Virginia school board elections, 2017

Elections

A total of 15 Virginia school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2017 for 36 seats. General elections in 14 of these districts were scheduled on November 7, 2017. The special election for one seat in Fairfax County Public Schools was scheduled on August 29, 2017.

Here are several quick facts about Virginia's school board elections in 2017:

• The largest Virginia school district by enrollment with an election in 2017 was Fairfax County Public Schools with 185,541 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
• The smallest Virginia school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2017 was Pittsylvania County Public Schools with 9,299 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

The districts listed below served 402,338 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

2017 Virginia School Board Elections
District	Primary Election	General Election	Runoff Election	Regular term length	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2014-15 enrollment
Albemarle County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	13,681
Arlington Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	1	5	24,559
Augusta County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	10,522
Bedford County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	10,097
Fairfax County Public Schools	N/A	8/29/2017	N/A	4	1	12	185,541
Frederick County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	13,181
Montgomery County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	9,703
Pittsylvania County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	9,299
Richmond Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	1	9	23,957
Roanoke County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	5	14,384
Rockingham County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	2	5	11,870
Spotsylvania County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	23,887
Stafford County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	4	7	27,573
Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	2	7	11,389
York County School Division	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	1	5	12,695

November 7 election results

84% of school board incumbents win re-election Nov. 7

School board incumbents in 14 of Virginia’s largest school districts saw an 84 percent success rate on November 7, 2017, which was similar to the 85.29 percent success rate incumbents experienced in 2015, when most of the seats tracked in 2017 were last up for election. A total of 71.43 percent of incumbents whose seats were on the ballot ran for re-election in 2017, which was higher than the 66.02 percent who ran for re-election in 2015.

Newcomers won 40 percent of the seats up for election in those 14 districts in 2017, which was a similar success rate to the 41.75 percent of seats newcomers won in 2015. Two of the 14 districts held special elections for one seat each in 2017. The other 12 held general elections for 33 seats.

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Virginia

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Maryland, North Carolina, and West Virginia), Virginia had the highest percentage of eighth grade students scoring at or above proficient in math. Both fourth and eighth grade students fell below those in Maryland in reading.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Virginia	47%	38%	43%	36%
Maryland	47%	37%	45%	42%
North Carolina	45%	36%	35%	33%
West Virginia	35%	24%	27%	25%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Virginia and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Virginia schools reported a graduation rate of 84.5 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, second highest among its neighboring states.

In Virginia, more students took the SAT than the ACT in 2013, earning an average SAT score of 1528.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Virginia	84.5%	Third	22.6	26%	1528	71%
Maryland	85%	Second	22.3	21%	1483	73%
North Carolina	82.5%	Third	18.7	100%	1479	62%
West Virginia	81.4%	Third	20.6	63%	1513	15%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Virginia was lower than the national average at 2.3 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.9 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Virginia
	Virginia	U.S.
Total population:	8,367,587	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	39,490	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	69%	73.6%
Black/African American:	19.2%	12.6%
Asian:	6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	3.2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	8.6%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	88.3%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	36.3%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$65,015	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Virginia. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Virginia

Virginia voted for the Democratic candidate in five out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, five are located in Virginia, accounting for 2.43 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Virginia had five Retained Pivot Counties, 2.76 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Virginia coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Virginia
• United States congressional delegations from Virginia
• Public policy in Virginia
• Endorsers in Virginia
• Virginia fact checks
• More...

See also

Virginia	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Virginia List of school districts in Virginia	School board elections, 2017 Virginia school board elections, 2016 Virginia school board elections, 2015 Virginia school board elections, 2014	School boards in session: 2015 in brief School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Footnotes

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