Gov. Youngkin released a report criticizing past decisions on education policy in Virginia
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Governor Glenn Youngkin released a report Thursday in which his administration highlights what they believe to be poor decision-making at the state level in recent years when determining educational standards and policies in the commonwealth. The report from Youngkin’s Department of Education says expectations were lowered resulting in a wider achievement gap in Virginia’s public schools.
The report states that Virginia now has the lowest proficiency standards in reading and mathematics in the nation, resulting in wide “honesty gaps” between the performance of students on state Standards of Learning (SOL) tests and performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
The NAEP measures student achievement and is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students know and can do in various subject areas. SOLs are tests administered under state guidelines.
According to the report, the Board of Education voted in 2020 to lower the proficiency standard on all elementary, middle school, and high school SOL reading tests despite declines in the reading performance of Virginia students on the 2019 NAEP and state assessments.