difference for all children."

7News asked the governor's office whether Youngkin would be open to that, but we have not yet heard back.

'We all know that the one size fits all model doesn't work," Youngkin said during last week's news conference. "We also must continue to support innovation across the Commonwealth including labs schools, government schools, magnet schools charter schools."

In the VDOE report's forward, the Superintendent of Public Instruction wrote that since Jan. 15, she has "traveled to multiple school divisions, talked with teachers, built an understanding of the issues, and collaborated with leaders."

SOURCE: WSET