Latest news with #StandardsofLearning
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Debate grows over timing of higher academic standards in Virginia
Students in a classroom. (Photo by Getty Images) As Virginia prepares to revise its academic benchmarks for students, a select group will consider how quickly the state should implement its proficiency ratings. The committees could recommend either a single-year transition or a more gradual approach over several years. However, any decision could significantly impact how schools, students, and communities respond. Implementing the changes over a year could have immediate effects but might also lead to rushed decisions. A phased approach over several years could help reduce anomalies, but may delay schools from receiving timely interventions. 'The (Board of Education) hasn't made a policy decision yet on how they're going to do that,' Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson told The Mercury. Gullickson did not indicate her preference on the matter but said a subject expert will analyze data from other states that have taken similar approaches. A presentation is expected in June when the standard-setting committees meet. The committees include teachers, instructional specialists, and community stakeholders, such as parents and business leaders. In June, the members will make recommendations to the board for an initial review, with a final decision expected in July. Virginia's effort to change the cut scores — the threshold for determining student proficiency — is part of a broader push by Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration to raise academic benchmarks and 'restore excellence in education.' The plan includes increasing rigor in core subjects, boosting transparency and accountability, and overhauling the state's assessment system. The administration aims to align the new cut scores more closely with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which it says highlights the 'honesty gap' — the disparity between Virginia's current standards and the more stringent NAEP benchmarks. NAEP measures academic performance in grades 4, 8, and 12, using a randomly selected sample designed to reflect student diversity across factors like ethnicity, school size, economic background, and gender. Between 2017 and 2022, Virginia's fourth-grade reading and math results showed a stunning 40-percentage-point gap between the state's Standards of Learning assessment tests and NAEP assessments. According to the latest NAEP results for Virginia, 8% of Black students and 13% of Hispanic students tested proficient in 8th-grade math. In 4th-grade math, 19% of Black students and 27% of Hispanic students reached proficiency. The governor has attributed these results to the previous Board of Education lowering cut scores and altering school accreditation standards. However, Democrats have defended the prior approach. A change would not take effect until the spring of 2026. Board members are still in the early stages of considering their options. Anne Holton, a former state education secretary and a current member of the Board of Education member appointed by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, said that while she is looking forward to seeing what the superintendent and committees recommend, she's disappointed the governor's administration has not adequately communicated the potential changes to the public — especially because they are likely going to be unpopular. The Youngkin administration wants Virginia to meet NAEP's 'proficient' standard, which is — defined as a student demonstrating a deeper understanding of complex topics and the ability to apply them in real-world situations. In response to Holton's question at the board's recent work session, Marianne Perie, founder of Measurement in Practice LLC and a technical advisor on standard setting, said that aligning Virginia's standards with the NAEP benchmark would increase the student failure rate. Holton said the rate could rise to about 68% — resulting in dramatic changes in the commonwealth. 'You need the public to understand that this is not suddenly your child is dumber than he was last year or that your school is worse than last year, but rather that we're changing the grading scale, causing this change,' Holton said. However, board member Andy Rotherham, a Youngkin appointee, warned of an 'inevitable result' if the state delays action. Speaking at the board's May 21 work session, he said the state has been telling the public that 90% of Virginia's schools are 'doing fine' when fewer than one in five Black and Hispanic eight-grade students are proficient. 'We're either going to have a reckoning for that or not,' Rotherham said, urging the board to continue its push for greater transparency and honesty about how students are performing on assessments. 'The question should not be about that; it should be what we are going to do for those kids, what we are going to do for those communities, what we are going to do for those families,' Rotherham said. 'Those are the kinds of policy conversations that we should be having, not trying to square this circle where we've been telling people that almost every school is great when you have these astounding gaps in achievement, and this astounding gap overall in terms of what we've been saying is proficient and what is not.' Rotherham said he looks forward to hearing from the committees. He did not endorse a specific implementation method but emphasized the importance of raising standards in a way that educators can manage — without postponing a decision. 'The only thing I'm not open to is kicking the can down the road or not being transparent with parents and communities about where we are,' Rotherham said. 'There are multiple ways to do this, and that's why we need to have a conversation that's not getting everybody riled up that 'all the kids are going to fail next year,' or whatever. (It needs to be) thoughtful, and I have confidence in Emily Anne on that.' The Mercury learned that several of Virginia's most prominent education associations share the board's commitment to high standards and accountability for students, but have not taken a position on how quickly the state should implement any proficiency ratings. Carol Bauer, president of the Virginia Education Association (VEA), said in a statement that changes in performance benchmarks have consequences and should only be considered with great care and caution. 'There's no need to rush this process for political purposes,' Bauer said. 'Before any moves are made, we need significant research into how changing cut scores will affect not only student success, but graduation rates, the new Performance and Support Framework, and funding that's tied to SOL outcomes.' On May 16, a statewide coalition of 12 education associations signed a letter urging the Board of Education to consider the broader implications of raising the cut scores on Virginia's SOL assessments. Areas of potential impact include the state budget, the new accountability system, and graduation rates. The organizations include the Virginia Association for Teaching, Learning and Leading, Virginia PTA, Virginia School Board Association, Virginia Associations of Secondary School Principals, School Superintendents, and Elementary School Principals and VEA. 'Our coalition supports rigorous expectations; we do not advocate lowering the bar for learning,' the letter states. 'However, we believe any changes to SOL cut scores must be approached with great care, thorough, extensive modeling of student performance impacts as well as transparency around the impact of the new cut scores on state budget funding streams tied to SOL outcomes, graduation rates, and the new Performance and Support Framework.' The coalition added that significant shifts in performance benchmarks without extensive modeling could carry 'far-reaching consequences.' It urged the board to 'fully analyze and communicate these impacts to all education stakeholders, especially parents, before moving forward.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
SOL scores to account for 10% of student's final grade to raise student performance
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — As summer break approaches for students across the Commonwealth, legislators are already preparing ahead of the 2025-26 school year. One big change for the upcoming school year includes changes to the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests for Virginia schools. Now, starting with students in the 7th grade and into their senior year of high school, SOL scores will account for 10% of a student's final grade. Officials said the goal of the change is to raise student performance throughout the state. Another change to the tests is how the SOLs will be scored. Starting in the new year, SOLs will be scored on a 100-point scale. End of course assessments will also have to be given no earlier than two weeks before the last day of school. Many schools across the Commonwealth, however, are still waiting on the Virginia Department of Education for guidance on the new changes. In 2024, SOL scores in Virginia showed a slight improvement, but Governor Glenn Youngkin said more work needs to be done. The new SOLs are expected to roll out by the 2025-26 school year. For more information on the SOL Assessment Program, click here. Continue to check for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Virginia overhauls SOL testing to boost student achievement
A view outside at Chesterfield County Public Schools. (Courtesy of Chesterfield County Public Schools) In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement on education policy, Virginia leaders have enacted sweeping changes to the state's K-12 testing system, aiming to raise student performance and make the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments more meaningful. Despite ongoing political clashes over broader education policy, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state lawmakers united earlier this month behind a plan they hope will strengthen student outcomes. One of the ways the legislation aims to improve outcomes is by making the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments count as 10% of the student's final grade — a shift from current policy. The legislation will also require the release of more past exams to improve preparation. 'This is a gigantic step forward for Virginia students,' Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, who believes the changes will offer a clearer and fairer way of evaluating students while creating opportunities to make assessments more rigorous. 'So it's kind of a win all the way around and will hopefully put us on a better path for better student outcomes across all the different classes,' he said. Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson said in a statement that the bill is a 'forward-thinking step in modernizing' the commonwealth's approach to student assessment and achievement. She also said the bill codifies several reform measures adopted by the House Bill 585 Work Group and supported by the governor to make recommendations for the state assessments. VanValkenburg successfully introduced the bill creating the work group in 2022. 'By introducing greater flexibility in how schools evaluate student learning, this legislation reinforces Virginia's commitment to educational innovation,' Gullickson said. The proposal, carried by Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, and VanValkenburg, seeks to improve how the SOLs — statewide standardized tests — are administered and used to evaluate what students should know at the end of each grade or course. Assessment results help determine student performance in core subjects such as mathematics, reading, history and social science. Last August, data released by the Department of Education showed modest gains in reading and math pass rates for the 2023-24 school year after a period of targeted recovery efforts. But performance in other subjects remained below levels seen during the 2022-23 school year. The governor's administration and Democrats have traded blame over the mixed results. Youngkin's team has faulted decisions made by the previous Boards of Education, while Democrats and former board members have defended such decisions, which included changing accreditation standards and adjusting the threshold for what's considered proficiency. VanValkenburg's original version of the bill failed to pass in the Senate in February. However, Helmer's version passed with technical changes before securing approval from the General Assembly. 'I think this makes Virginia a leader in delivering a world-class education for families across the commonwealth,' Helmer told The Mercury. The lawmakers said the legislation will help ensure that the state's next testing contract improves the quality of the tests and makes them more transparent — including the release of more exams afterwards. VanValkenburg said having the vendor release additional tests will allow teachers and parents to use them as practice tools. An earlier version of the bill called for all tests to be released, but that proposal fell through during negotiations. 'Our tests have for the last 20 years been very low quality, and the reason they've been low quality is because we haven't wanted to spend money on them, and the quality of the tests clearly need to improve,' VanValkenburg said. Under the legislation, tests will be administered during the final two weeks of the school year — a change from the current practice of five to six weeks earlier — to allow time for retakes. Because of early test administration, students who pass often miss class time, as teachers focus on helping students who need to retake the tests. As a result of the change, VanValkenburg said it will eliminate about a month of lost instructional time each school year. 'After the exam, there are high levels of absenteeism as teachers concentrate on test-retake prep for the few kids who failed,' the two lawmakers wrote in The Virginian-Pilot in January. 'During that wasted month, little other learning takes place. In effect, students lose a month of education — a year of lost instructional time over a career.' The legislation also aims to improve transparency by giving parents a better sense of how well their students performed on assessments, shifting the grading scale from 600 points to 100 points. VanValkenburg said, for example, that parents are far more likely to understand a score of 87 on a biology test than a score of 487. 'Pretty instantaneously, you'll be able to see what you did well on, and what you did poorly on, and teachers will be able to see that too,' VanValkenburg said. 'So as a teacher, you're going to have more time to teach, your kids are going to have more incentive to do well, and you're going to get more feedback quicker about what went right and what went wrong on those tests.' The legislation is set to take effect at the start of the 2026-27 school year. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Washington Post
22-04-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Miriam Schimmoller is The Washington Post's 2025 Teacher of the Year
The world was in chaos on a morning in April, but inside Miriam Schimmoller's third-grade classroom at Oak Street Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia, the atmosphere was zen. In a voice so quiet it wouldn't wake a baby, Schimmoller, 60, asked the children sitting on the rug what they planned to do for their 'morning curiosities.' The students raised their hands and shared their ideas. Then, as Schimmoller counted down, they took their seats and got to work. One girl sketched with a pencil. Three boys played with kinetic sand, letting it sift between their fingers. Another boy sewed together a piece of red fabric with string. He was making a satchel. The class had been studying Vikings, and because Vikings are explorers, he thought they might need a bag to put things in. The relaxed feeling in the classroom reflected the careful thought that went into making it that way. On display was an educational philosophy that Schimmoller has honed during years in the classroom. That mastery has earned Schimmoller the title of The Washington Post's 2025 Teacher of the Year from contenders in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The 'morning curiosities' are a daily routine in Schimmoller's class. It looks like play, but it's an exercise in problem solving, inquiry and collaboration, all skills Schimmoller wants to impart to her students. 'That's the thing about teaching. I always tell the kids, 'You might not even know the difference between work and fun by the end of the year,'' she said. 'In morning curiosities, you can see the lightbulbs going off. You can see how the mind of the child works.' Falls Church is one of only eight public school divisions in the U.S. that offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) program from preschool through 12th grade. Headquartered in Switzerland, IB is an educational program that emphasizes creativity and critical thinking. It's a unique model for a school in a unique place. Fifteen minutes outside of D.C., Falls Church is only 2 square miles and has a population of around 15,000, making it the smallest county-equivalent city in the country. As a public school — Oak Street, which educates about 500 children in grades three through five — must follow Virginia's Standards of Learning, but it uses IB as a teaching method. 'If anyone asks, 'Are we an IB school or a standards-based school,' we're both. The curriculum has to be approved by state expectations; however IB is the how, IB is the how are we teaching? How are we supporting our students in truly being critical thinkers, being creative, being collaborators?' said Karim Daugherty, the principal at Oak Street. 'A big part of Schimmoller's role is to make sure that the curriculum doesn't stifle thinking and exploring.' Schimmoller uses the curriculum as a launching pad for the work the children do in the classroom. 'If you spend the early years just filling in the blanks — you'll get kids with good work ethics, and you might get kids with a lot of knowledge, but you don't actually know who they are going to be, so you want to open the world up to them,' Schimmoller said. 'You don't want to just tell them what to do.' Schimmoller came to Oak Street in 2014 from a charter school in Texas. She and her husband wanted to relocate to the East Coast to be closer to their children, who were in college, and Schimmoller's parents, who lived in Pennsylvania, where she grew up. Schimmoller's father was a professor of economics at Lehigh University. After graduating from Cornell in 1986, Schimmoller got her masters in education at Lehigh before joining her husband in Landstuhl, Germany, where he was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In Germany, she got her first job as a second-grade teacher at a Department of Defense school. When her husband was transferred to Fort Hood, Schimmoller moved to Texas, eventually landing in Austin after her husband left the military. In Austin, Schimmoller taught at the private Jewish day school that her children attended, and established a tutoring business. In 2011, a friend recruited her to help start an IB charter school in Round Rock, Texas. Building an IB school from the ground up gave Schimmoller extraordinary training in its methodology. She was hooked. In IB, Schimmoller found a framework that supported the way she wanted to teach. It allowed her to teach children through big questions and ideas, and it was flexible enough to make space for the way different children learn: 'The thing about public school is there's a strong belief that you have to find success for everybody, right? That's one of my foundational beliefs. But the hard part about it is it's a very strong structure. As a teacher, your job is to find a place in that structure for everybody.' Schimmoller's ability to adapt the learning environment to each child is obvious to Erin Korves, whose daughter is in Schimmoller's class. Her son, now a fifth grader, had Schimmoller two years ago. 'She figures out every single kid in her class immediately,' said Korves, who saw how Schimmoller was able to connect with her two very different children. When Korves's quiet and introspective son was in Schimmoller's class, he was a hesitant writer because he felt he needed to plan out everything before he could start. To soothe his anxiety, Schimmoller sat him on the side of her desk while he wrote, and within a month, he was writing easily on his own. By contrast, Korves's gregarious daughter needed an outlet for her pent-up creative energy. When the class studied Greek mythology, she and a friend wrote a song about Greek gods. Now, she's setting those lyrics to music on the ukulele, and writing a book. Schimmoller believes that drive comes when a teacher gives children the agency to do what interests them. She has seen how when a child conceives of a project themselves — whether it's a Viking satchel or a song inspired by Greek mythology — they find it so compelling, they don't want to stop working.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After forced pause, Va. schools resume Armed Services assessment testing
Students in a classroom. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images) High school students in Virginia have regained the ability to take a key career readiness exam, after an executive order from President Donald Trump suspended testing for over two weeks. In large part, the executive order cut 'non-essential' travel for Department of Defense civilian employees, disrupting the administration of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) assessment. The exam is vital in Virginia because it's one of the elements used to determine school accreditation, placing additional pressure on educators to prove schools successfully support students. On Thursday, the U.S. Army notified the Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPC), which administers the exams at schools across the country, that the education service specialists can begin resuming testing, according to Marshall Smith, a spokesman for MEPC. Schools, including in Caroline County and Northumberland County, had to cancel their exams. Northumberland County High School learned Friday that the test would once again be available to students. Shawn DeRose, principal at Annandale High School in Fairfax County and president of the Virginia Association of Secondary School Principals (VASSP), said principals are concerned about the impact the testing pause had on students and schools. 'The suspension of ASVAB testing, although brief, caused significant disruption for many high schools throughout Virginia,' said DeRose in a statement to the Mercury. 'Schools now face the challenge of securing alternative testing dates, which has become increasingly complex due to the limited availability of official proctors and existing scheduling commitments — including upcoming (Standards of Learning), AP, IB, and final exams.' Most importantly, he added that ASVAB testing is a 'critical component' of Virginia's new 3E Readiness framework, part of the overall accountability system to determine if schools meet the state standards for student success. The readiness framework is a plan that helps students prepare for life after high school, focusing on three main areas: getting a job, joining the military, or going to college or other schools. DeRose said he fears the disruption could impact whether a school is labeled 'off track' or, even worse, identified as 'needs intensive support.' Under the recently overhauled accountability system, schools are given one of four labels based on their performance: 'Distinguished,' 'On track,' 'Off Track,' and 'Needs Intensive Support.' Schools considered 'distinguished' are those that exceed the state's expectations for growth, achievement and readiness, while those that need 'intensive support' do not meet any of the state's expectations. In addition, 'on-track' and 'off-track' descriptors indicate whether schools generally meet expectations. Smith was uncertain if all Virginia high schools had been made aware of the change but encouraged schools to contact their respective ASVAB testing administrators to reschedule. He said approximately 620,000 students across the country took the exam last year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
