Virginia’s public schools will soon be measured by both test scores and graduation rates, under an enhanced accountability plan state education officials approved last week.

Believed to be a national first, the diagnostic test is designed to assess the academic needs of ELLs with interrupted formal education.

“The tragedy of A Nation at Risk is that those who were roused to action by the language of crisis got only half the report’s message: the need for school standards,” writes David S. Seeley.