NORFOLK, Va. — This week, the Virginia Department of Education released the statewide results for the Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates for the last academic school year.
The data released demonstrates that despite progress made among school divisions in rebounding from COVID pandemic learning loss, students are still passing their SOLs at a lower average rate than before the pandemic.
Looking at the five test subjects -- reading, writing, math, history, and science -- across every school division in the Hampton Roads region, none are above the levels seen by any division since before the pandemic.
Chesapeake and Virginia Beach are the two divisions where each subject is above the state average pass rates, but still below the levels recorded in 2018-19.
Here is the breakdown of SOL pass rates for the seven cities of Hampton Roads, when averaging the five test subject rates together:
- Virginia Beach: 77%
- Chesapeake: 75%
- Hampton: 67%
- Suffolk: 65%
- Newport News: 53%
- Norfolk: 53%
- Portsmouth: 53%
However, school divisions that recorded lower pass rates immediately following the pandemic demonstrated higher percentage increases in certain subjects.
Mathematics scores in Suffolk jumped 28 percentage points between the latest scores and those in 2020-'21. All school divisions, with the exception of Virginia Beach (which still comes in above the state average mathematics rates), have jumped double-digit percentage points for mathematics in the last three years.
In a news conference alongside Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, DOE officials noted that the Hispanic and Black students between 3rd and 8th grade continue to see the highest level of reading and mathematics decline since 2018-19.
“Two-thirds of all 3rd through 8th grade students are at risk of failing their math SOLs," Gov. Youngkin said. "More than half are at risk of failing their reading SOLs.”
Here is a test subject breakdown for each of the seven local divisions: (mobile users tap here)