The bad news continued for Virginia schools as results from 2022-23 assessments showed significant and persistent learning loss in reading and math for students in third- through eighth-grades.
According to the Virginia Department of Education, more than half of students in that age group either failed or are at risk of failing their reading SOL exam and nearly two-thirds of those students failed or are at risk of failing the math exam.
“Grade 3 through 8 Virginia students are still struggling to recover the learning loss from the pandemic and are not performing as well as their pre-pandemic peers,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons. “The 2022-2023 SOL data demonstrates just how important school attendance is for students’ academic success. VDOE recommends school divisions allocate this $418 million in learning loss resources to proven programs that will achieve the greatest student impact–approximately 70% for high-dose tutoring, 20% for Virginia Literacy Act implementation, and 10% for chronic absenteeism response.”
Pass rates for every elementary and middle-school grade are behind 2018-19 pass rates, both in reading and in math.
The pass rates are even more alarming when considering the large number of students who are in the “low proficient” level and would have likely failed the SOLs under the 2018-2019 cut scores. Proficiency cut scores were lowered between the 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 test administration. These lowered cut scores enabled students to pass that would not have otherwise received a passing score. Students who fall into this band are considered “low proficient.”
Bland County students fared better in reading than they did in the previous year with 76 percent passing. The 2021-22 school year saw a 74 percent pass rate. However, the Bland reading scores are still below the 2020-21 year, where there was an 80 percent pass rate. In writing, Bland’s scores continued to drop, falling from 75 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to 69 percent in 2021-22 to 62 percent in 2022-23.
In history, Bland students improved, going from a 73 percent pass rate to a 77 percent rate. Science scores were steady at a 75 percent rate in all years.
Carroll County students’ reading scores improved over the 2020-21 year, going from a 70 percent pass rate to a 76 percent pass rate; however, the scores fell from the prior year by 2 percentage points. In writing, scores dropped over the past year from a 66 percent to 65 percent pass rate, still much better than the 58 percent rate shown in the 2020-21 school year. History scores in Carroll followed the same pattern, dropping by 5 percentage points from the prior year to a 64 percent pass rate but still 6 percentage points above the numbers published in 2020-21.
Math, too, showed increases, going to a 76 percent pass rate in the latest, just released numbers, higher than the 74 percent rate in the prior year and the 60 percent pass rate from 2020-21.
Students at Gladesboro Elementary school had a 100 percent pass rate in history for the second consecutive year.
Galax appears to have bucked the statewide trend, showing steady improvement. In reading, pass rates in Galax improved to 72 percent, up 4 percentage points from 2020-21. Writing scores were up to 62 percent, an 8 percentage point gain from the prior year. In science, pass rates in 2020-21 were 48 percent. The results from 2022-23 showed a 66 percent pass rate. Math also had solid gains, going from a 54 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to a 75 percent pass rate in 2022-23.
Grayson, too, showed growth and stronger scores in every subject area. In reading, Grayson students went from a 76 percent pass rate in reading in 2020-21 to an 80 percent rate in 2022-23. Writing scores improved from the year prior to 2022-23 by 2 percentage points to 67 percent. History showed huge gains, going from a 61 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to 74 percent in the latest exams. In math, Grayson County’s pass rate was at 77 percent, besting the 72 percent from 2021-22 and the 68 percent in 2020-21.
Scores improved across the board in Smyth County, too. In reading, Smyth went from a 63 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to a 76 percent rate in 2022-23. In writing, Smyth showed a 65 percent pass rate in the most recent exams, a 13 percentage point increase in one year. In math, results were even more dramatic, going from a 46 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to a 71 percent pass rate in 2022-23. In science, Smyth students improved from a 54 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to a 71 percent pass rate in the 2022-23 test.
In reading, Washington County schools saw general increase in pass rates, going from 78 percent to 83 percent to 84 percent. While writing scores improved from a 63 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to 67 percent in 2022-23, they fell by 2 percentage points from 2021-22.
History scores improved from a 65 percent pass rate to an 80 percent pass rate, and math jumped from a 68 percent pass rate to an 86 percent pass rate. In science, Washington County school improved from a 65 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to a 78 percent pass rate in 2022-23.
Wythe County, like several others, saw scores improve from 2020-21 assessments but fall from the previous year, in some areas. In reading, Wythe County had a 79 percent pass rate, down from the 81 percent rate from 2021-22 but up from the 77 percent rate in 2020-21.
Writing scores dropped year over year, falling from a 66 percent pass rate in 2021-22 to a 58 percent pass rate in 2022-23. History scores improved from a 64 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to a 78 percent pass rate in the latest exams. Math also saw steady growth, going from a 67 percent pass rate in 2020-21 to 80 percent in 2021-22 to 82 percent in 2022-23. Science scores in 2022-23 were better than the 2020-21 scores by 4 percentage points at a 75 percent rate, but worse than the 82 percent pass rate posted the previous year.
At Rural Retreat High School, students had a 100 percent pass rate in the math SOL.
VDOE will release 2023-2024 school accreditation ratings later this month. Accreditation ratings include multiple indicators of school quality and student achievement, including growth in reading and mathematics and high school graduation rates.
