Virginia students began showing signs of learning recovery from the extended COVID-19 pandemic school closures in Standards of Learning test scores for the 2023-2024 school year.
Virginia students in 3rd to 8th grades showed some improvement in the Standards of Learning testing in Math and Reading, and followed the extensive work done by many Virginia educators on Virginia’s ALL In Virginia initiative.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin initiated ALL In Virginia to improve attendance, accelerate literacy and prioritize learning in Virginia classrooms in 3rd to 8th grades.
After intense focus from school divisions, parents and community members as part of ALL In, Virginia’s K-12 chronic absenteeism rate has decreased 16 percent since 2022-2023: 40,974 fewer students were chronically absent than in 2022-2023.
“Since day one, our commitment to Virginia’s students has been a primary focus and last year, on a bipartisan basis, Virginia went ALL In to tackle core issues in K-12 education: attendance, literacy and learning loss,” Youngkin said. “Virginia’s students and parents were facing the worst pandemic learning loss in the nation from Virginia being 46th in reopening in-classroom learning, an ‘honesty gap’ between what the data told us and true student proficiency, and a systematic reduction of expectations by previous administrations on Virginia’s historically high academic standards. It’s clear our ALL In Virginia strategy is working, the signs are appearing and Virginia’s students and parents are benefiting from our collective efforts.”
According to Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera, the Commonwealth still has a long way to go to ensure preparation of students for adult life.
“Today’s promising data shows that when we have high expectations for our students, teachers and schools, they meet them when using proven approaches and tools. We know what works. Every school in the Commonwealth must know and understand each student’s academic progress and mastery and provide tailored supports and teaching that will put every student on track to succeed in life,” Guidera said.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons said the SOL results of the 2023-2024 school year show that Virginia students are beginning to recover from learning loss they suffered in 2020 and 2021.
“But the results also show that we must continue to focus every day on helping them catch up to pre-pandemic levels and move ahead. I’m proud of the way so many of our teachers and educators committed themselves to the ALL In high-intensity tutoring, and these results show that we are starting to make a real difference. With many more school divisions putting these proven measures in place this school year, we have more resources available to students than ever before, including the Virginia Literacy Act being implemented this year,” Coons said.
Statewide Grades 3-8 Reading SOL Results
- 70 percent of school divisions showed student improvement in Reading SOL scores (93 school divisions)
- 10.7 percent of school divisions maintained their Reading SOL scores
- 19.1 percent of school divisions showed decline in Reading SOL scores
Statewide Grades 3-8 Math SOL Results
- 75 percent of school divisions showed student improvement in Math SOL scores (99 school divisions)
- 4.6 percent of school divisions maintained their Math Reading SOL scores
- 19.8 percent of school divisions showed decline in Reading SOL scores
Statewide High School SOL Results
- In math, high school students raised their SOL results to 84 percent in 2023-2024 from 81 percent in 2022-2023, seeing increased pass rates on all 3 high school math end-of-course exams.
- In reading, high school students showed a slight decrease in SOL results with 84 percent of students passing in 2023-2024 versus 85 percent passing in 2022-2023 on the reading exam.
- In science, high school students showed slight improvement in their SOL results rising to 71 percent in 2023-2024 from 70 percent in 2022-2023, seeing increased pass rates on all three high school science end-of-course exams.
Statewide K-12 Chronic Absenteeism Reduction
- Virginia’s K-12 schools saw a 16 percent reduction in students who were chronically absent last year. The rate of chronic absenteeism fell to 16.1 percent in 2023-2024 from 19.3 percent in 2022-2023. All K-12 students had 1,276,522 fewer absent days, which resulted in an increase of 8,935,654 hours of instruction.
- Reinforcing the importance of regular school attendance, chronically absent students (attending less than 90 percent of the school year) performed 19 percentage points below their peers in reading and 26 percentage points below in math.
School division chronic absenteeism rates will be released in fall 2024.
Many student groups saw increases in their SOL 3-8 pass rates, many rising faster than Virginia students overall.
In 3-8 Reading:
- Economically disadvantaged students doubled the rate of growth of all students post-pandemic.
- English learners’ rate of growth in reading was more than 6 times the rate of growth of all students.
- Students with disabilities’ rate of growth in reading that was 1.7 times the rate of growth of all students.
In 3-8 Math:
- Economically disadvantaged students more than doubled the rate of growth of all students post-pandemic.
- English learners have almost doubled their performance in math post-pandemic.
- Students with disabilities’ rate of growth in math was 1.2 times the rate of growth of all students.
- Black students rate of growth was 3 times the rate of growth of all students.
More information on these performance statements and the entire presentation made today is available.
More detailed SOL Test Results can be found on the VDOE website. School Quality Profiles have been updated as well.
ALL In VA
In September 2023, responding to 2022-2023 data showing persistent learning loss in 3rd to 8th grades, Youngkin called for ALL In VA to help Virginia students recover from extended pandemic school closures. A $418 million multi-year initiative lasting through the 2025-2026 school year, ALL In encourages school divisions to focus on four critical areas of learning supports:
- High-Intensity Tutoring: School divisions hired additional tutors, paid teachers stipends, and added more evidence-based tutoring during the school day.
- Extended Time: School divisions added hours before and after school hours as well as added time on Saturdays to provide students additional time outside of the school day for tutoring.
- Summer Programs: Schools also focused on summer school hours and attendees, and some schools added days to the beginning and end of the school year. Many schools added additional at-risk students and expanded hours of programming to support learning recovery.
- Resources: Several schools focused on using the state’s free personalized supplemental math and reading resources. 119 of 131 school divisions have signed up to use one or more of these state’s free personalized resources in 2024-2025.
ALL In VA also focused on confronting the issue of chronic absenteeism, which soared post-pandemic, with a Chronic Absenteeism Task Force, Action Kit for divisions, and proven strategies in reducing absenteeism, as well as accelerating the implementation of the Virginia Literary Act, which brings effective instructional strategies grounded in evidence-based reading research to Virginia classrooms statewide and is being implemented in in Grades K-3 this school year.
School divisions’ ALL In Spending Plans and additional resources are available on the VDOE website.
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Rebecca Barnabi
