Virginia's K-12 test scores improve, but they're still not back to pre-pandemic marks
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Virginia's public school students showed marginal improvement on their annual Standards of Learning test scores, but made huge strides in lowering chronic absenteeism, a key factor in school performance.
Why it matters: SOL test scores still lag behind pre-pandemic levels but they've improved every year for the last four years.
The big picture: Virginia students saw some of the steepest drops in the nation on reading and math test scores post-pandemic.
- In fourth grade math, for instance, the state went from having the second-highest average scores in the country in 2019 to being tied for 20th for the 2021-22 school year.
- In fourth grade reading, the state dropped from 7th highest to 33rd in 2021-22.
- Scores have ticked up slightly since then, including for the 2023-24 school year, but the results show Virginia students still have more work to do, Gov. Youngkin said when announcing the scores this week.
By the numbers: For the last school year, 75% of the state's 129 school divisions showed improvement in grades 3-8 math scores.
- 70% of divisions improved in grades 3-8 reading scores.
- Across the board, all grade levels saw pass rate improvements, with 72.9% of students passing the reading SOLs, up from 72.5% the previous year, and 70.9% passing the math test, up from 69.1%, per the Washington Post.
Yes, but: Those scores are still down from the 2018-2019 school year when 77% of Virginia SOL takers passed the reading test and 82% passed math.
Zoom in: Locally, Richmond public school students were better in every subject — including reaching a 50% reading pass rate and 47% pass rate for math — but the division continues to lag behind its suburban neighbors, the Times-Dispatch reports.
- Henrico students had a 69% pass rate in reading and 66% for math for the last school year.
- Chesterfield posted a 71% reading pass rate and 68% for math.
- And Hanover kids blew everyone out of the regional water with an 80% reading pass rate and 83% for math.
Youngkin credited state educators for their work on his "All in VA" pandemic learning loss recovery initiative, which included a "high-intensity tutoring program for the performance improvements.
Zoom out: Virginia's biggest turnaround in school performance may well be its reduction in chronic absenteeism, which fell to 16.1% for the 2023-24 year, down from 19.3% the year before.
- Chronic absenteeism is when students miss 10% or more of the school year, and in Virginia that 16.1% translated into 40,974 fewer students skipping out of school on the regular.
- Virginia's rate was 10.6% before COVID.
- Students who show up to school 90% of the time or less typically score 19 percentage points lower on tests than their peers, per the Virginia Department of Education.
What we're watching: Whether the coming-soon school day cell phone restrictions can help Virginia's students on their continued improvement.
Go deeper and explore all the test scores