The Virginia Department of Education released the 2021-22 Standards of Learning (SOL) results this week. APS’s overall SOL performance improved in reading, math, science, and social studies from 2020-21 to 2021-22. The greatest gains were made in math (a nine-percentage point improvement) and social studies (a 16-percentage point improvement) and overall reading and science SOL performance each improved by three percentage points.
“I am encouraged to see the gains made in so many subject areas last school year. This progress is a testament to how hard our students, teachers and staff worked in a difficult year,” said Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán. “While we celebrate the gains, we are equally and urgently focused on addressing the opportunity and achievement gaps shown for specific student groups, especially our students with disabilities, English learners, Black and Hispanic students.”
Gaps Persist for Certain Student Groups
While student performance for all student groups has shown improvement in multiple areas, the 2021-22 SOL results illustrate that achievement gaps remain for students with disabilities, English Learners and Black and Hispanic students compared to Asian, White, and multi-race students.
APS uses a tiered Student Support System to address the needs of students both below and above grade level. Teachers and staff will be using the results of multiple assessments and frequent progress monitoring to address gaps and develop individual plans to support the strengths and needs of each student. This targeted intervention plan, combined with new investments in specialists and coaches, core subject learning materials, tutoring for middle and high school students and other strategies, is the APS focus for the upcoming school year.
Overall Performance by Race/Ethnicity and Subject
- Black student performance on reading SOLs improved by six percentage points and 10 percentage points on math SOLs.
- Hispanic student performance on reading SOLs improved by eight percentage points and 13 percentage points on the math SOL.
- Asian student performance on math SOLs improved by eight percentage points.
English Learners’ Overall SOL Performance by Subject
English Learner performance on reading SOLs improved by nine percentage points and their performance on the math SOL improved by 13 percentage points.
Students with Disabilities’ Overall SOL Performance by Subject
Students with disabilities showed a five-percentage point improvement on reading SOLs and a 10-percentage point improvement on math SOLs.
Economically Disadvantaged Students’ Overall SOL Performance by Subject
Economically disadvantaged students showed an eight-percentage point improvement on reading SOLs and a 14-point improvement on the math SOL.
Additional information was presented at the School Board meeting. Click here to watch the Academic Performance update.
View the APS presentation of the 2021-22 results.
The APS Student Progress dashboard will be updated with SOL information in September.
