A little over a decade ago, all four of Martinsville’s schools were under federal or state monitoring.
Now, all city schools have been fully accredited for 10 years — with significant strides in chronic absenteeism and graduation rates just in the past year.
Chronic absenteeism — the percentage of students who miss more than 10% of the school year — has been a national issue, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. All four schools in Martinsville saw drops in chronic absenteeism, with the middle school cutting its rate in half from 12% to 6%, according to the Virginia Department of Education school quality profile.
Martinsville High School also saw an increase in its four-year graduation rate, which is now 87%, a slight jump from the 85% rate last year, according to the school quality profile. The rate for Black students increased from 89% to 96%.
Zebedee Talley, the superintendent for Martinsville City Public Schools, said those achievements were an important factor in the success over the past decade.
Last year, both city elementary schools were under federal identification and targeted support for their students with disabilities. Both schools saw significant growth in these students’ math and reading scores, moving the two out of federal identification — which is an accountability system that focuses on the performance of specific groups of students. The system is separate from Virginia’s school ratings, which still gave the two elementary schools full accreditation.
Prior to the past 10 years, Martinsville High School was being reconstituted, which means the state intervened to restructure the school’s governance and address deficiencies in curriculum and instruction to rebuild a low-performing school.
“You basically had to start over,” said Angilee Downing, the assistant superintendent for instruction.
The other three schools were under federal monitoring, and none of them were fully accredited. Within one year, all four schools were fully accredited.
“We got them out in a year, which is not normal,” Downing said.
School officials were told it would take five years, but Talley said they made the decision that they couldn’t wait that long.
“The focus was to put together a similar team that could get us out of the doldrums of being one of the bottom three or four school divisions in the state,” Talley said. “We haven’t looked back, and we continue to grow.”
Talley said it required a mindset shift from feeling the failure of plants and money leaving to realizing there are still opportunities for success.
“I think the attitude in the school environment was the … first thing that we did,” Talley said. “We started working on culture, a culture of respect and a culture of belief.”
The school system has focused on individualized instruction, empowering teachers and parent outreach, Talley said.
Three of Martinsville’s schools are Title I schools, which are schools that receive federal funding to help students from low-income families meet academic standards, according to the state education department.
“Poverty can never be an excuse for intelligence,” Talley said. “Our kids are not too poor … to learn how to read and write.”
Martinsville schools — which have enrollment of about 1,700 students — focus on parent outreach to get them involved, Talley said. They host family nights that give parents a chance to see what their kids are doing at school and talk with teachers.
“We’ll always want to work with our parents, and those students who unfortunately don’t have parent support, we give it. We provide it. That’s what we’re here for,” Talley said.
The city schools are still behind the state average in reading and math performance. Martinsville is 10 percentage points below the state average in reading and eight points behind in math — with about 65% of students in Martinsville passing the two subjects.
“We have a lot that we need to do,” Talley said. “Improvement’s not behind us.”
