House of Delegates passes SOL reform

The House of Delegates voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass House Bill 930, which would reform the Standards of Learning (SOLs) by reducing the number of tests to focus students and teachers on key areas in each grade level and establishing a process to review remaining SOL assessments in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe called the bill a “meaningful step toward reforming the Standards of Learning to continue to evaluate students and teachers, without stifling innovation and creativity in the classroom.”

“This legislation was the product of the leadership of Dels. Tag Greason and Rob Krupicka, who worked alongside Secretary of Education Anne Holton and my policy team to craft a bill that will allow the Commonwealth to track student performance while better freeing teachers to teach and students to learn,” McAuliffe said. “As the legislation moves to the Senate, my team and I will continue to engage actively with the process to bring legislation to my desk to reform the SOLs and strengthen Virginia’s ability to prepare our students to lead in the 21st century economy.”

“We are proud of the bipartisan cooperation we have seen for SOL testing reform,” said Del. Krupicka, chief co-patron of the bill. “By replacing certain SOL tests with more robust and flexible assessment tools, we allow for creativity and flexibility in the classroom, while still having confidence that content is being taught as expected and that students are making progress and learning the critical thinking skills they need to compete in today’s economy.