Contributing to the increases was that this was the first year students in grades 3-8 were allowed to retake SOL tests.
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“The legislation that we proposed and that I signed into law not only gives students a second chance, but more importantly, gives them the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the material”, said Mcauliffe.
The Virginia Standards of Learning tests, which describe the commonwealth’s expectations for student learning, show that in math, Algebra II had the largest percentage of students – 87 percent of test takers – earn a mark of proficient or better for the 2014-15 school year.
For African-American students, math scores increased by seven points and reading scores improved by six points.
“Virginia teachers and students are adapting to the more rigorous standards implemented by the state Board of Education several years ago”, Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven R. Staples said. “The positive trend lines confirm that meeting these new standards is possible, although it will take time for schools to complete the adjustment”.
For more information about SOL pass rates, see 2014-2015 SOL pass rates for schools, school divisions and the commonwealth.
The average performance for such students increases pass rates by four points on each test.
“Some students who initially do not pass may have just had a bad day”. And there are students who barely miss the benchmark and just need a little extra instruction in a particular area to achieve proficiency. “The most recent success provided another year of data, and the dramatic improvement continued”.
New tests were introduced in 2012-2013, and since then, scores have been going up for the most part.
Achievement increased on four of the five SOL science tests and was up by two points overall.
Hispanic students have increased both scores by six points. With every test, an average of four percent of students across the state were able to convert failing scores to passing ones with the retakes, boosting passage rates.
The Virginia Department of Education released SOL pass rates today that showed 5-percentage- point gains in reading and math, and 2-point gains each in writing, science and history. There were similar jumps for fourth graders, whose passage rate went up 35 points on the reading exam and 21 points on the math exam from the previous year.
Students improved on six of the seven reading tests and achieved pass rates of 80 percent or higher on two of the assessments, including the high school reading test students must pass to graduate.
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Also encouraging: Hispanic and African-American students closed some of the achievement gap with white and Asian students. They even outperformed their peers in the largely wealthy, high-achieving Arlington school district, where 84 percent of third graders passed.
