2020 was the first year without statewide SOL testing since 1997.
Then came 2021, when participation in the testing was voluntary. The VDOE press release said, “In a typical school year, participation in federally required tests is usually around 99%. In tested grades in 2021, 75.5% of students took the reading assessment, 78.7% took math, and 80% took science.
So, the ‘22 data are the first, post-pandemic numbers with a claim to measuring anything beyond individual performance.
But first: Economically disadvantaged students (here, “ED”) (primarily students who qualify for the federal free lunch program) underperform their more affluent peers (“Not ED”) by around twenty points, depending on the test. This renders comparisons of the school and division and state averages meaningless because of the varying percentages of ED students. Fortunately, the VDOE database offers data for both groups. Hence the more complicated analyses below.
Let’s start with the reading tests.
Notes: The decreases in 2013 were the result of the adoption of newer, tougher reading tests. The 2022 results were boosted, no telling how much, by the adoption of a “less rigorous” grading scheme.
Or, in terms of the data:
Or, in terms of the division minus state values (2021 omitted as meaningless):
The math tests enjoyed their scoring boost in 2019, so the data from that year compare directly with the 2022 numbers.
Notice that, in both subjects, the 2022 average pass rate of the Richmond Not ED students was below the state average for ED students. In math, the plunge in Richmond started in 2019, with hints in the prior two years.
Then, the differences from the state:
Finally, the difference graphs for the other three subjects.
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