Governor Glenn Youngkin gave a name to his new education standards Friday morning.
Younkin called it The Road to Readiness. The new standards will classify schools as 'distinguished,' 'on track,' 'off track' or 'needs intensive support.' Youngkin has said it will increase transparency for parents, letting them know the quality of their child’s school.
“The reality is this is not about judging; this is simply about knowing where we are," Youngkin said. "And, of course, what we find is there are 208 schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia that need a lot of help.”
The standards were developed by the state’s Board of Education over the last two years and approved this summer. According to numbers released by the Department of Education Friday, over 65% of Virginia’s K-12 schools are on track or better.
But back during the summer DOE said over half of schools would be off track or worse and some estimates had those numbers even higher. A DOE spokesperson told radio IQ earlier models were the result of older data, and new data caused the positive swing.
Senator Ghazala Hashmi is chair of her chamber’s education committee. She’s heard complaints from educators who say the new standards were rushed. And Hashmi said she saw yet another version of 'off track' numbers before Friday’s release. It’s made her question the accuracy of the standards system entirely.
“I don’t understand why it’s being hurried, why the numbers keep fluctuating and why we can’t get the correct figures we need to in order to make appropriate decisions,” the Chesterfield-area senator said.
The 2024-2025 school year is the first year of data collection under the new standards, the results are set to be released next fall.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
