The Virginia Board of Education recognized 50 Fairfax County public schools for high student achievement or continuous improvement under the board’s exemplar performance school recognition program.

The awards are based on performance and practice during 2018-19 and prior years.

Among local schools, Wolftrap Elementary School was recognized for earning the 2020 Board of Education Highest Achievement Award. It was among 71 schools statewide to earn the award.

Schools recognized for highest achievement were accredited during 2019-20 (based on performance data from 2018-19) and demonstrated high levels of success across all school quality indicators, including success in narrowing achievement gaps.

Schools also had to meet the Level One accreditation benchmark for reading, mathematics, and science based on the student pass rate, not including growth or progress on assessments taken by English language learners.

Schools must also have had no more than a five percent achievement gap — for schools with two student groups, or a 10 percent gap — for schools with three or more student groups — between the lowest-performing group and all other students in the school.

In addition, schools must have achieved at Level One on all other applicable school quality indicators.

Continuous Improvement Awards were presented to 375 schools statewide, based on significant improvements in reading, math, the pass rate in science, a decrease in chronic absenteeism or a decrease in the dropout rate.

VDOE Continuous Improvement Awards were presented to the following local schools: Falls Church High School, Justice High School, Lemon Road Elementary School, Longfellow Middle School and McLean High School.