Student performance on Virginia Standards of Learning tests rebounded in the last school year. But it’s still well behind the performance logged before the pandemic.
66% of Virginia students passed their math SOL test for the 2021-22 school year. That’s an improvement from the year before, when schools were most disrupted by COVID-19. But it’s still 16 points lower than before the pandemic.
Reading tests revealed a similar, though smaller, drop. 73% of students passed the most recent reading tests, compared to 78% in the 2018-2019 school year.
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The gaps are even bigger among Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students, according to data from the state Department of Education.
A department news release said the recovery shows the importance of in-person instruction. Pass rates in schools that were mostly or nearly all remote were 10 to 30 points lower than schools that were mostly or nearly all in-person. The vast majority of Virginia students were in-person during the 2021-22 school year. “The bottom line is that in-person instruction matters. When we compare the 2021-2022 data with achievement in 2020-2021 — when the majority of our students were learning remotely or on hybrid schedules — we can see the difference our teachers made once they were reunited with their students in their classrooms,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow said in the news release.
Full school and division results
The department will begin rolling out progress reports for individual students in grades 1 through 8 this fall, so parents will have an easier way to track their students’ performance.
School accreditation ratings will be released in September.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
