Governor Glenn Youngkin delivers remarks on Virginia’s annual assessment of student performance on August 20, 2024.
RICHMOND, VA – Showing the start of learning recovery from the extended pandemic school closures and the most significant learning loss of students’ nationwide, Virginia students in Grades 3-8 showed some improvement in the Standards of Learning testing in Math and Reading in the 2023-2024 school year.
This year’s improvements followed the extensive work done by many Virginia educators on Virginia’s ALL In Virginia initiative initiated by Governor Youngkin to improve attendance, accelerate literacy, and prioritize learning in Virginia classrooms in grades 3-8.
Additionally, 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% since 2022-2023. 40,974 fewer students were chronically absent in 2023-2024 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,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “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.”
“We still have a long way to go to ensure every student is prepared and ready for life,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera. “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.”
“These results show that Virginia students are beginning to recover from the post-pandemic learning loss they suffered after 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,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons. “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.”
Virginia Department of Education